Color Names
They’re all made up. I know, all words are made up, but these are…well, really made up. Like these:
Arrowhead
Zambezee Plains
Turban
Sprinter
Creek Blue
Etruscan
Lantern Light
Monogram
Hunting Horn
What colors do these suggest to you? I once saw a color chip at a hardware store that was called “Young Gazelle.” It was a very light brown. I guess “Old Gazelle” would be a medium gray?
ANYWAYS, here’s the color chips that go with those “names”:
Right?!?!
When I worked at the FBI, I realized describing colors was tricky—if I looked at a case from a year ago, what did I mean by “topaz”? Or “muddy grey”? That troubled me, so I went to the FBI Laboratory Division Reference Library (which used to service forensic laboratories throughout the country; sadly it went away a long time ago. Thankfully, we have this). In the Library, I found a document from 1965 when NIST was the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), called “A Universal Color Language.” NBS published “The Universal Color Language” as a more general system for color designation with various degrees of precision from completely generic (13 broad categories) to extremely precise (numeric values from spectrophotometric measurement). In 1976, The Color Names Dictionary and The Universal Color Language were combined and updated with the publication of Color: Universal Language and Dictionary of Names, the definitive source on the Inter-Society Color Council-NBS (ISCC–NBS) system. One of the primary goals of the ISCC–NBS system was to relate other color systems and charts (like the Munsell system) to a common frame of reference.
The idea was that there were 13 basic color categories, 10 hues and 3 neutrals:
These could be adjusted to create another 16 categories:
These could be further modified by words like “light,” “dark,” “very,” and others.
My approach was to use the first set and the second set (minus “violet”), and include white, black, and grey as colors and “light” and “dark” as modifiers; “very light olive,” “dark greenish blue,” and “light gray,” are examples. This kept the naming system simple enough to capture a range of colors but structured enough for me to basically know what the heck I was talking about when I read “very dark yellow” in my notes. Color is still subjective, yes, but forensic science* is required to communicate with non-scientists and that requirement means we need to think more about what we’re doing, saying, and recording. Other scientists typically only talk to peers; we have different rules.
It worked for me. I tried to get other examiners to use it and taught it in my classes at Quantico and elsewhere but I don’t know if it stuck. I know I have yet to see it in any notes in any cases I review in my private work. :-\