hue, saturation, brightness from FOLDOC

hue, saturation, brightness

(HSB) A colour model that describes colours in terms of hue, saturation, and brightness.

In the tables below, a hue is a "pure" colour, i.e. one with no black or white in it. A shade is a "dark" colour, i.e. one produced by mixing a hue with black. A tint is a "light" colour, i.e. one produced by mixing a hue with white. A tone is a colour produced by mixing a hue with a shade of grey.

Microsoft Windows colour dialogs, PagePlus, and Paint Shop Pro use HSB but call the third dimension "luminosity" or "lightness". It ranges from 0% (black) to 100% (white). A pure hue is 50% luminosity, 100% saturation.

 Colour type   S      L
 Black        Any     0%
 White        Any    100%
 Grey          0%    1-99%
 Hue          100%    50%
 Shade        100%   1-49%
 Tint         100%  51-99%
 Tone         1-99%  1-99%

Quattro Pro, CorelDraw, and PhotoShop use a variant (Quattro Pro calls the third parameter "brightness") in which a brightness of 100% can produce white, a pure hue, or anything in between, depending on the saturation.

 Colour type   S      B
 Black        Any     0%
 White         0%    100%
 Grey          0%    1-99%
 Hue          100%   100%
 Shade        100%   1-99%
 Tint         1-99%  100%
 Tone         1-99%  1-99%

[Same as HSV?]

Last updated: 1999-07-05

Nearby terms:

hue ♦ hue, saturation, brightness ♦ hue, saturation, value ♦ huff

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