A fancy color grade names a colored diamond by its hue plus one grade word, such as Fancy Intense Yellow. The word sums up the tone and saturation of the color.
In more detail
GIA's colored diamond grades start with Faint, Very Light and Light. The fancy grades follow: Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Dark and Fancy Deep. GIA grades red and purplish red diamonds only as Fancy, because their tone and saturation fall in a narrow range. Our simulator uses five of the words: Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid and Fancy Deep.
On a grading report
Replaces the D-to-Z letter on a GIA Colored Diamond Grading Report.
Related terms
- Fancy color diamond: A fancy color diamond is a colored diamond with enough color for a fancy grade. To GIA, any diamond outside the D-to-Z scale is a colored diamond.
- Hue, tone and saturation: Hue, tone and saturation are the three parts of a color. Hue is the color itself, tone is how light or dark it is, and saturation is how strong it is.
- Color grade: The color grade is a letter from D to Z for the yellow or brown tint of a near-colorless diamond. D is colorless and Z is light yellow or brown.