HSV color model

Published At: March 5, 2024

The hue, saturation, and value color model, frequently abbreviated as HSV, is a digital representation of color. It iterates upon HSL to more effectively represent color spaces in a digital context. HSV represents "pure white" as the minimum saturation (S) and maximum value (V), while HSL represents "pure white" as any color where lightness (L) is at its maximum. (If plotted in 3D space, HSV is modeled as a cone, while HSL is modeled as two cones stacked on top of each other.)

The HSV color model tends to be favored over the RGB color model by artists, digital editors, and the like because transformations in terms of hue and saturation are easier to think about than adjusting three separate parameters for a single effect. However, HSV does not take into account the perceptive differences in color in the human eye, and so devotes less of its range to mapping to "real world" colors.

Related Terms:

• RGB color model