:: :: University of Virginia Library

In 1931 the Inter-Society Color Council was formed as an organization of national societies whose work involved color; it was not only to be a clearinghouse for color problems and research but more specifically was to assist in revising the color names used in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia.[24] E. N. Gathercoal, the ISCC's first chairman, was a member of the Pharmacopoeial Revision Committee, and he had arranged a symposium on color names at the 1930 Pharmacopoeial Convention in Washington. His goal was a color nomenclature "sufficiently standardized as to be acceptable to science, sufficiently broad to be appreciated

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and usable by science, art, and industry, and sufficiently commonplace to be understood, at least in a general way, by the whole public." By 1933 I. H. Godlove had sketched out the foundation for such a system; by 1936 Kenneth L. Kelly of the National Bureau of Standards was working on the task of assigning boundaries to the suggested color designations; and in 1939 Deane B. Judd and Kelly published Research Paper 1239, "Method of Designating Colors," in which common color names were defined in terms of specific areas of the Munsell color solid.[25] This ISCC-NBS method, as it was called, was an enormous step forward, but by 1949 a committee of the ISCC had revised the color boundaries in response to certain criticisms which some users had made. Finally, in 1955, Kelly and Judd published the revised version of their 1939 work, which now also contained a dictionary relating the ISCC-NBS names to those in other systems. This remarkable book, The ISCC-NBS Method of Designating Colors and a Dictionary of Color Names, is NBS Circular 553, available from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, at $2, and should certainly be a part of every bibliographer's equipment.

In the history of color nomenclature, the work is epoch-making in at least two ways. First, instead of assigning names to particular color chips, it proceeds in the other direction, setting up a system of easily understood names and then mapping out the entire color solid for the first time into segments which define the precise limits of each name. The system of names — which takes into account the three attributes of color — is a simple one based on ten hue names, three neutrals, their modifying forms, and ten other modifiers, as follows:

Hues

B blue
Br brown
G green
O orange
Ol olive
P purple
Pk pink
R red
V violet
Y yellow
b bluish
br brownish
g greenish
p purplish
pk pinkish
r reddish
y yellowish

Neutrals

Black black
Gy gray
White white
blackish blackish
gy. grayish

Value Modifiers (Lightness)

d. dark
l. light
med. medium
v. very

Chroma Modifiers (Saturation)

gy. grayish
m. moderate
s. strong
v. vivid

Value and Chroma Combinations

brill. brilliant [light, strong]
deep deep [dark, strong]
p. pale [light, grayish]

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The abbreviations provide a concise notation (as "v.d.pR" for "very dark purplish red") but of course are not essential. The point is that there are no "post office reds," nor "puces," nor even "garnets" here, but only combinations which — however complicated, as "dark grayish olive green" — at least give a suggestion of the particular color to any reader. The color solid is then divided into 267 named segments, and the boundaries of each are plotted on 31 charts representing ranges of Munsell hue. Thus, for example, both Munsell renotation 4R 3/6 and 3R 2.5/5 fall within the area designated as "dark red." Since colorimetric measurements have been made of the colors of Munsell renotation,[26] even a color identified in CIE terms could be converted to an ISCC-NBS name.

The second important feature of the work — the second part, added in 1955 — is the dictionary, which makes it equally easy to convert to these names from a number of systems other than Munsell. This dictionary is a compilation of the names used in fourteen previous charts or atlases: Maerz-Paul, Plochere, Ridgway, Federal Specification TT-C-595, Wilson's Horticultural Colour Chart, the Color Card of America, Taylor-Knoche-Granville (supplement to the Color Harmony Manual), the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists and the Society of Dyers and Colourists' standard, Commercial Standards CS147-47 (Urea Plastics) and CS156-49 (Polystyrene Plastics), the National Research Council's Rock-Color Chart, the Department of Agriculture's Soil Color Chart, H. A. Dade's Color Terminology in Biology, and W. H. Beck's Postage-Stamp Color Names. First comes a list (pp. 35-82) of the 267 ISCC-NBS names with the synonyms from these systems listed under each name. Then follows the dictionary proper (pp. 83-158), which lists alphabetically all the names from these fourteen systems (about 7500 names), giving for each the source and the ISCC-NBS designation (and serial number). Previous dictionaries drawing names together from various sources have not subordinated them to a new terminology nor attempted to provide names to cover the entire color solid systematically; the ISCC-NBS method is thus a kind of master-system, furnishing a common ground to coordinate earlier systems. If one person, using Maerz-Paul, describes a color as "Rhodonite Pink" and another, using Plochere, refers to "Orchid Mauve," both can consult the ISCC-NBS dictionary and discover that they are dealing with the same color, "dark purplish pink" (no. 251).

