Robert Ridgway

Color Standards and Color Nomenclature Robert Ridgway

As stated in the Preface, the purpose of this work is the standardization of colors and color nomenclature, so that naturalists or others who may have occasion to write or speak of colors may do so with the certainty that there need be no question as to what particular tint, shade, or degree of grayness, of any color or hue is meant. Therefore, it is unnecessary to treat of the subject from any other point of view; it will be sufficient to say that this work is based on a thorough study of the subject from every standpoint, and that practically all authoritative works on the subject of color have been carefully consulted. The "key" to the classification or arrangement herewith presented is, of course, the solar spectrum, with its six fundamental colors and intermediate hues, augmented by the series of hues connecting violet with red, which the spectrum fails to show. If, with the red-violets and violet-reds thus added to the spectrum hues, the band forming this scale be joined end to end a circle is formed in which there is continuously a gradual change of hue, step by step, from red through orange-red and red-orange to orange; orange through yellow-orange and orange-yellow to yellow; yellow through green-yellow and yellow-green to green; green through blue-green and green-blue to blue; blue through violet-blue and blue-violet to violet; and violet through red-violet and violet-red to red-the starting-point-with intermediate connecting hues. In the solar spectrum, both prismatic and grating, but especially the former, the spaces between the adjoining distinct colors are very unequal; therefore for the present purpose an ideal scale must be constructed, so that an approximately equal number of equally distinct connecting hues shall be shown.