Whether colour is transmitted directly the retina reflected from onto or printed pigments, it has various attributes which can be measured and specified to defne it. There are many different ways of describing colour, some useful for technical purposes, others more intuitive as a way of thinking about the appearance of colour and the relationship between different colours and shades.
One of the useful ways to describe colour is in terms of most hue, saturation, and brightness (referred to as either HSB or HSL, ‘lightness’ replacing brightness. These terms underpin dialogues between users throughout the graphic arts industry.