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The advantages of this system for bibliographers (or for anyone else) are immediately apparent. It provides a consistent, standard, easily understood nomenclature for color, regardless of the particular set of color chips employed for matching. If one bibliographer prefers for some reason to use the Plochere system but hesitates to describe the color of a certain binding cloth as "Best Effort" (or as 1224 YYg 3-h), he can look that name up in the ISCC-NBS dictionary and find that it corresponds to ISCC-NBS 121, "pale yellow green." Then if another bibliographer, who wishes to check this color himself, has only a copy of Ridgway at hand, he may make the comparison, find that Ridgway's "Glaucous" is the one that matches, and check the dictionary to see that "Glaucous" is also within the area defined by "pale yellow green." The same would be true of a third bibliographer or collector who had identified the binding as "Rhone" (Maerz-Paul 18 B 3). In this way uniformity results in the final bibliographical description, despite the multiplicity of systems which may have been used by individual bibliographers. Even if a bibliographer buys for himself a copy of the Munsell Book of Color, for example, he may not always have it with him; if he finds himself in a library which has only a copy of Maerz-Paul, he may proceed with his description of the binding and later convert the Maerz-Paul term by using the ISCC-NBS dictionary. For accuracy and for general scholarly indication of sources, the ISCC-NBS name should be accompanied by a reference in parentheses to the actual color sample used — as "dark red (Maerz-Paul 6 L 11)," or "dark red (Plochere 353 R 3-a)," or "dark red (TCCA 65020)," or "dark red (Munsell 2.5R 3/7)." The Nickerson Color Fan is particularly convenient (aside from its price, size, and arrangement) because it designates on each sample both the Munsell notation and the ISCC-NBS name (thus obviating any reference to the dictionary itself after the process of matching). In any case, two points are essential: that bibliographers agree to compare binding colors with some collection of color samples and that they convert the identifications into ISCC-NBS names.[27]

The only real limitation of the ISCC-NBS system as published in 1955 was that it contained no actual color chips to illustrate the names.

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However, by 1958 Kenneth L. Kelly had worked out the Munsell renotations for the center of gravity of each of the 267 ISCC-NBS color-name blocks,[28] and handmade charts illustrating these centroid colors were produced as an aid to ISCC-NBS Subcommittee on Problem 23, the Historical Expression of Color Usage, as explained in its Interim Report of 20 November 1960. The NBS then began preparing such charts for general distribution as a supplement to Circular 553, and they became available in February 1965 from the Standard Reference Materials Office at the National Bureau of Standards, as Standard Sample No. 2106, for $3 per set.[29] The ISCC-NBS Centroid Color Charts complete the system, and for a total of $5 the bibliographer can now equip himself with both the dictionary and the charts, which together comprise the most efficient method of color naming yet devised and the one most likely to become a general standard accepted by all fields. The charts alone are all that the bibliographer need carry with him, and they are convenient in size. There are twenty leaves, 10½" x 8", of which the first two contain a table giving the Munsell renotation for each centroid sample and the other eighteen are hue charts illustrating 251 of the 267 ISCC-NBS names in glossy chips 1" square. The chips are arranged on each sheet as they would appear on a Munsell hue plane (that is, with the grays at the left, the highly saturated colors at the right, the lighter colors at the top, and the darker ones at the bottom), against a neutral background of about their own value level; beneath each chip is the identifying number of that color-name block and the abbreviation of its color name. Using these charts the bibliographer will not have to make any conversions from one color name to another; he can simply find the chip which most nearly matches his binding and record it as "deep bluish green (Centroid 161)" or "vivid orange (Centroid 48)" or "dark grayish yellowish brown (Centroid 81)."

The first question which bibliographers are likely to raise is whether a system with 267 colors (and 251 chips) can be sufficiently accurate, particularly in view of Stott's comment, in his Maugham

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bibliography, that the 378 samples in the BCC's Dictionary of Colours for Interior Decoration were not sufficient. The question may be answered in two ways. First, one must consider the principle of selection of the 267 colors. Though not a great number, they represent blocks which, taken together, comprise the entire color solid; the chips, in turn, represent the center of 251 of these blocks. In contrast to other systems, then, each chip illustrates a color characteristic of a well-defined area. When one decides that a particular binding color does not match precisely any of the centroid chips but comes closest to matching Centroid 16, one can be sure that the block of the solid labeled "dark red" contains the particular color, and "dark red" is thus an accurate term, even though the match with the color chip was not exact. To this degree, the system is capable of complete accuracy, whereas in other systems the fact that one chip is closer than another to the color in question has little significance for naming, since the boundaries of the color-name have not been defined.

Second, since the ISCC-NBS dictionary encompasses fourteen other systems (plus the Munsell name charts), it is always possible, when finer discriminations are required, to utilize a system with more chips and yet remain within the framework of the ISCC-NBS method. Indeed, Kelly has explained six levels of accuracy in color description attainable within this method.[30] In the first the color solid is divided into only 13 sections, corresponding to the ten hue names and the three neutrals; for some purposes it is enough to distinguish "pink" from "red," or "yellow" from "orange." The second level works with 29 name-blocks, consisting of all the hue terms — such as "olive brown," "greenish yellow," "yellowish brown," or "olive green." The 267 names produced by adding the modifiers descriptive of value and chroma, as in the ISCC-NBS dictionary and centroid charts, constitute the third level of refinement, the one on which bibliographers may normally find themselves. But many distinguishable colors naturally fall within each of these name-blocks, and it may be that certain binding variants are not distinguishable in terms of the centroid colors alone. One may then move to the fourth level, which involves consulting an appropriate color-order system — Munsell if possible, but, if not, perhaps Plochere, with 1248 colors, or Maerz-Paul, with 7056.[31] If an exact

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match is not found, the next step (the fifth level) is to make a visual interpolation from the Munsell Book of Color. Because the Munsell system is based on psychological spacing (a color-appearance system) and because the Munsell notation is conveniently manipulated to reflect changes in any of the three attributes, a person with some experience can accurately indicate about 100,000 colors by such interpolation. The sixth and highest level of accuracy is of course the CIE method of spectrophotometric measurement, capable of dividing the color solid into about five million parts. Bibliographers will need to leave the third level only rarely, but the accuracy required at certain times[32] may necessitate moving to the fourth or fifth levels. In any event, the ISCC-NBS system adequately takes into account the fact that varying degrees of accuracy are desirable under varying circumstances.

