Tone

A colour softened with grey: less pure than the hue, quieter than either tint or shade. Where sophisticated palettes actually live.

Tones are hues with their voices lowered: grey folded in until the colour stops declaring and starts suggesting. Most palettes that read as expensive are toned, the saturated swatch survives in accents while the surfaces breathe in muted relatives of it.

Practically, tones are the peacekeepers of colour: saturated hues side by side vibrate and compete, toned versions of the same hues sit together like furniture. When a palette feels loud but no single colour is wrong, the fix is usually tonal, keep the hues, lower their purity, and let one accent keep its full voice.