Page:Color standards and color nomenclature (Ridgway, 1912).djvu/35

 Pure Color.—A color corresponding- in purity with (or, in the case of material colors, closely approximating to) one of the spectrum colors.

Broken Color.—Any one of the spectrum colors or hues dulled or reduced in purity by admixture (in any proportion) of neutral gray, or varying relative proportions of both black and white ; also produced by admixture of certain spectrum colors, as red with green, orange with blue, yellow with violet, etc. These broken colors are far more numerous in Nature than the pure spectrum colors, and include the almost infinite variations of brown, russet, citrine, olive, drab, etc. They are often called dull or neutral colors.

Fundamental Colors.—The six psychologically distinct colors of the solar spectrum; Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet.

Primary Colors.—Theoretically, any of the spectrum colors which cannot be made by mixture of two other colors. According to the generally accepted Young-Helmholtz theory, the primary colors are red, green, and violet ; orange and yellow resulting from a mixture of red and green, and blue from a mixture of green and violet. There is considerable difference of opinion, however, as to this question, and further investigation of the subject seems to be required; at any rate, authorities fail to explain why red may be exactly reproduced (except as to the degree of luminosity) by a mixture of orange and violet, exactly as yellow results from mixture of red and green or blue from green or violet, green being, in fact, the only spectrum color that cannot be made by mixture of other colors.