Another problem arises from the fact that the centroid color chips are glossy and book cloth is not. Since the ideal system for bibliography is undoubtedly one with cloth samples, there is no answer to this objection, except to say that the system offers so many other advantages that it is still the best one to choose. Besides, the importance of the surface texture of the sample in any given case is a function of the accuracy required. In some instances, then, the bibliographer may wish to turn to the textile Color Card — so long as he realizes that its sampling of the color solid is not systematic — or to the British Colour Council's Dictionary. The difference in appearance between a glossy chip and a cloth swatch of the same color is also to some degree a function of the viewing conditions. It is normally recommended, in most systems of color identification, that the matching be done in natural light, preferably northern light and certainly not direct sunlight; the light should strike the surfaces to be matched at an angle of 45°, and the surfaces should be viewed from 90°. Some sets of chips include masks which can be used to block out the colors on the chart surrounding the chip being matched. Although the ISCC-NBS charts do not contain masks, it is a good idea to prepare a few of them by making a hole 1" square in a stiff piece of gray paper or cardboard.

Still another of the bibliographer's questions will concern notation — what form the color information is to take in a bibliographical description. The ISCC-NBS abbreviations — as "d.gy.G" — should

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probably not be used, for they give essentially common terms an esoteric appearance; "dark grayish green" does not take up too much space. The centroid number can conveniently be inserted in parentheses following the name, just as the letter identifying a cloth grain can be placed after the verbal description of it. Thus what formerly might have been referred to as "dark green ribbed cloth" may now appear as follows:

dark grayish green (Centroid 151) bold-ribbed (T) cloth
or bold-ribbed (T) cloth, dark grayish green (Centroid 151)

The length of the color expression, including its parenthesis, may be clearer and less awkward if it follows, rather than precedes, the designation of grain. A further convention may perhaps be agreed upon: the presence of a centroid number suggests only that the color falls within that color-name block and does not necessarily imply an exact match with the centroid color; however, if another set of chips is referred to as the standard for the identification, the match may be inferred as exact, unless the abbreviation "cf." precedes the notation. To illustrate:

dark grayish green (Centroid 151) [indicates the color-name block]
dark grayish green (Nickerson 10 GY 3/2) [indicates precise match]
dark grayish green (cf. Nickerson 10 GY 3/2) [indicates approximate match]

Obviously the last of these represents an extension of the fourth level of accuracy; it stops short of the fifth level because an interpolation has not been suggested. When an interpolation is made, the notation should be enclosed in brackets:

dark grayish green [Munsell 10 GY 3.2/1.75]

In this system the color of Waldo Frank's Time Exposures (Boni & Liveright, 1926) is "brilliant yellow (Centroid 83)," of Vachel Lindsay's Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (Kennerley, 1914) "very deep red (Centroid 14)," of Sherwood Anderson's Horses and Men (Huebsch, 1923) "strong reddish orange (Centroid 35)"; and a complete description — of Eunice Tietjens' Jake (Boni & Liveright, 1921) — would go something like this:

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In this instance the slight difference in color between the cloth and the endpapers could not be indicated by reference to Centroid 12, so approximations to two colors in the Nickerson Color Fan were used.

However, it should be emphasized here that, despite an occasional example of this kind, the bibliographer generally need feel no urge to go beyond the centroid charts. Given the nature of book cloth and of material standards, the majority of matches are going to be only approximate; and in any case the purposes of most bibliographical descriptions would not be further served by a more precise match. For these reasons the centroid colors, which are simply the representative colors of particular color-blocks, constitute an ideal frame of reference. If a bibliographer goes outside this system, one must assume either (1) that another system was the only one at hand when the comparison was made (with the result later converted to the corresponding centroid name) or (2) that greater accuracy was required — and obtained — by specification in terms of another system. It would be a mistake to overuse the "cf." designation, for, if the match is only approximate anyway, nothing is gained in precision over the simple reference to the centroid color.

Because of the advantages of the Munsell notation, it may be that some bibliographers, if they have had to turn to another set of chips for an exact match, will want to indicate the equivalent Munsell notation or renotation as a convenience to their readers. The Munsell equivalents of the most commonly used systems have been tabulated, and it may prove helpful to bring together the principal references to these conversion tables:

Color Harmony Manual Walter C. Granville, "Munsell Renotations of Color Harmony Manual Chips (Third Edition) from Spectrophotometric Measurements," available from Container Corporation of America, Color Standards Department, 38 South Dearborn Street, Chicago 60603.[33]
DIN-Farbenkarte W. Budde, H. E. Kundt, and Günter Wyszecki, "Überführung der Farbmasszahlen nach dem Farbsystem DIN 6164 in Munsell-Masszahlen und umgekehrt," Farbe, IV (1955), 83-88.
Horticultural Colour Chart Dorothy Nickerson, "Horticultural Colour Chart Names with Munsell Key," JOSA, XLVII (1957), 619-621.

