Locating basic colors in the OSA space

Abstract The color specimens developed by the OSA Committee on Uniform Color Scales are intended to provide a uniform sampling of the three‐dimensional domain of realizable surface colors. The research of this article confirms the distinction between basic and nonbasic color terms and defines the locations of the eleven basic surface colors within the OSA space through systematic, monolexemic color naming of 424 samples of the OSA set seen against a gray background. It is concluded that the coordinate system of the OSA color space is well suited to the specification of color order: The locations of the basic colors are reasonably arranged and can be conveniently and precisely visualized.