colorhue

Colorhue is a term used in color science and digital imaging to denote the hue component of color perception. It specifies where a color sits on the color wheel and identifies its general color family, independent of lightness and saturation.

In practice, colorhue is usually represented as an angular coordinate. In models such as HSV and HSL, hue is given as an angle from 0 to 360 degrees, with 0/360 red, 60 yellow, 120 green, 180 cyan, 240 blue, and 300 magenta. Some systems use a 0–1 range.

Applications include image editing, color grading, and palette design. Adjusting colorhue shifts the color family without changing luminance, while preserving saturation. In color management, maintaining consistent hue across devices requires conversions to perceptual color spaces and device ICC profiles.

Limitations arise because hue is not perceived uniformly across tones. Colors with the same hue can differ in brightness or saturation, and hue can shift under different illumination or metamerism. For precise work, hue alone is insufficient without considering other color dimensions.

Etymology and usage: The term combines “color” and “hue” and appears in some color theory texts and software documentation to distinguish the hue dimension from saturation and brightness. It is not a universal standard.

Related concepts include hue, hue angle, and color spaces such as HSV, HSL, and CIELAB.