DGI 4C’s - Color

Most of the stones we see appear to be white or colorless, but some stones are colorful, they could be in all colors, yellow blue green or red. these diamonds are called “fancy diamonds” and they are extremely rare. sometimes fancy diamonds can even be a combination of colors, like pinkish purple or bluish green. everything is possible

However, although most of the diamonds we see are colorless, almost all diamonds have a tinge of yellow or brown.

Here we will learn about the color grading scale for both white, colorless diamonds and fancy diamonds.

White (Colorless) Diamonds

White diamonds’ color grade is measured on a scale ranging from “D” to “Z”, when “D” stands for absolutely colorless, and “Z” stands for very noticeable color of brown or yellow. Although most diamonds’ appear colorless to the untrained eye, there are subtle differences in shade. The more the diamonds color grade is closer to “D” the more it will be expensive.
This is the basic scale:

For best accuracy, a stone is tested against a master color comparison set. this is a set of actual diamonds with precise and absolute color grades, and can only be determined by a certified gemologist.

Colorful (Fancy Colors) Diamonds

Fancy diamonds’ color grading is obviously a bit more complicated, since there are many colors, and every color has grades of its shades.
Here are some fancy diamonds’ for example.

The tone and saturation of every hue then described with one of nine grades (not the regular “D” to “Z” scale):

  • Fancy Vivid
  • Fancy Deep
  • Fancy Intense
  • Fancy Dark
  • Fancy
  • Fancy Light
  • Light
  • Very Light
  • Faint

Faint is lowest grade for fancy color diamond and Fancy Vivid is the highest and most rare grade.

In some gemological laboratories “Faint”, “very Light” and “Light” are not even considered as “Fancy Color”.

Color Enhanced Diamonds.

Color enhanced diamonds are natural diamonds which have been altered from white colorless diamonds into fancy color diamonds, or in some cases from faint or light color diamonds to fancy or even fancy vivid diamonds

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