2. Hue

Last month we looked at how the language you use to describe colour can affect how you perceive and represent it. Over the next three issues we’re going to dig deeper into the three dimensions that make up a colour: hue, saturation and tone. A colour’s hue describes its family name – for example, blue or red or purple. An observed colour might sit firmly in the centre of that hue family (a “really blue, blue”) or it might sit closer to a neighbouring family of hues (a “greenish blue” or “purplish blue”).

The borders that separate one hue family from another are blurred, shaped by cultural consensus, visual perception and personal experience. One observer