Munsell Color Order System

The Munsell Color Order System, commonly called the Munsell Color System, is a color space for describing color of surfaces. It uses an irregular 3-dimensional color space. The dimensions are hue, represented as a circle, value, along the central axis, and chroma, represented as distance from the axis. Changes in each dimension are intended to be perceptually equal within the dimension, so that an increase of chroma from 3 to 4 is perceived as the same difference as an increase from 7 to 8. As a result, the color space is not geometrically regular, unlike most color systems developed previously.

The Munsell system has five primary hues: Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red, and five secondary hues, equidistant between the primaries.

Munsell hues; value 6 / chroma 6

5R |				5YR |				5Y |				5GY |				5G |				5BG |
	201 130 134	201 130 127	201 131 118	200 133 109	197 135 100	193 137 94	187 140 86	181 143 79	173 146 75	167 149 72	160 151 73	151 154 78	141 156 85	127 159 98	115 160 110	101 162 124	92 163 134	87 163 141	82 163 148	78 163 154	73 163 162
5BG |				5B |				5PB |				5P |				5RP |				5R |
	73 163 162	70 162 170	70 161 177	73 160 184	82 158 189	93 156 193	104 154 195	117 151 197	128 149 198	141 145 198	152 142 196	160 140 193	168 138 189	177 135 182	183 134 176	188 132 169	193 131 160	196 130 153	198 130 146	200 130 140	201 130 134

A color is described using the notation H V/C, for Hue, Value, and Chroma. Hue is notated with a number and the letter(s) representing the primary or secondary color being represented, while value and chroma are notated purely with numbers. For example, a vivid orange may be 5RY 7/12. Numbers for hue range from 0 to 10 at each primary or secondary color, and increase in the direction from red to yellow. The primary colors use the initial letter of the color name, while the secondary colors use the initial letters of the two primary colors nearest, thus RY for orange. The letter N is used for pure grays (including black and white). Value is measured from 0 (pure black) to 10 (pure white), though a value of slightly higher than 9 is the highest practically obtainable. Chroma is measured in equal perceptual steps. In the original Munsell system, 10 was the highest chroma possible, but advances in pigmenting technologies have made possible materials with chroma ranging over 20, and fluorescent materials can have chroma greater than 30.

Albert H. Munsell, creator of the Munsell Color System

The Munsell system was developed by Albert H. Munsell, an American artist and researcher. The first version of the Munsell system was published in 1915, in the 15-page Atlas of the Munsell Color System. In 1929, the Munsell Book of Color was published, updating the system. The update had 20 pages of different hues, with about 20 samples on each page of varying value and chroma. The system was updated again in 1943, with an extensive recalibration. The 1943 update is the one most commonly used. The Munsell Color Order System has been adopted in various national standards: American National Standards Institute ANSI Z138.2, Japanese Industrial Standard for Color JIS Z872, German Standard Color System DIN 6164, and others.

Munsell value (vertical) and chroma (horizontal); hue 5Y and 5PB
This sample is limited to the colors reproducible in the Adobe sRGB color space, the actual Munsell charts extend to about twice the chroma shown here.

	12	10	8	6	4	2	0	2	4	6	8	10	12
10							255 255 255
9						228 228 250	232 232 232	243 227 207	250 227 178
8					190 201 239	200 200 222	203 203 203	215 200 181	221 200 154	227 200 126	233 199 97	237 199 63
7			142 176 241	154 175 225	164 175 210	173 174 195	179 179 179	188 173 155	194 173 128	200 173 101	205 172 72	210 172 29
6	79 150 244	101 150 227	116 149 213	128 149 198	138 148 182	146 148 168	150 150 150	161 147 129	167 147 103	173 146 75	178 146 42
5	46 124 214	72 123 199	89 123 185	101 123 171	111 122 156	120 122 142	124 124 124	134 121 103	141 121 77	146 120 48	150 119 9
4		38 97 172	59 97 158	74 97 144	85 96 130	93 96 116	97 97 97	108 96 77	114 95 52	119 94 25
3			26 72 133	45 72 120	58 72 106	67 72 92	70 70 70	81 71 55	87 70 33
2				20 49 93	35 49 79	44 49 66	48 48 48	57 48 34	63 47 6
1	5PB				13 28 56	23 28 45	28 28 28	37 27 9			5Y
0							0 0 0