A Color Notation: An Illustrated System Defining All Colors and Their Relations by Measured Scales of Hue, Value and Chroma Made in Solid Paint for the Accompanying Color Atlas

by Albert Henry Munsell

Excerpt from A Color A Measured Color System, Based on the Three Qualities Hue, Value, and Chroma With Illustrative Models, Charts, and a Course of Study Arranged for Teachers

At various times during the past ten years, the gist of these

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

138 pages, Hardcover

First published April 10, 1946

About the author

Albert Henry Munsell (January 6, 1858 – June 28, 1918) was an American painter, teacher of art, and the inventor of the Munsell color system.

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, attended and served on the faculty of Massachusetts Normal Art School, and died in nearby Brookline.

Reviews

[Bill Anderson]

Munsell, the artia

The Munsell color system is widely used. Reading the words of the creator helps bring life to his system. Munsell was an artist and teacher, which are the dominant themes of this short work. His focus on Hue, Value, and Chroma are reflected in HSV, where saturation is chroma. Luminosity is another term for value. In 1929, the 10 hues in a group became 4,

[John]

Useless Without Illustrations

Imagine reading a cookbook in which all the ingredients are left out. There is not a single image or diagram in this entire text. Being a technical book on color and constantly referring to nonexistent “plates” and diagrams makes this book all but useless.

[Gia Fondren]

this was a better book than i anticipated. the book for Harringto College was a foreign book ( i forgot the name now)ITTEN the elements of color and this one explains and shows color notations better for my understanding.

[Jackie]

This was a really difficult book to get through. It contains very scientific, in depth information about color and references lots of charts and figures, but doesn't contain them. It was maddening and frustrating trying to make sense of it all. So disappointed.

[Carl]

This is a very good book. I recommend this book if you're interested in color or color theory. Even though I had been aware of the Munsell Color Naming System for many years, I had not been aware, until I read this book that this was the first attempt to express colors in three dimensions instead of two.

Munsell wanted to make a color notation similar to the notations used for music. He was an art teacher and wanted to design a curriculum for teaching students how to think about and use color.

Even though this book is supposed to have many images and illustrations, I was reading the Kindle version which was produced without them. Even though Munsell makes many references to the illustrations, his writing is so clear that I could follow all the discussions in the book without them.

I really enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot from it.

[Patricia]

I gave this free ebook a 2 rating because it is a book about color theory, yet there are no illustrations available for this edition. Otherwise, I am sure that the color system explained by this author is intelligent and makes perfect sense. I will have to find a copy of a print edition. The explanations and examples make plenty of sense.