Munsell

Albert Munsell, Color Notation 1905

Munsell's color notation was the first to arrange the color perception components—hue, value, and chroma—into a three-dimensional arrangement. There are 10 hues in Munsell's notation: R, YR, Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P, RP. Value ranges from 0 (black) to 10 (white). Chroma ranges from 0 (gray) to 30+. The hue is specified first, followed by value/chroma; e.g., 5R 3/4 is a red of value 3, chroma 4. There is a reasonable introduction to Munsell in the Wikipedia. Data for conversion from Munsell to CIE xyY can be found here. An online tool for exploring Munsell (unfortunately, Windows only) can be found here.

Munsell to sRGB conversion tables, maximum chroma

Hold your mouse still to get rgb values.

hue/ value	5R	10R	5YR	10YR	5Y	10Y	5GY	10GY	5G	10G	5BG	10BG	5B	10B	5PB	10PB	5P	10P	5RP	10RP
9	248 223 233	250 223 229	252 223 220	249 225 211	250 227 178	248 234 32	214 243 55	145 254 129	138 251 204	121 251 224	106 251 244	181 239 253	216 231 249	222 229 250	228 228 250	234 226 249	237 225 248	242 224 243	245 223 240	247 223 237
8	241 189 195	243 189 184	254 188 152	252 191 111	237 199 63	218 205 57	185 215 25	12 234 28	84 226 174	56 226 196	90 221 217	82 220 237	136 212 245	155 208 253	190 201 239	204 195 254	220 191 245	250 180 238	249 184 213	255 183 200
7	244 149 153	244 151 129	246 153 85	235 160 4	210 172 29	190 179 14	161 186 48	21 203 35	51 198 149	78 194 172	60 194 190	52 192 210	73 188 228	67 185 254	142 176 241	176 164 254	211 151 252	250 134 232	246 143 189	254 142 167
6	252 95 104	249 103 53	224 123 29	201 136 26	178 146 42	161 152 37	133 160 7	11 173 33	62 166 129	38 167 146	73 163 162	70 161 177	25 161 202	31 158 223	79 150 244	151 132 251	202 107 252	247 73 226	251 86 170	249 95 136
5	245 1  65	216 75 24	186 101 31	166 112 32	150 119 9	133 125 47	110 132 30	4  143 30	19 140 104	56 136 122	45 135 136	39 134 151	53 132 162	45 130 182	46 124 214	130 97 243	194 38 249	216 34 198	231 25 148	231 42 111
4	191 24 55	176 55 22	148 79 31	136 87 3	119 94 25	106 99 22	87 104 36	42 111 45	34 109 84	10 110 96	52 105 108	51 105 117	7  105 136	47 102 141	38 97 172	125 22 254	157 24 200	169 34 158	179 32 120	189 20 90
3	142 23 46	148 12 0	118 54 1	102 64 12	87 70 33	78 73 32	62 78 15	10 84 27	40 80 65	32 80 73	24 80 83	21 79 92	26 78 100	41 75 104	26 72 133	95 15 191	121 7  154	127 23 122	141 0  96	140 22 69
2	100 13 40	99 18 20	84 35 5	70 44 15	63 47 6	54 50 7	43 53 21	11 58 24	21 56 44	13 56 50	3  56 59	35 52 59	2  54 73	19 52 77	20 49 93	69 1  138	84 8  107	90 12 89	91 19 68	96 15 56
1	64 1  29	65 2  16	56 16 1	42 25 11	37 27 9	31 29 13	26 30 19	1  35 13	19 31 27	17 31 30	14 31 34	12 31 38	12 31 41	16 30 44	13 28 56	41 6  82	52 5  65	52 10 54	57 6  47	61 4  39

Munsell neutrals as sRGB

Hue, value, and chroma are all equal perceptual spacing!

5Y 8/10 and 5PB 4/20

Each hue goes from 0 to 10, e.g. 2.5RP; value goes from 0 to 10; and chroma goes from 0 to 30+

Munsell	sRGB
N10	255 255 255
N9.5	243 243 243
N9	232 232 232
N8	203 203 203
N7	179 179 179
N6	150 150 150
N5	124 124 124
N4	97 97 97
N3	70 70 70
N2	48 48 48
N1	28 28 28
N0	0 0 0

See also

• Display
• There is a Munsell table in python, in the xo first-login code. (where exactly?)
• http://dev.laptop.org/pub/content/library/games/xo-color.xml