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Maerz-Paul Dorothy Nickerson, "Interrelation of Color Specifications," Paper Trade Journal, CXXV (1947), TS219-237.
Plochere W. E. Knowles Middleton, "The Plochere Color System: A Descriptive Analysis," Canadian Journal of Research, XXVII (1949), F1-21.
Ridgway D. H. Hamly, "Ridgway Color Standards with a Munsell Notation Key," JOSA, XXXIX (1949) 592-599.
Standard Color Card Genevieve Reimann, Deane B. Judd, and Harry J. Keegan, "Spectrophotometric and Colorimetric Determination of the Colors of the TCCA Standard Color Cards," JOSA, XXXVI (1946), 128-159; or Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, XXXVI (1946), 209-247.

Whether the original match was exact or approximate, an equals sign may be used to indicate the Munsell equivalent; but if one wishes to give only the centroid number, the symbol for "approximately equals" (≈) should be used:

grayish purplish red (Standard Color Card 70189 = Munsell 6RP 5.1/5.7)
grayish purplish red (cf. Standard Color Card 70189 = Munsell 6RP 5.1/5.7)
grayish purplish red (Standard Color Card 70189 ≈ Centroid 262)
grayish purplish red (cf. Standard Color Card 70189 ≈ Centroid 262)

If Munsell renotation is employed, it should be so specified:

grayish purplish red (Standard Color Card 70189 = Munsell renotation 5.5RP 5.2/5.9)

The Munsell renotations of the centroid colors are provided in the table accompanying the centroid charts; if a binding happens by chance to match exactly a centroid chip, the coincidence may be indicated by including the renotation figure:

grayish purplish red (Centroid 262 = Munsell renotation 7RP 4.5/5.1)

These equivalences are of course simply additional information which may be furnished for the convenience of the reader in making his own further comparisons; they are by no means required. But knowledge of the existence of these conversion tables may be useful to the reader of a bibliography which does not provide the equivalences.

Another question — and one of the most troublesome — is the problem of fading, both of the color samples and of the bindings. As far as the samples are concerned, one should not expose them to light except when they are being used; and after extended use one should perhaps compare them with a new copy to see whether they have yet

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faded. A consideration of faded bindings is tied up with the whole matter of the degree of accuracy required, for in some cases it may be necessary to determine whether a given binding is variant or merely faded. But in most instances the determination of a secondary binding will not turn solely on color discrimination, and, since a bibliographical description records the characteristics of an "ideal copy,"[34] the general rule is to include in the binding description a notation of the brightest copy examined. Then, if one wishes to provide the colormatching data for the other copies, the paragraph listing "Copies Examined" is the proper place for the information. In the case of certain scarce books, all copies may appear faded, even on the covers (as well as the spine, where fading is to be expected). If there is no small patch or strip of brighter color (as on the inside edge of a cover) to serve as a basis for the color identification, one may have to describe the color as it appears and append a note explaining one's hunch that the color is probably faded. A descriptive catalogue of the books in a particular collection, however, is obligated to describe a binding in whatever faded state it is found in that collection; but an energetic cataloguer will go further (by examining other copies or consulting a published bibliography) and indicate the extent of the fading, either through an exact match or through interpolation.

moderate red (Centroid 15), faded from strong red (Centroid 12)
moderate red (Munsell renotation [3.8R 3.9/8.75], faded from 3.8R 4.4/9.1 = Centroid 15)
moderate red (Munsell renotation 3.8R 4.4/9.1 = Centroid 15, faded from [3.8R 4.4/9.75])

Dorothy Nickerson has worked out a formula for an Index of Fading, whereby the amount of fading can be indicated in a single figure. Though the formula is not a complicated one, the single-figure index is more meaningful for expressing tolerances in the textile industry than for describing the fading of bindings, since the single figure (consolidating the differences in hue, value, and chroma) does not enable one to visualize the changes in the three attributes.

A final consideration has to do with the fact that colors in books are not limited to bindings. There are colored sheets, inks, dust jackets, and endpapers; and the ISCC-NBS names are appropriate for describing them all. In fact, Deane Judd has specifically commented on the applicability of these names for the paper industry and has shown some of the equivalents between the ISCC-NBS names and those in the Grading Committee of the Groundwood Paper Manufacturers' Association's

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"Blue Book," Standard Color Nomenclature System and Manual (1936).[35] The methods developed for measuring the whiteness of paper, however useful for specification and standardization in the paper industry, go beyond the degree of accuracy required in the bibliographical description of white papers. Colors of printing inks may also be specified in ISCC-NBS terms; in 1935 the International Printing Ink Corporation issued A Series of Monographs on Color, which included a description of the advantages of the Munsell system. But the many atlases and sets of color chips circulated by both paper and ink companies are not convenient as general standards. Not a great deal of attention has been given to the description of dust jackets,[36] but the main problem is simply a question of the completeness of the description rather than of method; and the ISCC-NBS names should make such descriptions more accurate. Another kind of paper, however, causes greater trouble — the marbled papers sometimes used as endpapers or binding papers. The difficulty in describing them is analogous to that in specifying cloth grains and is not essentially a color problem. It would be very helpful, therefore, to have a chart illustrating such marbling patterns as "gold vein" or "nonpareil" — the same sort of chart (but on a more elaborate scale) that Bernard C. Middleton furnishes as the frontispiece to his A History of English Craft Bookbinding Technique (1963), where twelve common kinds of decorated papers are displayed.[37]

