Methodology

Source before color.

Every one of the 111 colors carries a source-status tier. We never claim a HEX value is exact colorimetry, and we flag colors whose evidence is thin rather than inventing values.

Textually attested

문헌 고증 · 15 colors

Color names attested in Joseon-era texts — Isusinpyeon (理藪新編), Gyuhapchongseo (閨閤叢書), and Seongho Saseol (星湖僿說). This tier covers the classical obangsaek system: five cardinal colors plus their conquest- and life-nurturing intermediates.

MMCA standard

국립현대미술관 표준 · 95 colors

Colors from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's Korean Traditional Standard Colors (한국전통표준색명 및 색상 제2차 시안, 1992), each with a Munsell value. Also dancheong (단청) architectural pigments documented by scientific analysis. Munsell is the study standard; HEX is a digital approximation.

Reconstructed

복원 추정 · 0 colors

Colors extracted from surviving artifacts and natural dye materials by modern scholarship, with colorimetry but some reconstruction. Reserved for carefully cited additions beyond the standard.

Disputed / rare

이견 · 희귀 · 1 colors

Colors named in a source but lacking measured colorimetry — for example, gold (금색), listed in the MMCA standard without a Munsell value because it is a metallic, not a matte surface color. Flagged honestly rather than invented.

On HEX values

HEX values are digital approximations of historically attested colors. Where a Munsell value exists (from the MMCA standard), it is the authoritative reference; the HEX is a convenience conversion. Different sources convert Munsell to RGB differently — we cite the standard, not a single conversion.