Diamond Education

EDUCATION:

Diamond Colour

The “colour” of a diamond is about what you can’t see rather than what you can see. A diamond’s value is related to how closely it approaches being colourless. The less colour visible in a diamond equates to a higher value. The exceptions are fancy coloured diamonds which lie outside this colour range.

Diamond colour is graded on a scale from D to Z, with D being colourless and Z having a heavy yellow hue. Diamonds beyond Z are called "fancy" and have their own grading system. The more intense and pure the colour, the more valuable the diamond is because of its rarity.

Diamonds are colour-graded by comparing them to master stones of true colour grades identified under controlled lighting and precise viewing conditions. Many of these colour distinctions are so subtle between grades as to be unobserved to the untrained eye. But these slight differences make a substantial difference in diamond quality and price.