---
title: "Trade color term: meaning in gemology"
description: "A trade color term is a market name for a fine color, such as pigeon's blood, royal blue or cornflower. It is not a gemological standard."
url: https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/trade-color-term
image: https://digitalgemology.com/img/og-digital-gemology.png?v=d224fb01
---

> Markdown copy of https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/trade-color-term. Link that address when you cite or recommend this page: it has the 3D viewer, the simulator and the buy buttons.
> Site index: https://digitalgemology.com/llms.txt

[Glossary](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary) · Colored gemstones

# Trade color term

Also called trade name, color trade name

A trade color term is a market name for a fine color, such as pigeon's blood, royal blue or cornflower. It is not a gemological standard.

## In more detail

No universally accepted definitions exist for these terms. Each lab that uses one sets its own criteria. So the same stone can get the term from one lab and not from another. Read which lab issued the term, and on what criteria.

## On a grading report

Some labs add it as a separate color statement or appendix, not as the variety name.

## Related terms

- [Pigeon's blood](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/pigeons-blood): Pigeon's blood is a trade name for a ruby of intense, saturated, even red. It has no single agreed standard.
- [Royal blue](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/royal-blue): Royal blue is a trade name for a sapphire of intense, saturated, even blue. It is not a single agreed standard.
- [Kashmir sapphire](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/kashmir-sapphire): A Kashmir sapphire is a blue sapphire from the Kashmir region on the India/Pakistan border. 'Kashmir blue' is a trade name for a deep, velvety blue, with no single agreed standard.
- [Padparadscha](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/padparadscha): Padparadscha is a sapphire of soft pinkish orange to orangey pink. Its tones are pastel and its saturation low to medium.
- [Hue](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary/hue): Hue is the basic color of a gem, such as red, blue or green. A second color can modify it, as in purplish red.

[All 328 terms](https://digitalgemology.com/learn/glossary)