In 1953 Fredson Bowers remarked, "As a matter of fact, when the technicians really get to work on the problems of machine-printing, I rather suspect that the general reader and the bibliographer who has catered to him are due to suffer a shock."[38] Whether or not the method of color description outlined here will offer a shock to those bibliographers who fondly remember the good old days when it was possible to speak of "puce" or "Eureka" or "Victoria Lake," depending on one's mood, the fact remains that a move in this direction is inevitable. The ISCC-NBS system can be as simple or as complex as is required under different circumstances, and its use is no more difficult, and only slightly more time-consuming, than the measurement of leaves

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with a ruler. The color names should shock no one, and the whole method seems ideally suited to descriptive bibliography — with the exception of the glossy chips. Perhaps a handbook can some day be produced which will contain illustrations and names of binding grains and decorative papers along with the centroid colors in cloth samples. In the meantime it is not asking too much that bibliographers compare each binding cloth with the centroid chips or some other collection of samples and express the color name in ISCC-NBS terms. Maerz and Paul, at the beginning of their Dictionary of Color, observe that, "while standardization has been arrived at in practically all other fields, in the use of color names for identifying color sensations a condition prevails that is usually characterized as chaotic." Bibliographers can ill afford to perpetuate chaos in any of their endeavors, if their general concern with order and accuracy is to be meaningful.[39]

A Note on the Literature

The bibliographer who wishes to pursue further the problems of color specification and nomenclature and is generally unacquainted with the technical literature of the field discovers few places to turn for help except several alphabetical checklists in the basic books on color and I.H.Godlove's Bibliography on Color (Inter-Society Color Council, 1957). The present list groups the significant literature by topic or system, with the interests of the bibliographer in mind, and is intended also to record the material which served as the basis for the somewhat perfunctory dismissal of a large number of color systems in the text.

The principal general surveys of color systems, which vary in the number of systems covered and in the thoroughness of their comment, are as follows: Ralph M. Evans, An Introduction to Color (1948), pp. 205-234; Optical Society of America Committee on Colorimetry, The Science of Color (1953), pp. 317-340; Robert W. Burnham, Randall M. Hanes, and C. James Bartleson, Color: A Guide to Basic Facts and Concepts (1963), pp. 163-172; Deane B. Judd and Günter Wyszecki, Color in Business, Science, and Industry (2nd ed., 1963), pp. 202-264; W.D.Wright, The Measurement of Colour (3rd ed., 1964), pp. 161-192; Symposium on Color — Its Specification and Use in Evaluating the Appearance of Materials (American Society for Testing Materials, 1941), pp. 37-44; Arthur G. Abbott, The Color of Life (1947), pp. 141-163; Sterling B. McDonald, Color Harmony (1949), pp. 111-118; Color Charts: A Descriptive List (Letter Circular 986, National Bureau of Standards, 1950); H. D. Murray (ed.), Colour in Theory and Practice (1939; rev. ed., 1952), pp. 143-158; Frederick M. Crewdson, Color in Decoration and Design (1953), pp. 90-108; A. Ames, Jr., "Systems of Color Standards," JOSA, V (1921), 160-170; K. S. Gibson, "The Analysis and Specification of Color," Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, XXVIII (1937), 388-410; Morton C. Bradley, "Systems of Color Classification," Technical Studies

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in the Field of the Fine Arts, VI (1937-38), 240-275; Forrest L. Dimmick, "Color Nomenclature and Specification," Psychological Bulletin, XXXV (1938), 473-486; Deane B. Judd, "Color Systems and Their Inter-relation," Illuminating Engineering, XXXVI (1941), 336-369; Carl E. Foss, "Color-Order Systems," Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, LII (1949), 184-196.

CIE SYSTEM. A helpful elementary discussion is G. J. Chamberlin, The C.I.E. International Colour System Explained (1951), a pamphlet published by The Tintometer, Ltd. Any basic book on color, of course, contains a detailed explanation; see, for example, Evans, pp. 205ff.; The Science of Color (1953), pp. 254-334; Burnham, Hanes, and Bartleson, pp. 123-150; Wright pp. 96-160. Also see such articles as Deane B. Judd, "1931 I.C.I. Standard Observer and Coordinate System for Colorimetry," Journal of the Optical Society of America [JOSA], XXIII (1933), 359-374. The American Standards Association Methods of Measuring and Specifying Colors (in CIE terms), Standard Z58.7 (1951), is reprinted in JOSA, XLI (1951), 431-439. For information on the equipment, see Arthur C. Hardy, "A Recording Photoelectric Color Analyser," JOSA, XVIII (1929), 96-117, "A New Recording Spectrophotometer," JOSA, XXV (1935), 305-311, and Handbook of Colorimetry (1936); E. J. King and D. S. Robdell, "An Experimental Color Comparator," JOSA, XLI (1951), 830-835; Richard S. Hunter, "Color Difference Meters for Precision and Accuracy," Farbe, X (1961), 173-192; J. M. Adams and S. Bergling, "A Comparison of Colorimeters," Printing Technology, VIII (1964), 16-27. For modifications in the system, see David L. MacAdam, "Projective Transformations of I.C.I. Color Specifications," JOSA, XXVII (1937), 294-299; and Günter Wyszecki, "Proposal for a New Color Difference Formula," JOSA, LIII (1963), 1318-1319 (cf. LIII, 1012).

