Attributes of color

The three attributes of color are hue, brightness, and saturation.

Hue refers to the basic color, such as red, yellow, green, and blue. This can be represented by a hue circle going from red to green to blue and back to red.

Brightness refers to the relative lightness or darkness of the color. It is determined by the degree of reflectivity of the physical surface receiving the light. The higher the brightness, the lighter the color.

Saturation refers to how vivid a color appears. It is measured in terms of the difference of a color from a colorless (neutral) gray with the same degree of brightness. The lower the saturation, the grayer the color. When saturation is zero, the color is gray.

Achromatic colors are white, black, and the gray in between. They lack the attributes of hue and saturation.

Chromatic colors are everything that we perceive as having "color"; everything other than white, black, or gray.

Compare:Understanding Color/HSL color model

Compare:Glossary/Brightness

Compare:Glossary/Hue fidelity