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A purple and pink flower in a field.
How Color Works: Hue, Saturation, and Pigment Colors result from the electromagnetic radiation of a range of wavelengths visible to the eye.

Saturation, in the context of color, refers to the relative purity or intensity of a hue. It is one of the three attributes used to precisely specify a color, alongside hue and brightness. A color with high saturation is vivid and strong, while a color with low saturation appears paler or weaker, often due to mixing with white.1

Color itself is understood as a product of light. Isaac Newton's experiments with prisms demonstrated that white light can be broken down into a spectrum of colors, and these colors can recombine to form white light. A color can be precisely defined by its hue (e.g., red, yellow), saturation (its purity), and brightness (the amount of light energy).1

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4 Britannica Sources
  1. saturation
  2. colour - The nature of colour
  3. colour - Colour atlases
  4. colour - Colour effects

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