MUNSELL. Dorothy Nickerson, "History of the Munsell Color System and Its Scientific Application," JOSA, XXX (1940), 575-586; John E. Tyler and Arthur C. Hardy, "An Analysis of the Original Munsell Color System," JOSA, XXX (1940), 587-590; Dorothy Nickerson, "The Munsell Color System," Illuminating Engineering, XLI (1946), 549-560 ("the most widely known and useful of color order systems"); Maitland Graves, Color Fundamentals (1952), pp. 134-151; Method of Specifying Color by the Munsell System (American Society for Testing and Materials, Method D1535-58T, 1958). In 1921 the Strathmore Paper Company issued a handsome book, A Grammar of Color, in which the colors of the paper samples were specified in Munsell terms; in the same volume T. M. Cleland published "A Practical Description of the Munsell Color System" (pp. 13-26). Another early discussion is Irwin G. Priest, K. S. Gibson, and H. J. McNichols, An Examination of the Munsell Color System (Technologic Papers of the Bureau of Standards, No. 167, 30 September 1920). Norman Macbeth, in "Munsell Value Scales for Judging Reflectance," Illuminating Engineering, XLIV (1949), 106-108, discusses one of the special Munsell charts. Measurements in CIE terms are reported in J. J. Glenn and J. T. Killian, "Trichromatic Analysis of the Munsell Book of Color," JOSA, XXX (1940), 609-616; Kenneth L. Kelly, Kasson S. Gibson, and Dorothy Nickerson, "Tristimulus Specification of the Munsell Book of Color from Spectrophotometric Measurements," JOSA, XXXIII (1943), 355-376, or Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, XXXI (1943), 55-76; Walter C. Granville, Dorothy Nickerson, and Carl E. Foss, "Trichromatic Specifications for Intermediate and Special Colors of the Munsell System," JOSA, XXXIII (1943), 376-385; Josephine G. Brennan and Sidney M. Newhall, "ICI Specifications of Difference Limens for Munsell Hue, Value, and Chroma," JOSA, XXXVIII (1948), 696-702; Dorothy Nickerson and Davis H. Wilson, "Munsell Reference Colors Now Specified for Nine Illuminants," Illuminating Engineering, XLV (1950), 507-517 (cf. XL, 159-171).

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On the problem of color spacing and equal psychological steps, expressed generally in Munsell terms, see Dorothy Nickerson, "Color Measurements in Psychological Terms," JOSA, XXI (1931), 643-650; Sidney M. Newhall, "The Ratio Method in the Review of the Munsell Colors," American Journal of Psychology, LII (1939), 394-405; Domina Eberle Spencer, "A Metric for Color Space," JOSA, XXXII (1942), 744 (summary); Parry Moon and D. E. Spencer, "Geometric Formulation of Classical Color Harmony," JOSA, XXXIV (1944), 46-59; Arthur Pope, "Notes on the Problem of Color Harmony and the Geometry of Color Space," JOSA, XXXIV (1944), 759-765. In 1943 some of the original specifications in the Munsell Book of Color were modified in terms of the CIE coordinate system and standard observer, and the results are referred to as the "Munsell renotation system" (as opposed to "book notation"): see Sidney M. Newhall, Dorothy Nickerson, and Deane B. Judd, "Final Report of the OSA Subcommittee on the Spacing of the Munsell Colors," JOSA, XXXIII (1943), 385-418 (cf. XXX, 617-645); Dorothy Nickerson and Sidney M. Newhall, "A Psychological Color Solid," JOSA, XXXIII (1943), 419-422; Dorothy Nickerson, "Spacing of the Munsell Colors," Illuminating Engineering, XL (1945), 373-386; Dorothy Nickerson, Josephine T. Tomaszewski, and Thomas F. Boyd, "Colorimetric Specifications of Munsell Repaints," JOSA, XLIII (1953), 163-171; Deane B. Judd and Günter Wyszecki, "Extension of the Munsell Renotation System to Very Dark Colors," JOSA, XLVI (1956), 281-284; Werner C. Rheinboldt and John P. Menard, "Mechanized Conversion of Colorimetric Data to Munsell Renotations," JOSA, L (1960), 802-807. A limited edition of a Munsell Renotation Color Book is announced in JOSA, LIV (1964), 851. The basis for a set of chips, systematically sampling the color solid and truly representing equal perceptual differences, is set forth by Günter Wyszecki, "A Regular Rhombohedral Lattice Sampling of Munsell Renotation Space," JOSA, XLIV (1954), 725-734; the Committee on Uniform Color Scales of the Optical Society of America is working on the preparation of such a system.

