1.4.4 The HSV color model

All color models treated so far are hardware oriented. The Hue-Saturation-Value model is oriented towards the user/artist. The allowed coordinates fill a six sided pyramid the 3 top faces of the color cube as base. Note that at the same height colors of different perceived brightness are positioned. Value is given by the height, saturation is coded in the distance from the axes and hue by the position on the boundary.

**Figure:** The HSV-model versus the RGB-model
$\begin{figure}\begin{picture}(5,6)(1,0) \put(2,4){\makebox(0,0){$\bullet$}\makeb... ...(0,-0.3){Black}} \put(1.7,2.2){\makebox(0,0.3){White}} \end{picture}\end{figure}$

Note that conversion from RGB to HSV is given by affine coordinate changes on each of the 3 four-sided sub-pyramids corresponding each to 1/3 of the color cube.

Andreas Kriegl 2003-07-23