7. An apparatus as recited in claim 6 , wherein: the data processing system is configured to facilitate forming said vocabulary of color names, including: obtaining at least one general set of essential color names, each essential color name having a corresponding color value; whereby each color name includes a hue descriptor, brightness modifier, and saturation modifier; and selecting a subset of said at least one general set in meeting an application desire for said vocabulary of color names.
6. An apparatus for employing a vocabulary of color names in assigning a color name to a pixel in a digital representation, comprising: a data processing system configured to facilitate forming said vocabulary of color names by obtaining at general set of essential color names, each essential color name having a corresponding color value, whereby each color name includes a hue descriptor, brightness modifier, and saturation modifier; and the data processing system configured to facilitate selecting a subset of said at least one general set in meeting an application desire for said vocabulary of color names, wherein the step of obtaining includes starting with a large number of arbitrary color names having corresponding color values and modify said color names through subjective experiments to obtain a general set that models human behavior in color naming the data processing system configured to facilitate providing said vocabulary of color names with a plurality of color prototypes, each said color prototype having a prototype color name and a corresponding prototype color value; the data processing system configured to facilitate comparing a pixel color value of said pixel to said prototype color value of each color prototype in the vocabulary, and obtaining a color match value for said each color prototype in the vocabulary; the data processing system configured to facilitate determining a closest color match value resulting from said step of comparing; and the data processing system configured to facilitate assigning to said pixel a particular prototype color name corresponding to said closest match value.