OSTWALD. J. Scott Taylor, A Simple Explanation of the Ostwald Colour System (1935); Herman Zeishold, "Philosophy of the Ostwald Color System," JOSA, XXXIV (1944), 355-360; Carl E. Foss, Dorothy Nickerson, and Walter C. Granville, "Analysis of the Ostwald Color System," JOSA, XXXIV (1944), 361-381; Egbert Jacobson, Basic Color: An Interpretation of the Ostwald Color System (1948). For a comparison of the merits of the two systems, see Milton E. Bond and Dorothy Nickerson, "Color-Order Systems, Munsell and Ostwald," JOSA, XXXII (1942), 709-719. The Ostwald system has had a number of enthusiastic supporters who have developed their own applications of it, notably Faber Birren in his many books. In Color Dimensions (1934), after praising Ostwald as the "greatest scientist ever to devote a large portion of time and energy to color harmony" (p. 35) and after pointing out that "the vast majority of systems so far invented are utterly spurious and impractical" (p. 4), Birren presents his own version of Ostwald, the Color Equation (based on the spinning of Maxwell disks — cf. footnote 15 above), and declares that with it "the problem of color standardization — so long a complex affair — has been adequately solved" (p. 57). Hilaire Hiler, in Color Harmony and Pigments (1942), expresses his admiration of Ostwald before explaining his own Color Circle, Color Piano, and cylindrical Color Solid; J. A. V. Judson bases his textbook, A Handbook of Colour (1935; rev. ed., 1938), on Ostwald; The Color Helm (1932, 1940), designed by J. P. Gangler for Fiatelle, Inc., uses the Ostwald system; and The New Color Culler (1951, 1960) of the Desarco Corporation contains eleven Ostwald triangles.

BRITISH COLOUR COUNCIL. See Robert F. Wilson, "Colour and Colour Nomenclature," Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, LXXXIII (1934-35), 307-323, for a sketch of the Council's history, activities, and Dictionary.

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OTHER SYSTEMS. (1) Color Card Association. Margaret Hayden Rorke, "The Work of the Textile Color Card Association," JOSA, XXI (1931), 651-653. (2) DIN-Farbenkarte. Manfred Richter, "Das System der DIN-Farbenkarte," Farbe, I (1952-53), 85-98; Hellmut Goeroldt, "Die Herstellung des Entwurfs der DIN-Farbenkarte," Farbe, I (1952-53), 128-134; "Normblatt-Entwurf DIN 6164: DIN-Farbenkarte," Farbe, I (1952-53), 147-158; Richter, "The Official German Standard Color Chart," JOSA, XLV (1955), 223-226; H. E. Kundt and Günter Wyszecki, "Zusammenhang zwischen Munsell und DIN-System," Farbe, IV (1955), 289-293; Richter, "Die Beziehung zwischen den Farbmasszahlen nach DIN 6164 und den Ostwald-Masszahlen," Farbe, VI (1957), 49-62. (3) Villalobos Colour Atlas. Cf. Carl E. Foss's review in the Inter-Society Color Council News Letter, No. 82 (May 1949), p. 8. (4) Maerz-Paul. M. Rea Paul describes the work in "Dictionary of Color," JOSA, XXI (1931), 358-360. (5) Plochere. Before their Plochere Color System, Gladys and Gustave Plochere had produced the Plochere Color Guide (1940) and Color and Color Names (1946). (6) Federal Standards. See "New Federal Standard on Colors," JOSA, XLVII (1957), 330-334; examples of other governmental standards are the National Bureau of Standards chart of colors for kitchen and bathroom accessories, the Army's color card for sewing threads, the Bureau of Federal Supply's samples of colors for upholstery leather, the Maritime Commission's standard colors for flags and for paint, the Bureau of Ships' standards for electrical insulation, and so forth. Cf. British Standard 2660, Colours for Building and Decorative Paints (British Standards Institution, 1955); RAL-Farbtonregister 840R (Muster-Schmidt KG, Göttingen). Standards and specifications are also published by the American Standards Association (10 East 40th Street, New York City 10016) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (1916 Race Street, Philadelphia 19103). The former, in its Standard Z44-1942, Specification and Description of Color, recommended the Munsell system. The latter, in its catalogue of publications, lists some sixty pamphlets on color tests and measurement, dealing with dyes, acids, plastics, varnishes, petroleum products, etc. It has also published an extension of the three-attribute system of color description to take into account the total appearance of engineering materials: Visual Appearance: A Five-Attribute System of Describing (STP 297; 1961). (7) Ridgway. Before his famous 1912 work, Ridgway had published A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists (1886), with 186 samples. See D.H.Hamly, "Robert Ridgway's Color Standards," Science, CIX (1949), 605-608. (8) Other Special Charts. A bibliographer wishing to survey even more widely among the alternative systems might glance at the following: the National Philatelical Society's Color Chart of 1884 or B.W.Warhurst's Color Dictionary of 1899 (now Stanley Gibbons' Colour Guide for Stamp Collectors, with 75 colors); René Oberthü and Henri Dauthenay's Répertoire de couleurs pour aider à la determination des couleurs des fleurs, des feuillages et des fruits for the Société française des chrysanthémistes in 1905, with 1356 colors, or the Fischer Color Chart of the New England Gladiolus Society, revised in 1944, with 108 colors on a circular board (recommended also for geneticists in 1933 by Edgar Anderson, in Science, LXXVIII, 150-151); The Colorizer (1947) showing paint proportions for 1298 colors, or Pratt & Lambert's DeLuxe Color Book (1954?); C.J.Jorgensen's The Mastery of Color (1906) or Sterling B. McDonald's Color Harmony with the McDonald Calibrator (1949); E.A.Séguy's Code universel des couleurs (1936), with 720 colors on 55 printed plates, or the Cheskin Color System (Color Research Institute of America, 1949), with 4800 colors on 48 printed hue charts;Hesselgren's Color Atlas (1955); the Colour Index of the Society of Dyers and Colourists (2nd ed., 4 vols., 1956); Ralph S. Palmer and E.M.Reilly's Concise Color Standard for the American Ornithologists' Union (1956); Faber Birren's The American Colorist (1939); Edward Friel's The Friel System: A Language of Color (1961); and even musical systems of color

