What is a color specification? One of three things. First, it might be a PostScript procedure as defined in a PostScript header file. The `color.pro' file defines 64 of these, including `Maroon'. This PostScript procedure must set the current color to be some value; in this case, `Maroon' is defined as `0 0.87 0.68 0.32 setcmykcolor'.
The second possibility is the name of a color model (initially, one of `rgb', `hsb', `cmyk', or `gray') followed by the appropriate number of parameters. When Dvips encounters such a macro, it sends out the parameters first, followed by the string created by prefixing `TeXcolor' to the color model. Thus, the color specification `rgb 0.3 0.4 0.5' would generate the PostScript code `0.3 0.4 0.5 TeXrgbcolor'. Note that the case of zero arguments is disallowed, as that is handled by the single keyword case (`Maroon') above, where no changes to the name are made before it is sent to the PostScript file.
The third and final type of color specification is a double quote followed by any sequence of PostScript. The double quote is stripped from the output. For instance, the color specification `"AggiePattern setpattern' will set the `color' to the Aggie logo pattern (assuming such exists.)