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

True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color is a nonfiction exploration of the science, history, language, and culture of color. The book examines humanity’s long fascination with naming, understanding, and organizing the countless shades that fill our world—from familiar colors like blue and red to unusual and specialized hues such as azure, zinc pink, and many others.

Blending science, art, history, and storytelling, the book investigates how colors are created, perceived, named, and used across different societies. It explores the relationships between light, the human eye, technology, pigments, artists, designers, and the cultural meanings attached to different shades.

Through fascinating discoveries and surprising stories, True Color reveals that color is not simply a visual experience—it is also a reflection of language, creativity, history, identity, and human imagination. The book offers readers a deeper appreciation of the colorful world around them and the complex quest to define something that is both physical and deeply personal.