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— with scales, keyboards, and the like — such as The Taylor System of Color Harmony (1921) and Maud Miles' A Suggested Plan for a National Color Standard (1922).

NOMENCLATURE. There is a historical account of the development of color nomenclature at the beginning of the Maerz-Paul Dictionary. Further discussions of nomenclature include Milton Bradley's pamphlet Some Criticisms of Popular Color Definitions and Suggestions for a Better Color Nomenclature (n.d.); M. Luckiesh, The Language of Color (1918); "Report of the Committee on Colorimetry for 1920-21," JOSA, VI (1922), 527-596 (section II on nomenclature); "Report of the Committee on Color Terminology Questionnaire," JOSA, XIII (1926), 43-57; Loyd A. Jones, "Colorimetry: Preliminary Draft of a Report on Nomenclature and Definitions," JOSA, XXVII (1937), 207-213; Colour Group of the Physical Society, Report on Colour Terminology (1948); Arthur Pope, The Language of Drawing and Painting (1929; rev. ed., 1949), esp. pp. 3-34. The question of color terminology in relation to theater gelatins has been taken up in "Names for Colors," Theatre Arts Monthly, XVI (July 1932), 604, 604a, 604b; and by Deane B. Judd in A System for Specifying Theater Gelatins (Report to ISCC, February 1938). Kenneth L. Kelly, in "Color Designations for Lights," Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, XXXI (1943), 271-278, shows the applicability of the ISCC-NBS system to self-luminous sources and gives a good historical checklist. A later effort to define the boundaries of colors is the dictionary part of Kornerup and Wanscher's Reinhold Color Atlas (1962).

TOLERANCES. The Nickerson formula for the Index of Fading is as follows: (average chroma / 5) x (difference in hue / 3) + (difference in chroma / 2) + difference in value. For an explanation of the basis for the formula, see Dorothy Nickerson, "The Specification of Color Tolerances," Textile Research, VI (1936), 505-514; and "How Can Results of Fading Tests Be Expressed?", in ASTM Standards on Textile Materials (October 1936), pp. 238-241. Cf. "The Inter-Society Color Council Symposium on Color Tolerance," American Journal of Psychology, LII (1939), 383-448; F. Scofield, "A Method of Representing Color," ASTM Bulletin, No. 102 (January 1940), pp. 11-12; Dorothy Nickerson and Keith F. Stultz, "Color Tolerance Specification," JOSA, XXXIV (1944), 550-570; and "Interim Method of Measuring and Specifying Color Rendering of Light Sources," Illuminating Engineering, LVII (1962), 471-495.

COLORS OF PAPERS AND INKS. Federal Specification 9310, Paper Specification Standards (No. 4, 1 May 1965), includes (as Part 3) samples of eight colored papers for government use and describes briefly (in Part 2) the methods of color measurement by visual comparison (ASTM D1729-60T) and by spectral reflectivity. The annual Bibliography of Papermaking and U.S. Patents, published by TAPPI (Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry), contains a section on color. Cf. W. B. Van Arsdel, "Color Specification in the Pulp and Paper Industry," JOSA, XXI (1931), 347-357; F. A. Steele, "The Optical Characteristics of Paper," Paper Trade Journal, C (21 March 1935), TS151-156; CI (24 October 1935), TS245-249; CIV (25 February 1937), TS129-130; Institute of Paper Chemistry, "Color and Color Measurements," Paper Trade Journal, CV (1937), TS285-306; and the Strathmore Paper Company's A Grammar of Color (see under Munsell above). On "whiteness": D. L. MacAdam, "The Specification of Whiteness," JOSA, XXIV (1934), 188-191; Deane B. Judd, "A Method for Determining Whiteness of Paper," Paper Trade Journal, C (23 May 1935), TS266-268; CIII (20 August 1936), TS154-160; V. G. W. Harrison, The Measurement of "Shades" of "White" Papers (PATRA Reports Nos. 2-3, 1938-39). Some of the atlases issued by the paper and the ink trades are Charles J. Schott's Modifications of Pigment

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Colors as Used in Printing Inks (1929), with 502 cards; IPI Simplified Color Matching Chart (1935), with 90 printed color samples; Colors for Paper (Calco Chemical Company, Heller & Merz Division, 1938); John Henry Graff, A Color Atlas for Fiber Identification (Institute of Paper Chemistry, 1940); Cheskin Color System (1949); Jack W. White, The Lithographic Technical Foundation Color Chart (1957); ROP Color Ink Book (ANPA Institute, 1963), with mixing ratios for newspaper inks.