NCS-System

The objective of the Swedish colour researchers was to establish a colour-system with which a user with normal colour vision could determine colours without having to depend on colour measuring instruments or colour-samples. Six elementary colour sensations, black, white, yellow, red, blue and green, are placed at the six determining points of the double-cone, with the achromatic colours at the tips and the four chromatic colours at equal distances in the colour circle. A three-dimensional frame is thus formed, defined by elementary colour sensations in which each colour perception is located according to hue. (Detailed text)


Date: The NCS Natural Color System has been available since 1968/69.

Country of origin: Sweden

Basic colours: Red, yellow, blue and green

Form: Double cone

Application: Determination of colours in architecture, design and fashion

Related systems: Grosseteste, Alberti, da VinciHeringMunsellOstwaldPopeJohanssonHesselgrenACC

Bibliography: A. Hård, «A descriptive colour-system with application for environmental design», Man-Environment-Systems 5, pp. 161-167 (1975); «NCS Colour Atlas», Stockholm 1978; G. Tonnquist, «Das Natürliche Farbsystem NCS», DIN Mitteilungen (Sept. 1986), pp. 462-469.

Links: Scandinavian Colour Institute