Color

Diamond Colour Means Lack Of Colour

About Color

Colour is the natural colour of a diamond. Diamonds have slight hints of yellow, brown or grey caused by natural trace elements of nitrogen that were present when the diamond formed under the earth’s crust. The less colour a diamond has, the more rare it is and therefore higher the value.

The brilliance and fire is far more in diamonds with less colour, as less colour allows more light to pass. A diamond acts as a prism when light passes through it, dividing the light into a spectrum of colors and reflecting it in colorful flashes. This phenomenon is referred to as its FIRE. Presence of colour will diminish the fire as it acts as a filter.

A diamond with high colour grade (one with less colour) will show more colorful fire.

Diamond Grading Scale

The diamond is graded on these following standards:

Diamond’s colour grading scale begins with the highest grade of D for colourless and continues down the alphabet to grade stones with traces of very faint or light yellowish or brownish colour.

D to F are colourless

G to J are near colourless

K to Z have noticeable colour

The distinctions between colour grades are so subtle that they are often invisible to the untrained eye but can make a big difference in diamond quality and price.

Q & A

WHY DOES THE GIA COLOR GRADING SYSTEM START AT D?

Before D-to-Z colour grades were universalized, many older systems used A, B, C or roman numbers, or descriptive terms like “blue white” or “gem blue”, which lead to a lot of misinterpretation. So GIA wanted to start fresh, without any association with earlier systems. Thus, they started the colour grade at the letter D

Q.

ARE DIAMONDS GRADED AS Zs CONSIDERED FANCY-COLOR?

No, Naturally coloured diamonds outside the D-to-Z colour grading system are called FANCY-colour diamonds. They are diamonds having natural colour beyond grade Z.