Diamond Color

The whiter the diamond is, the more expensive and desirable it is considered to be. That is not to say that a little less than super white is less beautiful and therefore should be less desirable. The quality of a diamond depends upon the combination of all 4 Cs together and not just the color. More over, a less than white diamond may be just appealing to you for with the appearance and color with radiance that you are looking for.

Remember, the diamond grading information given here is about the scientific scale that has been developed to assess the color of a diamond. It should not be construed as the only measure to buy your diamond. Don't forget, diamonds, gemstones and jewelry is a perceived value that very competitive. What you like and what best price you can get from a reliable source should matter the most.

Our Diamond Education and Information Pages

We bring you useful educational information of important aspects of jewelry and jewelry buying. We have made efforts to cover most tat you will need to know in order to make a sound decision about your jewelry buying. Read below and learn about these 4 most important aspects of diamond. As always, please feel free to contact us if you have specific questions about our designs or even questions in general.

What Affects Diamond's Color?

Factors affecting the colors of diamonds include fluorescence and color enhancements such as high pressure, high temperature treatment and irradiation. The process called Irradiation is used to change the colors of diamonds, these are called the treated stones. Synthetic colored diamonds are not natural as they are created in a lab. Synthetic stones are much cheaper than natural colored diamonds making them easily affordable to everyone.

The rarest colors are red and purple, and combinations of those two colors. Yellow and brown are the most common color of diamond, but colorless is the most popular as far as jewelry is concerned. (Colored diamonds are very gradually appearing in more and more jewelry stores as they become more well-known.) Blues and greens are very rare, especially naturally colored stones. Some lightly colored diamonds (light light pink, light blue, etc.) are irradiated to make their color more intense. This means that low fields of radiation are beamed into the cut and polished stone, darkening the outer part of the stone all the way around. The process is permanent and professionally accepted in the diamond industry. Probably the largest irradiated diamond is the Deepdene, a 104.88-carat golden yellow cushion shaped stone.

Fancy Diamond Colors

OK. Now we know that the most white diamond or the colorless diamond is most desirable. But what about other colors? Are these diamond not desirable? On the contrary, some not-white diamonds or as they are commonly named  - Fancy Color diamonds in fact are very desirable and sought after. They are also very expensive because they are rare.

Diamonds of known color are used as comparison stones for color grading. Grading is done by comparing the diamond to be graded against these "master stones" under either artificial or natural north daylight ( in the Northern Hemisphere). A machine called the "Colorimeter" can be used for color grading but there is no substitute for the trained human eye. Diamonds were formed under intense heat and pressure, and traces of other elements may have been incorporated into their atomic structure accounting for the variances in color. Diamond color grades start at D and continue through the alphabet. Truly colorless stones, graded D, are extremely rare and very valuable. They naturally are at the top of the Diamond Quality Pyramid. The closer a diamond is to being colorless, the rarer and more valuable it is. A single change in color grade can significantly affect a diamond's value. Beyond "Z" is the range where the diamond's color is vivid and rich, called "fancy colors". Although the presence of color makes a diamond less rare and valuable, some diamonds come out of the ground in vivid "fancy" colors (well-defined reds, blues, pinks, greens, and bright yellows). These are highly prized and extremely rare.

The color of a diamond has a significant impact on its value. The color scale ranges from D to Z, from colorless to light yellow, respectively.

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The Diamond Color Scale

he farther from colorless that a diamond's grade is, the less rare and therefore less valuable it is. When buying a diamond, take into consideration that it is often very difficult to detect the difference between a colorless diamond (D-F) and a near colorless diamond (G-H), especially when it is mounted in jewelry. Diamonds with a L-Z color grade usually have yellow shading that can be detected by the naked eye, however, a well cut stone with good proportions will still release the brilliance and fire of a lower colored diamond, dispersing light in such a way so as to create a beautiful stone.

Diamond Light Dispersion

Pure diamond does not absorb any part of the spectrum and therefore disperses light in all colors of the spectrum. If impurities are present (atoms of substance other than carbon), then some part of spectrum gets absorbed and diamond appears colored.

The presence of Nitrogen makes diamond appear yellow, and the color intensity varies with the type and concentration of nitrogen present.- Boron makes a diamond appear blue. And black diamonds appear black due to dark inclusions present in diamond crystal.

Diamonds having a faint color tinge exhibit a warm color and are less expensive. But natural colored diamonds are very expensive and highest paid per carat. These diamonds are called fancy colored. The color intensity is high in these diamonds and they are extremely rare. Fancy colored diamonds range from brilliant yellow, pink, blue , fancy white and black. Diamonds are also treated for making them appear colored, but their prices are generally affordable.

Below is the official color grading scale recognized by the international diamond trade and laboratories like EGL USA. The scale runs in order of rarity from colorless on the left to light yellow on the right. The basis of grading a diamond over its color is performed by comparison with a set of reference stones put together by major international diamond organizations. All reputed diamond labs compare diamonds to this set of stones, or against a replica of the standard “mother" set.

The charts underneath summarize the color variations.

What are the 4Cs of Diamond?

Gemology experts have developed methods of grading diamonds depending on their characteristics most important to their value as a gem. Four characteristics popularly known as the Four C’s are commonly used as basic descriptors of diamond, namely Clarity, Color, Cut and Carat.

The value of a white diamond is determined by what are commonly referred to as the 4Cs. The 4Cs are the Diamond's Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat. Each of the 4Cs are important and the most valuable Diamonds are those that possess the best of all four measurements.

We bring you useful educational information of important aspects of jewelry and jewelry buying. We have made efforts to cover most tat you will need to know in order to make a sound decision about your jewelry buying. Read below and learn about these 4 most important aspects of diamond. As always, please feel free to contact us if you have specific questions about our designs or even questions in general....

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