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Binomial Color Names

A table of hexadecimal color codes roughly corresponding to the ISCC–NBS System of Color Designation (with a few modifications).

Posted: Feb 15th, 2021 - Modified: Feb 27th, 2023

The ISCC–NBS System of Color Designation is an attempt to build a dictionary of surface colors by combining basic color names with adjectives. It was described by the National Bureau of Standards in the 1976 publication Color: Universal Language and Dictionary of Names The system is meant to be perceptually uniform and is based on the Munsell color system, which describes colors in terms of hue, chroma, and value.

As perceptually uniform color spaces, these systems has been largely superseded by work by the the CIE. But I really enjoy the adjective+base color names in the NBS system.

Below, I’ve reproduced and altered a table of hexidecimal color codes from various attempts to convert this system to sRGB

Paul Centore’s sRGB Conversion (2016)

Paul Centore constructed a set of representative RGB values for each of the colors in the ISCC-NBS system. The details are here, the text file of color codes is here, and a set of data files can be found here.

My slightly modified version

I’m using this as a pallette of colors, so I’ve made a few tweaks to make the table more compact and consistent. Details below.

Table Display options:

luminousvividbrilliantstrongdeepvery deepvery lightlightmoderatedarkvery darkvery palepalegrayishdark grayishblackish
red※
#ff0039		11
#d51c3c		12
#bf344b		13
#87122d		14
#5c0625		15
#b14955		16
#742434		17
#481127		18*
#b4888d		19
#985d62		20
#53383e		21
#332127
reddish orange※
#ff5b00		34
#e83b1b		35
#db5d3b		36
#af3318		37
#cd6952		38
#a2402b		39
#b97565
orange※
#ff7f00		48
#f7760b		49†
#ff9d50		50
#ea8127		51
#c26012		52
#fbaf82		53
#de8d5c		54*
#b26633
orange yellow※
#ffa300		66†
#f39e11		67
#ffbe50		68
#f0a121		69
#d08511		70
#fcc27c		71
#e7a75d		72
#c38639		73
#eec6a6
yellow※
#ffdf00		82
#f1bf15		83
#f7ce50		84
#d9ae2f		85
#b88f16		86
#f4d284		87
#d2af63		88
#b08f42		89
#efd7b2		90
#c8b18b		91
#a99066
greenish yellow※
#fdff00		97
#ebdd21		98
#e9dc55		99
#c4b827		100
#a29812		101
#e9dd8a		102
#c0b55e		103
#9e953c		104
#e6dcab		105
#beb584
yellow green※
#d3ff00		115
#a7dc26		116
#c3df69		117
#82a12b		118
#486c0e		119
#cedb9f		120
#8b9a5f		121
#d7d7c1		122
#979a85
yellowish green※
#59ff00		129
#3fd740		130
#87d989		131
#39964a		132
#176a1e		133
#054208		134
#c5edc4		135
#9cc69c		136
#669069		137
#2f5d3a		138
#10361a
green※
#00ff83		139
#23eaa5		140
#49d0a3		141
#158a66		142†
#085e40		143
#a6e2ca		144
#6fac95		145
#337762		146
#164e3d		147
#0c2e24		148
#c7d9d6		149
#94a6a3		150
#61716e		151
#394746		152
#1f2a2a
bluish green※
#00ffc6		158
#13fcd5		159
#35d7ce		160
#0d8f82		161†
#0a5043		162
#98e1e0		163
#5fabab		164
#297a7b		165
#154b4d		166
#0a2d2e
greenish blue※
#00ddff		167†
#00adc5		168
#2dbce2		169
#1385af		170†
#05424c		171
#94d6ef		172
#65a8c3		173
#2a7691		174
#134a60		175
#0b2c3b
blue※
#0088ff		176
#1b5cd7		177
#419ded		178
#276cbd		179
#113074		180
#99c6f9		181
#73a4dc		182
#34689e		183
#173459		184
#c2d2ec		185
#91a2bb		186
#54687f		187
#323f4e		188
#1e2531
purplish blue※
#0049ff		194
#4436d1		195
#8088e2		196
#5359b5		197
#2a286f		198
#b7c0f8		199
#8991cb		200
#4d4e87		201
#222248		202
#c5c9f0		203
#8e92b7		204
#494d71
violet※
#9200ff		205
#7931d3		206
#987fdc		207
#61419c		208
#3c1668		209
#c9baf8		210
#9b8cca		211
#5c4985		212
#34254d		213
#d0c6ef		214
#9a90b5		215
#584e72
purple※
#dd00ff		216
#b935d5		217
#ce8ce3		218
#9352a8		219
#652277		220
#460a55		221
#e4b9f3		222
#bc93cc		223
#875e96		224
#563762		225
#371b41		226
#e0cbeb		227
#ad97b3		228
#7b667e		229
#513f51		230
#2f2231
reddish purple※
#ff00f5		236
#d429b9		237
#a74994		238
#761a6a		239
#4f094a		240
#bd80ae		241
#965888		242
#5f3458		243
#3f183c		244
#ad89a5		245
#86627e
purplish red※
#ff00a7		254
#dd2388		255
#b83773		256
#881055		257
#54063c		258
#ab4b74		259
#6e294c		260
#431432		261*
#b2879b		262
#945c73
purplish pink246
#fca1e7		247
#f483cd		248
#df6aac		249
#f5b2db		250
#de98bf		251
#c67d9d		252
#ebc8df		253
#c7a3b9
pink1
#fd7992		2
#f48fa0		3
#e66980		4
#f8c3ce		5
#e2a3ae		6
#c5808a		7
#efd1dc		8
#cbadb7
yellowish pink25
#fd7e5d		26
#f59080		27
#ef6366		28
#f8c4b6		29
#e2a698		30
#c9807e		31
#f1d3d1		32
#cbacac		33*
#cbafa7
reddish brown40
#8b1c0e		41
#610f12		42
#ac7a73		43
#7d423b		44
#461d1e		45*
#9e7f7a		46
#6c4d4b		47
#43292a
brown55
#8a4416		56
#571a07		57
#ad7c63		58
#724a38		59
#442112		60*
#997f75		61
#674f48		62
#3e2c28
yellowish brown74
#9e671d		75
#673f0b		76
#c49a74		77
#886648		78
#50341a		79*
#b49b8d		80
#7e695d		81
#4d3d33
olive brown94
#997736		95
#705420		96
#3f2c10
olive106
#8b7d2e		107
#64591a		108
#352e0a		109*
#8e856f		110
#5d553f		111
#35301c
olive green123
#2c5506		124†
#223604		125
#495b22		126
#20340b		127
#545947		128
#2f3326
bright... white... whitelight... gray... graydark... gray... blackdark... black
※
#faf0fe		 263
#e7e1e9		 264
#bdb7bf		 265
#8a8489		 266
#585458		 267
#2b292b		 ※
#111111
pinkish ※
#feebf3		 9
#efdde5		 10*
#c7b6bd
reddish
22
#928186		 23
#5d4e53		 24
#30262b		 ※
#190e0b
brownish
63*
#928281		 64*
#605251		 65
#2b211e		 ※
#161006
yellowish ※
#feece6		 92
#eedfda		 93
#c6b9b1
olive
112*
#8f877f		 113*
#58514a		 114
#23211c		 ※
#131106
greenish ※
#e9f4e6		 153
#e0e2e5		 154
#babec1		 155
#848888		 156
#545858		 157
#212626		 ※
#0c1309
bluish ※
#f0f0ff		 189
#e1e1f1		 190
#b7b8c6		 191
#838793		 192
#50545f		 193
#24272e		 ※
#0e1118
purplish ※
#f8edfb		 231
#ebdfef		 232
#c3b7c6		 233
#8f8490		 234
#5c525e		 235
#2b2630		 ※
#170e14

