MasterColors HVC plug-ins are up-to-date

I have written about the MasterColors HVC (Hue-Value-Chroma) Color Composer plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and InDesign in the past, and I am very fond of them. I really like the approach that Munsell took to identifying colors according to their balance and value.

Over the weekend I updated my plug-ins to the latest versions so that I can use Munsell color selections in both InDesign and Photoshop. With these tools, I can choose colors based on contrast and proximity to another color.

Probably the best part of the HVC plug-ins are the tutorials (you can download the tutorials, or take them online without purchasing the product). Munsell was a brilliant color scientist, certainly the most significant of the late 19th, and early 20th centuries; his work led many of his followers to develop other color models and methods. The paint industry in the U.S. was dependent on the Munsell system until very recently, and it is still possible to purchase paint that is mixed according to Munsell color formulas. Just last week I bought a quart of Benjamin Moore paint by specifying its Munsell formula (more on that in another blog to come).

And, since the Adobe applications can export color palettes to other Adobe Illustrator, the palettes I make in Photoshop are fully compatible around the ’Suite (the apostrophe there indicates “Adobe Creative…”).

The other thing about the HVC plug-ins from MasterColors is that they are just plain fun. I have praised other color applications, specifically the Color Munki software from X-Rite/Pantone, and the more recent Pantone iPhone app. All three of these are pleasing just for the fooling-around-with-color tools they provide.

As a tool for designers, the MasterColors plug-ins are very compelling. For prepress pros, they can be helpful because it’s possible to print every color in the Munsell palette, because his color system was based on actual pigments – the kind of pigments that can be added to linseed oil to make printing ink. There are no pie-in-the-sky colors there. When working with designers, it’s easy to explain the Munsell system, and to explain how its contrast numbers are so delightfully logical.

As a matter of practice, it’s nearly impossible to displease a client when working with the Munsell Color system, as the colors are so reproducible. That’s a relief in the world of expectations-versus-reality. The fabulously bright and saturated RGB spectrum is great, but when we finally translate the intention into the impression, there is often disappointment. Not so with Munsell.

I am the proud caretaker, in my role as Faculty Advisor to the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly, of an original copy of Munsell’s Color Atlas. This is a breathtaking book, and one which holds its importance even in the 21st century. So reasoned was Munsell’s work with color that it can serve as an example of great printing, and excellent logic when working with color.

I encourage you to read the tutorials at MasterColors, and, if you are intrigued, read the story I wrote for CreativePro.com about the plug-ins when they first came on the market; there is also a companion story about Munsell and his work.

And for more amusement, I made 360 screen captures yesterday of the Munsell colors from the Color Composer palette in Adobe Photoshop, and then I animated them into a Flash Movie; it’s quite interesting (I must have had a slow day yesterday).

According to new Federal Trade Commission requirements I must divulge as a blogger that I paid cash for the HVC Color Composer plug-ins; they are on sale for the month of November. And, no animals were injured in the writing of this blog.