For the city in Vietnam, see Huế. For other uses, see Hue (disambiguation).
For the 2016 video game, see Hue (video game).
Hue in the HSB/HSL encodings of RGB
An image with the hues cyclically shifted in HSL space
The hues in this image of a painted bunting are cyclically rotated over time.
In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called color appearance parameters) 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, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple,"[1] which in certain theories of color vision are called unique hues.
Hue can typically be represented quantitatively by a single number, often corresponding to an angular position around a central or neutral point or axis on a color space coordinate diagram (such as a chromaticity diagram) or color wheel, or by its dominant wavelength or that of its complementary color. The other color appearance parameters are colorfulness, saturation (also known as intensity or chroma),[2] lightness, and brightness. Usually, colors with the same hue are distinguished with adjectives referring to their lightness or colorfulness, such as with "light blue", "pastel blue", "vivid blue", "cobalt blue". Exceptions include brown, which is a dark orange.[3]
In painting, a hue is a pure pigment—one without tint or shade (added white or black pigment, respectively).[4]
Hues are first processed in the brain in areas in the extended V4 called globs.[5][6]
1 Deriving a hue
1.1 Opponent color spaces
1.2 Defining hue in terms of RGB
1.2.1 24 hues of HSL/HSV
2 Specialized hues
3 Usage in art
4 Hue vs. dominant wavelength
5 Hue difference: Δ h {\displaystyle \Delta h} or Δ H ∗ {\displaystyle \Delta H^{*}} ?
6 Names and other notations
Deriving a hue
The concept of a color system with a hue was explored as early as 1830 with Philipp Otto Runge's color sphere. The Munsell color system from the 1930s was a great step forward, as it was realized that perceptual uniformity means the color space can no longer be a sphere.
As a convention, the hue for red is set to 0° for most color spaces with a hue.
Opponent color spaces
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[7]
h a b = a t a n 2 ( b ∗ , a ∗ ) , {\displaystyle h_{ab}=\mathrm {atan2} (b^{*},a^{*}),}
while, analogously, in CIELUV[7]
h u v = a t a n 2 ( v ∗ , u ∗ ) = a t a n 2 ( v ′ , u ′ ) , {\displaystyle h_{uv}=\mathrm {atan2} (v^{*},u^{*})=\mathrm {atan2} (v',u'),}
where, atan2 is a two-argument inverse tangent.
Defining hue in terms of RGB
HSV color space as a conical object
An illustration of the relationship between the "hue" of colors with maximal saturation in HSV and HSL with their corresponding RGB coordinates
hue 24 color
Preucil[8] describes a color hexagon, similar to a trilinear plot described by Evans, Hanson, and Brewer,[9] which may be used to compute hue from RGB. To place red at 0°, green at 120°, and blue at 240°,
h r g b = a t a n 2 ( 3 ⋅ ( G − B ) , 2 ⋅ R − G − B ) . {\displaystyle h_{rgb}=\mathrm {atan2} \left({\sqrt {3}}\cdot (G-B),2\cdot R-G-B\right).}
Equivalently, one may solve
tan ⁡ ( h r g b ) = 3 ⋅ ( G − B ) 2 ⋅ R − G − B . {\displaystyle \tan(h_{rgb})={\frac {{\sqrt {3}}\cdot (G-B)}{2\cdot R-G-B}}.}
Preucil used a polar plot, which he termed a color circle.[8] Using R, G, and B, one may compute hue angle using the following scheme: determine which of the six possible orderings of R, G, and B prevail, then apply the formula given in the table below.
Hue region
h Preucil circle {\displaystyle h_{\text{Preucil circle}}}
R ≥ G ≥ B {\displaystyle R\geq G\geq B} Orange 60 ∘ ⋅ G − B R − B {\displaystyle 60^{\circ }\cdot {\frac {G-B}{R-B}}}
G > R ≥ B {\displaystyle G>R\geq B} Chartreuse 60 ∘ ⋅ ( 2 − R − B G − B ) {\displaystyle 60^{\circ }\cdot \left(2-{\frac {R-B}{G-B}}\right)}
G ≥ B > R {\displaystyle G\geq B>R} Spring Green 60 ∘ ⋅ ( 2 + B − R G − R ) {\displaystyle 60^{\circ }\cdot \left(2+{\frac {B-R}{G-R}}\right)}
B > G > R {\displaystyle \ B>G>R\ } Azure 60 ∘ ⋅ ( 4 − G − R B − R ) {\displaystyle 60^{\circ }\cdot \left(4-{\frac {G-R}{B-R}}\right)}
B > R ≥ G {\displaystyle B>R\geq G} Violet 60 ∘ ⋅ ( 4 + R − G B − G ) {\displaystyle 60^{\circ }\cdot \left(4+{\frac {R-G}{B-G}}\right)}
R ≥ B > G {\displaystyle R\geq B>G} Rose 60 ∘ ⋅ ( 6 − B − G R − G ) {\displaystyle 60^{\circ }\cdot \left(6-{\frac {B-G}{R-G}}\right)}
Note that in each case the formula contains the fraction M − L H − L {\displaystyle {\frac {M-L}{H-L}}} , where H is the highest of R, G, and B; L is the lowest, and M is the mid one between the other two. This is referred to as the "Preucil hue error" and was used in the computation of mask strength in photomechanical color reproduction.[10]
Hue angles computed for the Preucil circle agree with the hue angle computed for the Preucil hexagon at integer multiples of 30° (red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, and the colors midway between contiguous pairs) and differ by approximately 1.2° at odd integer multiples of 15° (based on the circle formula), the maximal 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.[11] The formulae used are those in the table above.
