Value and Saturation

Created: 3 September 2020, 21:43:19 CDT
Last updated: 10 September 2020, 19:44:07 CDT

 

A few definitions first: 

  1. Hue - The color of something, such as being "blue" or "red". 
  2. Saturation - The intensity of the color, a heavily saturated color is very bright, while a color with no saturation is white or black (Depending on the value). 
  3. Value - The lightness or darkness of a hue. 

All art programs have some form of a HSV slider, but do vary between each program (such as photoshop calling theirs a HSB slider). 

Rules for Value

Value refers to how dark or bright something is. While we don't have a rule on how bright something can be (aside from tobiano needing to be white and visible on ivory designs) we do have a rule on how dark markings can be. Lines must be visible on the design, and when a marking gets too dark, you can't see the lines. If you're design has sections of that are darker than our lowest value allowed, you will be required to fix it, even if it is the only thing wrong with a design. 

  1. Programs that use a 0 -100 scale (like photoshop) Lowest value is 7 
  2. Programs that use a 0-225 scale (like Sai version 1 or CSP) lowest value is 18.
  3. Any other programs, please alert a staff member so we can look into the value set up!

The 12 point value rule and other "Subtle" gradients

Many markings now have a rule called the "12 point value and saturation" rule. This means you can go up or down 12 points in the value and sautration of a hue as a gradient within the marking.  The value still cannot go below 7 points (or 18 for 0-225 scale). This only applies to the value and saturation, not the hue.