Hue

/HSL encodings of RGB]] are cyclically rotated with time.]]

Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically (in the CIECAM02 model), as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow," (the unique hues). The other main correlatives of color appearance are colorfulness, chroma, saturation, lightness, and brightness.

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". 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. Hues are first processed in the brain in areas in the extended V4 called globs.

Computing hue

In opponent color spaces in which two of the axes are perceptually orthogonal to lightness, such as the CIE 1976 (L*, a*, b*) (CIELAB) and 1976 (L*, u*, v*) (CIELUV) color spaces, hue may be computed together with chroma by converting these coordinates from rectangular form to polar form. Hue is the angular component of the polar representation, while chroma is the radial component.

Specifically, in CIELAB:

:$h\_\{ab\}\; =\; \backslash mathrm\{atan2\}(b^*,\; a^*)\backslash ;$

while, analogously, in CIELUV: describes a color hexagon, similar to a trilinear plot described by Evans, Hanson, and Brewer, which may be used to compute hue from RGB. To place red at 0°, green at 120°, and blue at 240°.

:$h\_\{rgb\}\; =\; \backslash mathrm\{atan2\}\backslash left(\; 2\; \backslash cdot\; R\; -\; G\; -\; B,\; \backslash sqrt\{3\}\; \backslash cdot\; (G\; -\; B)\; \backslash right)$ Equivalently, one may solve: :$\backslash tan(\; h\_\{rgb\})\; =\; \backslash frac\{\backslash sqrt\{3\}\backslash cdot\; (G\; -\; B)\}\{2\backslash cdot\; R\; -\; G\; -\; B\}$

Preucil 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.

The process of converting an RGB color into an HSL color space or HSV color space is usually based on a 6-piece piecewise mapping, treating the HSV cone as a hexacone, or the HSL double cone as a double hexacone. The formulae used are those in the table above.

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 e.g. '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.

Hue difference: $\backslash Delta\; h$ or $\backslash Delta\; H^*$?

There are two main ways in which hue difference is quantified. The first is the simple difference between the two hue angles. The symbol for this expression of hue difference is $\backslash Delta\; h\_\{ab\}$ in CIELAB and $\backslash Delta\; h\_\{uv\}$ in CIELUV. The other is computed as the residual total color difference after Lightness and Chroma differences have been accounted for; its symbol is $\backslash Delta\; H^*\_\{ab\}$ in CIELAB and $\backslash Delta\; H^*\_\{uv\}$ in CIELUV.

See also

Lightness (color)

Colorfulness

Chromaticity

Munsell color system

Bezold-Brücke shift

References

External links

Editing of hue in photography

Category:Color