The ColorDescription command returns a string with a description of the input color.

The description is based on the HSV representation of the color and is usually three parts: a lightness description, a saturation description, and a hue description, in that order.

The lightness description is one of "Blackish", "Very Dark", "Dark", "Medium", "Light", "Very Light", or "Whitish".

The saturation description is one of: "Pale", "Faded", "Strong", or "Vivid"

The hue description will be either Gray, or one of:

A pure hue: Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, or Purple.

An adjacent pair of the above hues combined with a space; this indicates that the color is near the midpoint of the two hues but is slightly closer to the second color.

An adjacent pair of the above hues with the first modified with the suffix "ish". This indicated that the color is nearer the second hue but shaded slightly in the direction of the first.

If the short or medium options are given:

The lightness description is "Light", "Dark", or none.

The saturation description is "Pale" or none.

Additionally, if short is given the "ish" hue descriptions are "rounded" up or down to pure hues or combined hues.

The description returned can be used as an input for the Color constructor by adding the palette specifier "Generic" to the beginning. This will not result in a perfect round trip for the vast majority of colors.

$\mathrm{with}\left(\mathrm{ColorTools}\right)\:$

$\mathrm{ColorDescription}\left(''DarkOrchid''\right)$

$''Medium\; Faded\; Bluish\; Purple''$

$\mathrm{Color}\left(''RGB''\,''Generic\; Medium\; Faded\; Bluish\; Purple''\right)$

$⟨RGB\; :\; 0.682\; 0.212\; 0.839⟩$

$\mathrm{ColorDescription}\left(''DarkOrchid''\,'\mathrm{short}'\right)$

$''Blue\; Purple''$

$\mathrm{Color}\left(''RGB''\,''Generic\; Blue\; Purple''\right)$

$⟨RGB\; :\; 0.58\; 0.0824\; 0.969⟩$

$\mathrm{ColorDescription}\left(\mathrm{Color}\left(\left[10\,10\,10\right]\right)\right)$

$''Black''$

The ColorTools[ColorDescription] command was introduced in Maple 16.

For more information on Maple 16 changes, see Updates in Maple 16.

The ColorTools[ColorDescription] command was updated in Maple 2022.

The medium option was introduced in Maple 2022.

For more information on Maple 2022 changes, see Updates in Maple 2022.