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Hue, saturation and value
Hue is the pure colour; saturation is how far it is from grey; value or lightness is how light or dark it is.
Hue, saturation and value, schematic. Shapes are drawn for illustration.
What the sources say
| Point | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hue | In HSL an angle with 0 degrees as red | W3C |
| Saturation | 100 percent is fully saturated and 0 percent is grey, where hue has no visible effect | W3C |
| HSV value | The largest of the RGB components | Wikipedia |
| HSL lightness | The average of the largest and smallest RGB components | Wikipedia |
| Definitions differ | HSL and HSV define saturation differently | Wikipedia |
| Art usage | In art education hue is the pure colour and value is lightness or darkness | University of Georgia |
For wall art
Colour pickers use these terms, and they are the controls you adjust when you match a piece to a wall colour.
Where the sources stop
W3C is a standards body, not a museum or university, and the University of Georgia page does not define saturation. Art usage of value as plain lightness differs from the HSV definition.
Sources
- Wikipedia: HSL and HSV (fetched 2026-11-12)
- W3C: CSS Color Module Level 4, the HSL notation (fetched 2026-11-12)
- University of Georgia Extension: landscape basics, color theory (fetched 2026-11-12)
Figures from these pages are paraphrased; each page was fetched and read on 2026-11-12. Where two sources differ, both are shown.