Design Nomenclature / Color
Tint
Also called pastel, screen
- Color
- Physical Model Making
- 2D & 3D
A hue with white added — lighter and, in pigment, lower in chroma than the parent. Tinting raises value while pulling toward the achromatic axis, which is why pastels read as soft rather than merely pale: the white dilutes the colorant as it lifts it.
In practice
In printing, a tint is also a percentage screen of a solid ink — a 20% tint of black is grey. Two meanings, one word, context decides.
Not to be confused with
- ShadeA hue with black added — darker and lower in chroma than the parent. Black is a blunt instrument: it kills chroma quickly and drags most hues toward a muddy olive, which is why painters darken with a complement or a dark analogous hue and reach for black last.
- ToneA hue with grey added — chroma reduced without a committed move in value. Toning is how a palette is made to sit together: most color that reads as considered has been toned, because a shared grey pulls otherwise unrelated hues onto common ground and lets the saturated accent carry the emphasis.