Generally, hardness refers to the quality or condition of being hard. Hardness also refers to the resistance of a metal or other material from being bent, dented or scratched by another object. Mohs scale of hardness is used to measure the relative hardness of minerals. Tals is the softest mineral on the scale and diamond is the hardest. Hardness and softness are present in all arts. In a painting the hardness of lines, dots and colors convey different meaning from the one conveyed by soft lines, dots and colors.