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While there has been no standard set for judging the color of gemstones, many consider it to be one of the most important characteristics in evaluating gemstones. When describing a gem's color, the characteristics which come up most often are hue, saturation and tone. Hue refers to the gemstone's basic color. A gem is considered more valuable if it's hue is purer. For example, green for emeralds, red for rubies and blue for sapphires. Saturation measures the intensity of a gem color's intensity. In essence, a stone that is free of muting tones such as gray or brown are more desirable. The saturation is the characteristic that is referred to when the gem is described as either dull, strong or vivid. Tone measure the depth of color and evaluates the color's lightness or darkness. The terms that jewelers use are either very light, light, medium light, medium, medium dark, dark or very dark. |