24 hues of HSL/HSV
Although the variance in luminance is easy to notice for HSL/HSV, the variation in hue is less perceivable. This graph maps 12 points on the HSV color wheel to CIELAB's color plane, displaying the lack of uniformity in hue and saturation.
The hue angles below only apply to the two Preucil-style transformations of RGB, and does not apply to the more uniform Lab/LUV-based colorspaces. As illustrated by the variance in luminance, the RGB-based transformations separate the color-making attributes poorly.
hue angle
color name (in try colors)
0° #FF0000 red red 30%
15° #FF4000 vermilion orange red 45%
30° #FF8000 orange orange 59%
45° #FFBF00 golden yellow khaki 74%
60° #FFFF00 yellow (web color)=lemon yellow yellow 89%
75° #BFFF00 yellowish green lime 81%
90° #80FF00 yellowish green, chartreuse olive 74%
105° #40FF00 leaf green grass green 66%
120° #00FF00 green green 59%
135° #00FF40 cobalt green bluish green 62%
150° #00FF80 emerald green teal 64%
165° #00FFBF turquoise green, bluish green greenish cyan 67%
180° #00FFFF turquoise blue, cyan (web color) cyan 70%
195° #00BFFF cerulean blue bluish cyan 55%
210° #0080FF azure blue 41%
225° #0040FF blue, cobalt blue blue violet 26%
240° #0000FF blue (web color)=ultramarine violet 11%
255° #4000FF hyacinth purple violet 19%
270° #8000FF violet purple 26%
285° #BF00FF purple purple magenta 34%
300° #FF00FF magenta (web color) magenta 41%
315° #FF00BF reddish purple crimson 38%
330° #FF0080 ruby red, crimson scarlet 36%
345° #FF0040 carmine scarlet red 33%
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.
Usage in art
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.[12]
Hue difference: Δ h {\displaystyle \Delta h} or Δ H ∗ {\displaystyle \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 Δ h a b {\displaystyle \Delta h_{ab}} in CIELAB and Δ h u v {\displaystyle \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 Δ H a b ∗ {\displaystyle \Delta H_{ab}^{*}} in CIELAB and Δ H u v ∗ {\displaystyle \Delta H_{uv}^{*}} in CIELUV.
Names and other notations
There exists some correspondence, more or less precise, between hue values and color terms (names). One approach in color science is to use traditional color terms but try to give them more precise definitions. See spectral color#Table of spectral or near-spectral colors for names of highly saturated colors with the hue from ≈ 0° (red) up to ≈ 275° (violet), and line of purples#Table of highly-saturated purple colors for color terms of the remaining part of the color wheel.
Alternative approach is to use a systematic notation. It can be a standard angle notation for certain color model such as HSL/HSV mentioned above, CIELUV, or CIECAM02. Alphanumeric notations such as of Munsell color system, NCS, and Pantone Matching System are also used.
Lightness (color)
Munsell color system
Bezold–Brücke shift
^ Mark Fairchild, "Color Appearance Models: CIECAM02 and Beyond". Tutorial slides for IS&T/SID 12th Color Imaging Conference.
^ "Hue, Value, Saturation | learn". Archived from the original on 2017-06-30. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
^ C J Bartleson, "Brown". Color Research and Application, 1 : 4, pp. 181–191 (1976).
^ "The Color Wheel and Color Theory". Creative Curio. 2008-05-16. Archived from the original on 2011-07-05. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
^ Conway, BR; Moeller, S; Tsao, DY. (2007). "Specialized color modules in macaque extrastriate cortex" (PDF). Neuron. 56 (3): 560–73. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2007.10.008. PMID 17988638. S2CID 11724926.
^ Conway, BR; Tsao, DY (2009). "Color-tuned neurons are spatially clustered according to color preference within alert macaque posterior inferior temporal cortex". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 106 (42): 18034–9. doi:10.1073/pnas.0810943106. PMC 2764907. PMID 19805195.
^ a b Colorimetry, second edition: CIE Publication 15.2. Vienna: Bureau Central of the CIE, 1986.
^ a b Frank Preucil, "Color Hue and Ink Transfer … Their Relation to Perfect Reproduction, TAGA Proceedings, p 102-110 (1953).
^ Ralph Merrill Evans, W T Hanson, and W Lyle Brewer, Principles of Color Photography. New York: Wiley, 1953
^ Miles Southworth, Color Separation Techniques, second edition. Livonia, New York: Graphic Arts Publishing, 1979.
^ Max K. Agoston (2004). Computer Graphics and Geometric Modelling v. 1: Implementation and Algorithms. Springer. pp. 301–304. ISBN 1-85233-818-0. Archived from the original on 2017-03-21.
^ Deane B Judd and Günter Wyszecki, Color in Business, Science, and Industry. New York: Wiley, 1976.
Editing of hue in photography