Compared to Centore’s original set of color labels, I have made the following changes:

  • Colors marked with * have been relabelled.
    • Brownish orange (54) has been relabelled “dark orange”.
    • Brownish pink (33) has been relabelled “dark grayish yellowish pink”.
    • The “light grayish” column has been combined into the “pale” column.
    • The neutral grayish colors have been shuffled around a bit to make each column have consistent luminance.
  • Colors marked with † have had color codes added. Centore’s method didn’t yield RGB codes for some of the color labels, (because the centroid fell outside of RGB space,) So I chose some ‘close-enough’ looking colors to fill out the table.
  • Colors marked with ※ are not present in the original table or system of colors.

Broader Color Categories

Centore also has color codes for the centroid of each color category.

Level 1 color centroids

White
#e7e1e9		 Pink
#e78daa
Gray
#938e93		 Red
#ba2a5e		 Orange
#d9592d		 Yellow
#d7b64a		 Yellow green
#a0c245		 Green
#49c172		 Blue
#4272c3		 Purple
#9e42bd
Black
#2b292b		 Brown
#834b2c		 Olive
#5e5e09

Level 2 color centroids

white
#e7e1e9		 purplish pink
#e589bf		 pink
#e68697		 yellowish pink
#ea9a90
gray
#938e93		 purplish red
#ba2b77		 red
#b92842		 reddish orange
#d7472a		 orange
#dc7d34		 orange yellow
#e3a045		 yellow
#d9b451		 greenish yellow
#d0c445		 yellow green
#a0c245		 yellowish green
#4ac34d		 green
#4fbf9a		 bluish green
#43bdb8		 greenish blue
#3ea6c6		 blue
#3b74c0		 purplish blue
#4f47c6		 violet
#7842c5		 purple
#ac4ac3		 reddish purple
#bb30a4
black
#2b292b		 reddish brown
#7a2c26		 brown
#7f4829		 yellowish brown
#976b39		 olive brown
#7f6129		 olive
#72672c		 olive green
#3e501f

Palette Downloads

GIMP Color Palette

This goes in C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\share\gimp\2.0\palettes

Comments or questions about this page? Please send a message to RobertMartinWinslow at gmail dot com. Feedback is welcomed.