Beige, aqua, fuchsia, etc.: Definitions for some non-basic surface colour names

Abstract

Many common surface colour names such as “beige” lack technical definitions. This paper uses a data set of about 16,000 reflectance spectra of named physical samples, collected by the Color Association of the United States (CAUS), to infer definitions for 20 common non-basic surface colour names (aqua, beige, coral, fuchsia, gold, lavender, lilac, magenta, mauve, navy, peach, rose, rust, sand, tan, taupe, teal, turquoise, violet, wine), as well as Berlin and Kay’s basic names (excepting black). A convex polyhedron in the Munsell tree is constructed for each name. Any colour inside the polyhedron, and only such a colour, is described by that name, with the implicit understanding that the polyhedron’s boundaries are inherently fuzzy; the polyhedron’s centroid can be taken as the name’s focal colour. Accompanying files make the polyhedra publicly available. The current analysis is unique in using a three-dimensional definition, in its large number of surface colours, and in its inclusion of non-basic surface colour names. After presenting the analysis results, comparisons are made to other investigations of naming.