Copic color numbers consist of 3 elements - letters representing the hue (dominant color family) and a set of digits, the first one indicating color saturation and the rest representing the brightness of the color.

Letters represent a rough hue (dominant color family).
Each letter is an acronym indicating a color family - R stands for 'red', B for 'blue', and BV for 'blue violet'.

* Regarding the E series - this series consists of muddy tones from R ('red') and YR ('yellow red') series. We named this series 'earth colors' so that it would be easier to select the brown tones.
* Regarding the achromatic gray colors - we considered each tone of gray as a part of a hue, and divided them into 4 groups according to their characteristics.
* Fluorescent colors have a letter F (acronym for 'flourescent') in their color number.
* Colorless 0 and black (1) are exceptions.

Next to the letters we have a digit representing color saturation. The degree of saturation is divided into 10 groups, starting from 0 and ending at 9. Colors whose numbers start with 0 have the highest transparency.
The higher the number (e.g. 1, 2 or 3), the lower the transparency is.
As for the colors whose numbers start with 4 or a higher digit - those were first divided according to their characteristics, such as level of darkness or muddiness, and then assigned an appropriate number.

The rest of the digits represent brightness of the color. Its levels are divided into 12 groups, with 000 representing the brightest colors and 9 - the darkest ones (colors become darker as their numbers become closer to 9).

All 358 Copic colors have their own unique names. The colors are usually named after very universal and commonly seen things, with which they can be easily associated, such as sky or various plants and flowers.