Frequently Asked Questions

Colorboss is for general artistic purposes only, and should in no way be considered a replacement for the precision color samples and products available from munsell.com. Colorboss uses the open source CIE xyY color space data derived from spectroscopic analysis of the 1929 Munsell Book of Colors as published in 1943 in the Journal of the Optical Society of America (JOSA). Colorboss also uses extended color data published by JOSA in 1956.


K. Kelly, K. Gibson, and D. Nickerson, “Tristimulus Specification of the Munsell Book of Color from Spectrophotometric Measurements*,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. 33, 355-376 (1943). https://opg.optica.org/josa/abstract.cfm?uri=josa-33-7-355.

The 40 hue color circle (or complementary color selection bar) shows each color at the same value and saturation (chroma). This makes the yellow appear at a lower value and chroma than you normally imagine when you think of the color yellow. The full range of color is available from the hue’s calibrated grid matrix of chroma and values.

This is a result of the way colors are organised in the Munsell system. Each color has a maximum chroma (saturation) value at differing levels of value. Yellows are naturally higher (lighter) in value than violets which have lower (darker) values. Colors also have maximum saturation – chroma – at different distance from the neutral grey core on the left edge.

The red squares indicate which colors have been selected as part of the current color scheme. A full red square over a colored tile indicates that color has been selected on the current hue page. A half red square means that a color has been selected which occupies the same location on a different hue page. This arrangement of red squares allows a 2D representation of 3D selections made along straight lines across multiple overlapping pages.

Yes, once a set of color positions are chosen, you can select one of the colors to be an anchor point and change the other colors automatically around it. The selected anchor color persists throughout all the other color schemes.

Yes, Colorboss has a built-in color library where you can recall previous color schemes for further editing, or select colors to use as foreground colors directly from the library. Please note – it is important not to rely on the library but to regularly back up your colors by  exporting them to .psd and .ai files with the export feature

Yes, Colorboss updates the current foreground color when you click the swatch on the selection list. You can also select the color directly from the grid matrix – but only at the second click. The first click on a tile marks it with a red dot as part of the palette, and the second click marks it with a white border and changes the current foreground color. and also makes it an anchor point for auto-step palette searches against your current selections. Click on the red square to remove the selection from the table list.

Colorboss can open a color picker to select an exact target color. Colorboss will then calculate the closest Munsell color, or use a global color offset to allow you to select your exact target color.

No. The HSV, HSL and HSB systems are helper systems used to make the RGB color space more intuitive to work with. The Munsell system is better described by the CIE xyY or Lch color space, which are also based on the principles of human visual perception – that is, how colors appear to the viewer – which is not just a matter of linear RGB formulas. This means that two colors set equal in saturation by an HSB colorpicker, will not necessarily appear to be equally saturated when placed next to each other – one color will typically appear more muted, while the other may seem to ‘pop’ out at you visually even though they are suppose to be equal in saturation mathematically by the HSB setting.

Colorboss uses extended color data published in 1958. This adds a bottom row to the grid tables to cater for very dark colors, which were missing from the original Munsell data set. Technically, the added row sits between the bottom value 0 (black) and value 1 (now the third row up from the bottom) , and has a designated value of 0.2.

Yes. An online version of ‘A Color Notation (1905)’ is available from gutenberg.org here