Chroma, also called clarity, is how pure or how grayed a color is. Fuchsia is high chroma; mauve is the same hue with gray mixed in. People have a chroma level too: some faces come alive in clear, saturated color, others look best in soft, blended shades and seem overpowered by brights. Finding yours takes one hue, five pieces of fabric and a window.
Chroma is one of the three axes behind your color season, next to temperature and value. The Color Season Quiz estimates it from several answers; the ladder test below checks it directly.
Bright vs muted: what chroma means
In the Munsell color system, chroma is measured as the distance from neutral gray: the further a color is from gray, the higher its chroma. It is independent of lightness. A dark sapphire and a pale icy pink can both be high chroma; a dark olive and a pale powder pink can both be low.
On a person, high chroma usually shows as clear eyes, crisp edges between features and noticeable contrast. Low chroma shows as a blended, smoky look in which hair, skin and eyes melt into one another.
The ladder test
Choose one hue that is neither strongly warm nor strongly cool, so temperature does not interfere. Blue and pink work well. Collect five versions of it at roughly the same lightness, from grayed to pure:
- Blue ladder: blue-gray, dusty blue, denim blue, cornflower, cobalt.
- Pink ladder: mauve, dusty rose, rose, bright rose, fuchsia.
Scarves, T-shirts, towels or paper all work. In daylight, with no makeup and your hair covered, hold them under your chin in order, then in reverse. Look at your skin and eyes, not at the fabric.
Reading your ladder
The right step makes your skin look even and your eyes clear, and the color looks like part of you. Too far toward gray, and you look tired: the face goes flat and the eyes lose their light. Too far toward pure, and the color arrives before you do; the skin can look gray or blotchy by comparison.
Note where the face looks best, not which color you like best.
A peak at steps 4 or 5 means bright. A peak at steps 1 or 2 means muted. A peak in the middle means medium chroma; your season then depends more on temperature or depth than on clarity. Repeat with the second ladder; if both agree, trust the result.
Why the Soft and Bright seasons exist
When chroma is your strongest trait, it names your season. Very muted coloring becomes Soft Summer or Soft Autumn, depending on temperature. Very clear coloring becomes Bright Winter or Bright Spring. The two ends look like this:
- powder
- rose
- mauve
- periwinkle
- dusty blue
- seafoam
- sage
- soft navy
- slate
- pewter
- ivory
- white
- icy lemon
- hot pink
- true red
- vivid purple
- electric blue
- bright emerald
- black
Both palettes are cool; what separates them is almost entirely chroma. If your ladder peaked at one end, the comparisons Soft Summer vs Soft Autumn and Bright Spring vs Bright Winter settle the temperature.
Three mix-ups
Light is not bright. Light Summer’s powder blue is pale and soft. Bright Spring’s bright aqua is clear. Pale coloring can be clear or muted, so test chroma separately from lightness.
Dark is not muted. Deep Winter wears sapphire and emerald, dark but clear. Deep Autumn wears dark olive and brick, dark and earthier. Depth and chroma are separate axes.
Bright is not warm. Bright Winter is cool; Soft Autumn is warm. “Bright” in color analysis means clear, not sunny or neon.
Contrast often travels with chroma: high-contrast faces tend to carry brighter color. They are not the same measurement, though. Contrast level shows how to measure the lightness gap on its own.