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Click on a letter above to view the list of gems. |
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| Color of Gems | |
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Color has three main components: Hue, Tone and Saturation. Hue is described as the shade, tint or sensation of a color. The GIA GemSet® has 31 Hues which can be used to describe viturally all colored gemstones. The complete GIA GemSet® has 324 sample hue colors with varying Tones and Saturations. Tone is described as the relative lightness or darkness of a Hue. The GIA Tone Scale is divided into 11 grades, 0 to 10, with 0 being colorless to 10 being black. Saturation
is described as the strength or purity of
a Hue. The GIA Saturation Scale is from
1 to 6. The lower numbers (1, 2 or 3) of
warm colors such as red, orange or yellow
tend to look brownish and the cool colors
such as blue and green tend to look grayish.
Level 4 no longer shows either grayishness
or brownishness, while neither is strong
or weak. Level 5 is strong and level 6 being
vivid, almost over colored. |
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How Color is described using the GIA Color Grades for Colored Gemstones. |
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Hue |
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Tone |
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RP/PR |
Red-Purple or Purple-Red |
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0 |
C - Colorless/white |
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stpR |
strongly purplish Red |
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1 |
EXL - Extremely Light |
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slpR |
slightly purplish Red |
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2 |
VL - Very Light |
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R |
Red |
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3 |
L- Light |
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oR |
orangy Red |
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4 |
ML - Medium Light |
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RO/OR |
Red-Orange or Orange-Red |
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5 |
M - Medium |
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rO |
reddish Orange |
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6 |
MD - Medium Dark |
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O |
Orange |
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7 |
D - Dark |
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yO |
yellowish Orange |
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8 |
VD - Very Dark |
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Y |
Yellow |
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9 |
EXD - Extremely Dark |
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gY |
greenish Yellow |
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YG/GY |
Yellow-Green or Green-Yellow |
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styG |
strongly yellowish Green |
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yG |
yellowish Green |
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slyG |
slightly yellowish Green |
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G |
Green |
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vslbG |
very slightly bluish Green |
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bG |
bluish Green |
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vstbG |
very strongly bluish Green |
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GB/BG |
Green-Blue or Blue-Green |
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vstgB |
very strongly greenish Blue |
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gB |
greenish Blue |
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vslgB |
very slightly greenish Blue |
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B |
Blue |
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vB |
violetish Blue |
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bV |
bluish Violet |
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V |
Violet |
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bP |
bluish Purple |
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P |
Purple |
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rP |
reddish Purple |
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Saturation |
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gr(br) |
grayish(brownish) |
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slgr(br) |
slightly grayish(brownish) |
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vslgr(br) |
very slightly grayish(brownish) |
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mst |
moderately strong |
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s |
strong |
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v |
vivid |
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Exceptions (Saturation) |
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pk |
pink |
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brn |
brown |
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Color by Spectrum Exceptions (Saturation) |
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w |
white |
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n |
none, colorless or clear |
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b |
black |
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