huesaturationvalue

Huesaturationvalue (HSV) is a color space used in graphics and digital imaging that represents colors by three components: hue, saturation, and value. The model is designed to be intuitive for humans selecting colors, mapping color characteristics to attributes commonly adjusted in user interfaces such as color pickers.

Hue is the type of color and is expressed as an angle around a color wheel, typically measured in degrees from 0 to 360. Saturation describes the intensity or purity of the color, from 0% (gray) to 100% (fully saturated). Value, also called brightness, indicates how light or dark the color is, from 0% (black) to 100% (full brightness).

HSV differs from the related HSL color space in how it encodes lightness versus brightness; HSV uses value as brightness, which tends to preserve perceived colorfulness at high brightness levels. The two spaces share the same hue concept but organize the other dimensions differently, making HSV often preferred for color selection in tools and programs.

Conversions to and from RGB are common. Given red, green, and blue in the range 0–1, max = max(r,g,b), min = min(r,g,b), delta = max − min. Value = max. Saturation = 0 if max = 0 else delta/max. Hue calculation depends on which channel is max: if max = r, h = (g−b)/delta; if max = g, h = 2 + (b−r)/delta; if max = b, h = 4 + (r−g)/delta. After multiplying by 60, if h < 0 add 360. HSV to RGB follows sector-based formulas.