COLOUR TERMINOLOGY

Commonly Used Terms:

Hue: is simply another word for colour. It is the quality that distinguishes one colour family from another.

Shade: can indicate any colour or hue mixed with black or grey

Tint: is any colour mixed with white paint

Tonal Value: is the relative lightness or darkness of a colour

Temperature: is a colour's perceived sense of warmth or coolness in relation to the specific colour and the colours around it. Red, yellow and orange seem warm: blue and colours high in blue content seem cool. Violet and green are neutral in temperature as they both have warm and cool content.

Chroma: The brightness or darkness of a colour is its intensity or chroma. If a colour is intense, it is bright and pure –it will enliven your space. Low intensity colours are subdued and contain more grey These colours will lend an air of calm to your space.

Undertone: the subtle underlying colour of a hue is its undertone. Interior colours are rarely pure. They are mixtures of many colours and the undertones that reflect that mix. For example olive is a green with an undertone of yellow.