Books on COLOUR

colour/color appreciation, history and/or science

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created by moss-mylk

last updated August, 2026

25 books

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Color Scheme: An Irreverent History of Art and Pop Culture in Color Palettes

Edith Young

Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction

John Gage

The Language-Lover's Lexipedia: An A-Z of Linguistic Curiosities

Joshua Blackburn

The Pink Book: An Illustrated Celebration of the Color, from Bubblegum to Battleships

Kaye Blegvad

Green: The History of a Color

Michel Pastoureau

Gods in Color: Polychromy in the Ancient World

Vinzenz Brinkmann

If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling

Patti Bellantoni

Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People

Imani Perry

Rarest Blue: The Remarkable Story Of An Ancient Color Lost To History And Rediscovered

Baruch Sterman

Pink Flamingos and the Yellow Pages: The Surprising Stories behind the Colors of Our World

Bob Hambly

True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color--from Azure to Zinc Pink

Kory Stamper

The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World (The World As Home)

Alison Hawthorne Deming

Red: The History of a Color

Michel Pastoureau

Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color

Valerie Steele

The Visual Nature of Color

Patricia Sloane

The Universe in 100 Colors: Weird and Wondrous Colors from Science and Nature

Tyler Thrasher

Nature's Palette: A Color Reference System from the Natural World

Patrick Baty

Yellow: The History of a Color

Michel Pastoureau

Secret Language of Color: Science, Nature, History, Culture, Beauty of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, & Violet

Joann Eckstut

Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

Blue: The History of a Color

Michel Pastoureau

Chroma

Derek Jarman

The World According to Color: A Cultural History

James Fox

The Secret Lives of Color

Kassia St. Clair

Bluets

Maggie Nelson

Comments

minsuni

oh this list is absolutely perfect!! thank you for putting these together!

one_crazy_eliott

I was going to say Minsuni needs to see this and ofc you're already here lol 🤣

minsuni

I’m always on top of the game 🫡😉

moss-mylkOP

I love that you also get so excited by this!!!! Im happy u love it!

ash.isreading

what a beautiful idea 🥹

moss-mylkOP

Ash!!!!! 🥹🥹🥹🤍🫂

vampiresgf

oh this list is MAGICAL, thank you for making it🥹💓

moss-mylkOP

Thank u so much for this compliment i am homoured!!!

Storyteller

I love it! :) I'd suggest The Rarest Blue by Baruch Sterman

moss-mylkOP

Ooooh thank u i will look this up!!!

kishmish

This is great! I think Black in Blues by Imani Perry might fit!

moss-mylkOP

Thank u kishmish!!! I will look this up :))

moss-mylkOP

Oh this sounds so interesting!!!!

kishmish

It’s a beautiful book. crybabybea wrote a review that I thought captures it so well. super recommend!

kittytornado

I love this list! 🌈😍

moss-mylkOP

Omg i was literally just thinking of you and how i havent gone wee waa wee waa in a while! 🛴💨

kittytornado

🥰

notbillnye

😍🌈 mossy what a neat list idea! vibrant like yourself ✨

alexz

Full Spectrum by Adam Rogers would be good for this list.

acloudofbats

Cannot tell you how much I adore you for putting this list together! Also love seeing the expanded Werner's Nomenclature already on here since I was about to suggest the original. c:

I've only flipped through The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations but it has a lot of examples of color combos used in designs through various eras (Victorian, Art Deco, Atomic Age, sixties, current, limited, earth, rave), talks briefly about their relation to color usage in other eras of art and design, as well as having an introduction to each era with an overview of the common palettes.

acloudofbats

Found a couple more for your consideration!

The Natural Pigment Handbook: A Maker’s Guide to the Art, Stories and Recipes for Creating Paint by Lucy Mayes

Pigment Stories by Evie Hatch