Hue Totally Explained

Everything about Hue totally explained

Hue is one of the three main attributes of perceived color, in addition to lightness and chroma (or colorfulness). Hue is also one of the three dimensions in some colorspaces along with saturation, and brightness (also known as lightness or value). Hue is that aspect of a color described with names such as "red", "yellow", etc.
Usually, colors with the same hue are distinguished with adjectives referring to their lightness and/or chroma, such as with "light blue", "pastel blue", "vivid blue". Notable exceptions include brown, which is a dark orange, and pink, a light red with reduced chroma.
In painting color theory, a hue refers to a pure color—one without tint or shade (added white or black pigment, respectively). A hue is an element of the color wheel.

Computing hue

In opponent color spaces, such as CIE L*a*b* (CIELAB) and CIE L*u*v* (CIELUV), hue may be computed together with saturation (or chroma) by converting a color's chromaticity coordinates from rectangular coordinates into polar coordinates. Hue is the angular component of the polar representation, while chroma is the radial component.
Specifically, in CIELAB:
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He also used a polar plot, which he termed a color circle.
Hue angles computed for the Preucil circle agree with the hue angle computed for the Preucil Hexagon at integer multiples of 30 degrees (red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, and the colors mid-way between contiguous pairs), and differ by approximately 1.2 degrees at odd integer multiples of 15 degrees (based on the circle formula), the maximum divergence between the two.

Computing hue from RGB for HSB, HSV, and HSL color spaces

The process of converting an RGB color into an HSL color space or HSV color space is usually based on a 6-piece or 12-piece piecewise mapping, treating the HSV cone as a hexacone, or the HSL double cone as a double hexacone.

Specialized hues

The hues exhibited by caramel colorings and beers are fairly limited in range. The Linner hue index is used to quantify the hue of such products.

Hue as a qualification in the names of artist's colors

Manufacturers of pigments use the word hue for example 'Cadmium Yellow (hue)' to indicate that the original pigmentation ingredient, often toxic, has been replaced by safer (or cheaper) alternatives whilst retaining the hue of the original. Replacements are often used for chromium, cadmium and alizarin.

Hue vs. dominant wavelength

Dominant wavelength (or sometimes equivalent wavelength) is a physical analog to the perceptual attribute hue. On a chromaticity diagram, a line is drawn from a white point through the coordinates of the color in question, until it intersects the spectral locus. The wavelength at which the line intersects the spectrum locus is identified as the color's dominant wavelength if the point is on the same side of the white point as the spectral locus, and as the color's complementary wavelength if the point is on the opposite side.

Further Information

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