Page:Color standards and color nomenclature (Ridgway, 1912).djvu/17

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PROLOGUE

As stated in the Preface, the purpose of this work is the standardization of colors and color nomenclature, so that naturalists or others who may have occasion to write or speak of colors may do so with the certainty that there need be no question as to what particular tint, shade, or degree of grayness, of any color or hue is meant. Therefore, it is unnecessary to treat of the subject from any other point of view; it will be sufficient to say that this work is based on a thorough study of the subject from every standpoint, and that practically all authoritative works on the subject of color have been carefully consulted.[1]

Plan.—The scientific arrangement of colors in this work is based essentially on the suggestions of Professor J. H. Pillsbury for a scheme of color standards,[2] which have also been the basis of several other efforts toward the same end, as the plates in Milton Bradley's "Elementary Color" and educational colored papers, Prang's charts of standard colors, Klinkseick and Valette's "Code des Couleurs," etc.; but while all these present a scientifically arranged color-scheme and more or less adequate

  1. Titles of several books on the subject which are especially recommended to the lay student of chromatology are given at the end of this text.
  2. See Science, June 9, 1893, and Nature, Vol. LII, No. 1347, Aug. 22, 1895, pp. 390-392.