Shades & Colour Charts

Your are correct...The old school using a magnifying glass and good eye will never die, but software can improve on this great hobby..I use lots of software to help me as much as it can.

Robert

Trying to decipher colour variations on GB King George 1/2 Green (s) is driving me insane! Are these colour chart things worth buying?

I think the collector should be the umpire of his collection. I just got two "shades" of an old stamp. I've put the word shades in quotes because the difference between the two makes them different colors not shades.
But Scott hasn't privided numbers for the different stamps, so I've become the umpire.
I chose.....BOTH!
Mounted side by side.

Hi Eiger,

The colour charts will only get you so far. Many of the colour descriptions (eg: straw) have been used for such a long time they won't be changed. I assume you're referring to the first KGV issue 1911-12?

For me it was the Great Britain 6d pale chestnut/pale buff (SG 122b & 123). I'm reasonably confident I have both but even when I scan them you can't pick them apart on screen.

Color charts have a shelf life. You can buy color standards from companies like Pantone but they recommend that they be replace every 5-7 years. Making things worse in our hobby, there is no single color reference nor even a standardization of the color names themselves. Technology has muddled the color situation even more since no two scanners or display monitors is the same.

Serious hobbyists build a color reference library of similar stamps, pay attention and standardize on a ambient light source, and develop a good 'color eye'.
Don

Hi Bobby
Yes it's that era along with some of the others. I have various shades/colours of the 3D- lemons, yellows, greens you name it

This is a fascinating topic. For the past year I have been working on a method to set a standard for certain contentions colours of BNA stamps. My primary goal is to establish "Prussian Blue" as used on Newfoundland #124. Using the VSC6000 at the Greene Foundation I have done a spectrographic analysis of Stanley Gibbons Colour Guides (each of which gave a slightly different result) and compared the results with those obtained from a Pantone Ink Guide and from the analysis of several copies of Newfoundland #124. I think I am approaching a standard that will be accepted by the expertizing community as well as the philatelic community at large.
If I have learned nothing else from this research (and my graphic arts background) it is that there is an infinite range of colours that mat appear to be used with any stamp. The number of shades increases substantially when the stamp is produced over an extended period of time such as in the Small Queens and Admiral issues of Canada and the King George V heads of Australia. The shades are caused by different chemical properties of the ink ingredients or by variances in the mixing of ink batches (human error). When examining stamps and comparing shades there can also be a substantial optical difference between stamps that are heavily inked or lightly inked creating different colour intensities.
There is still a lot of work to be done in the study of colour on stamps. My temporary solution is to not get too hung up on catalogue colour descriptions. Recognize that there may well be optical differences between stamps under different types of light and between stamps printed on different papers. Have fun!
GJP