Page:Color standards and color nomenclature (Ridgway, 1912).djvu/26

 naturalists and others, and the preference for color-names very greatly predominates; consequently, whenever it has been possible to find a name which seems suitable for any color in this work it has been done, leaving as few as possible unnamed, and for these some other means must be devised for their designation. (See page 8). The selection of appropriate names for the colors depicted on the Plates has been in some cases a matter of considerable difficulty. With regard to certain ones it may appear that the names adopted are not entirely satisfactory; but, to forestall such criticism, it may be explained that the purpose of these Plates is not to show the color of the particular objects or substances which the names suggest, but to provide appropriate, or at least approximately appropriate, names for the colors which it has seemed desirable to represent. In other words, certain colors are selected for illustration, for which names must be provided; and when names that are exclusively pertinent or otherwise entirely satisfactory are not at hand, they must be looked up or invented. It should also be borne in mind that almost any object or substance varies more or less in color; and that therefore if the "orange," "lemon," "chestnut" or "lilac" of the Plates does not exactly match in color the particular orange, lemon, chestnut or lilac which one may compare it with, it may (in fact does) correspond with other specimens. Without standardization, even if arbitrary, color nomenclature must, necessarily, remain in its present condition of absolute chaos. Even the standard pigments are not constant in color, practically every one of them being subject to more or less variation in hue or tone, different samples from the same manufacturer sometimes varying to the extent of several tones or hues of the present work; indeed, in every case where two or more samples of the same color have been com-