Munsell Color System

Munsell color system classifies colors based on hue, value or lightness, and chroma or color purity. These dimensions have their respective numerical denotations. For instance, 2BG 7/10 means that the color is blue-green which has a hue of close to being a green; it’s value of 7 means that it is light (1 is black and 10 is white); and its chroma of 10 means that it is highly saturated.

This was created by Albert H. Munsell, an American painter and professor, in 1905. Munsell developed this system since he felt that there should be a more rational way of describing colors. For instance, using decimal notations would be easier as compared to color names. In the 1930s, this was adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the official color system regarding soil research.