Color

Diamonds may come in any color of the rainbow. Except in the case of very rare and fancy colors, the less color in a diamond, the more valuable it is.

Although many diamonds appear not to have any body color at all, trace atomic elements other than carbon (C) may result in slight degrees of yellow, brown or gray body coloring. The color differences are often so slight that they are only detected by comparing them against a master set of laboratory graded diamonds.

As a rule, color differences are measured by international grading scales created by either the American Gemological Society (AGS) or the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). The highest grade for a colorless diamond is number “0” in the AGS system or letter “D” in the GIA system.