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How do you describe the crisp green glow of an emerald or the complex interplay between colours in a ruby?

Each gem is unique, so words cannot paint an accurate picture, and digital photographs do not capture their colour accurately. Now a technique to describe and record a jewel’s exact colour has been developed by Menahem Sevdermish of gem software company GemEwizard, based in Ramat Gan, Israel. The technique should vastly improve the buying and selling of precious stones online, and could also help to spot stolen gems. “It’s like the fingerprint of the stone,” he says.

Diamonds are commonly…

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