SC076 Understanding Color: Giordano Beretta Hewlett-Packard Co

SC076
Understanding Color
Giordano Beretta
Hewlett-Packard Co.
Friday, 06 Jun 2008

8:30AM to 5:30PM
In-Company Courses for US Patent and Trademark Office 2600

Alexandria, VA
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Table of contents
Course objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What is color? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.0.1 Color term categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.0.2 Subjective color terms — Hue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.0.3 Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.0.4 Lightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.0.5 Colorfulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.0.5.1 Colorfulness — Chroma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.0.5.2 Colorfulness — Saturation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
1.1 Our goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
1.2 Spectral curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
1.2.1 Spectral color reproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
2 Color theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
2.0.1 Opponent colors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
2.0.2 Color theories (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
2.0.3 Color theories (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
2.1 Color vision is not based on a bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
2.1.1 Cognitive model for color appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
2.1.2 Memory colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
2.2 Color vision physiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
2.2.1 Photoreceptors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
2.2.1.1 Outer segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
2.2.2 Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
2.2.3 Catching photons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
2.2.4 Phototransduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
2.2.5 Catch probabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
2.2.6 Retinal mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
2.2.7 Parvocellular and magnocellular pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
2.2.8 Color constancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
2.3 Limited knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
2.3.1 1 color appears as 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
2.4 Basis for colorimetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
3 Colorimetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
3.1 Color matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
3.1.1 Color-matching functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
3.1.2 Metameric stimuli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
3.1.2.1 Kinds of metamerism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
3.2 Chromaticity diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
3.2.1 Imaginary color stimuli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
3.3 CIE 1931 standard colorimetric observer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
3.3.0.1 CIE 1931 Observer (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
SC076 — Understanding Color 1

3.4 Tristimulus normalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
4 Objective color terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
4.1 Y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
4.1.1 Excitation purity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
4.1.2 Chromaticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
4.2 Uniformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
4.2.1 Uniform chromaticity diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
4.2.2 CIELAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
4.2.3 Color difference formulæ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
4.3 Color spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
4.3.1 Colorimetric spaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
4.3.1.1 Colorimetric spaces (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
4.3.2 Uniform color spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
4.3.3 Visually scaled color spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
4.3.4 Color spaces defined by an atlas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
4.4 Uniform discretization errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58
5 Color imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
5.1 Luma-chroma spaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
5.2 RGB separations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
5.3 CIELAB separations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
5.4 Chroma subsampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
6 Illumination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
6.1 Light sources of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
6.2 CIE standard illuminants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
6.3 CIE standard sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
7 Measuring color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
7.1 Trusting your instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
7.2 Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
7.3 Effect of variability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
7.4 Geometries of illumination and viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
8 Color reproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
8.0.1 Reproduction modes (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
8.1 Additive and substractive color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
8.1.1 The additive method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
8.1.2 The subtractive method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
8.1.3 Dithering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
8.2 Scan — think — print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
8.2.1 Managed color reproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
9 Milestones in color printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
9.0.1 Color printing milestones (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
9.0.2 Color printing milestones (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
10 Color image communication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
10.1 Lossless coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
10.2 Palette color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86
10.2.1 Color palettes (mapped color) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
2 SC076 — Understanding Color

10.3 JPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
10.4 Mixed Raster Content — background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
10.4.1 Mixed Raster Content — solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
10.4.2 Mixed Raster Content — overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
10.4.3 Mixed Raster Content — model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
10.4.4 Internet fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
10.4.4.1 Internet fax — configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94
10.4.5 IPP — Internet Printing Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
10.4.5.1 IPP — Internet Printing Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
10.5 Document ecosystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
11 Color appearance modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98
11.1 Cognitive context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
11.2 CIECAM02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
11.3 The color selection problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
11.4 The gamut mapping problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
12 Color image communication synopsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
13 Color space support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
14 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
15 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
16 Short color dictionary (CIE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
17 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116
SC076 — Understanding Color 3

4 SC076 — Understanding Color
Understanding
Color
Giordano Beretta
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
http://www.inventoland.net/imaging/uc/
Alexandria 2008
Course objectives 1
• Develop a systematic understanding of the principles of color

perception and encoding
• Understand the differences between the various methods for
color imaging and communication
• Gain a more realistic expectation from color reproduction
• Develop an intuition for
• trade-offs in color reproduction systems
• interpreting the result of a color measurement
G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

What is color? 2
• Color is an illusion
• Colorimetry: the art to predict an illusion from a physical
measurement
• Experience is much more important than knowing facts or
theories
• The physiology of color vision is understood only to a very small
degree
• Physiology: physical stimulus → physiological response
• Psychophysics: physical stimulus → behavioral response
What is essential is invisible to the eye

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)
1 Terminology 3
CIE definition 845-02-18: (perceived) color
Attribute of a visual perception consisting of any combination of chromatic and

achromatic content. This attribute can be described by chromatic color names such
as yellow, orange, brown, red, pink, green, blue, purple, etc., or by achromatic color
names such as white, gray, black, etc., and qualified by bright, dim, light, dark etc.,
or by combinations of such names
Perceived color depends on the spectral distribution of the color stimulus, on the
size, shape, structure and surround of the stimulus area, on the state of adaptation
of the observer’s visual system, and on the observer’s experience of the prevailing
and similar situations of observation
Perceived color may appear in several modes of appearance.
The names for various modes of appearance are intended to
distinguish among qualitative and geometric differences of
color perceptions

1.0.1 Color term categories 4
Subjective color term: A word used to describe a color attribute
perceived by a human. Example: the colorfulness of a flower
Objective color term: A word used to describe a physical quantity
related to color that can be measured. Example: the energy radiated
by a source
We use objective color terms as correlates to subjective color terms
1.0.2 Subjective color terms — Hue 5

Hue: The attribute of a color perception denoted by blue, green,
yellow, red, purple, and so on
hue scale
Unique hue: A hue that cannot be further

described by use of the hue names other than
its own. There are four unique hues, each of
which shows no perceptual similarity to any of
the others: red, green, yellow, and blue

1.0.3 Brightness 6
Brightness: The attribute of a visual sensation according to which a

given visual stimulus appears to be more or less intense, or according
to which the visual stimulus appears to emit more or less light
Objective term: luminance (L)
brightness scale
1.0.4 Lightness 7
Lightness: The attribute of a visual sensation according to which the

area in which the visual stimulus is presented appears to emit more
or less light in proportion to that emitted by a similarly illuminated
area perceived as a “white” stimulus
Objective terms: luminance factor (β), CIE lightness (L*)
• Brightness is absolute, lightness is relative to an area perceived

as white

1.0.5 Colorfulness 8
Chromaticness or Colorfulness: The attribute of a visual sensation

according to which an area appears to exhibit more or less of its hue.
In short: the extent to which a hue is apparent
Objective term: CIECAM02 M
1.0.5.1 Colorfulness — Chroma 9
Chroma: The attribute of a visual sensation which permits a

judgement to be made of the degree to which a chromatic stimulus
differs from an achromatic stimulus of the same brightness
In other words, chroma is an attribute orthogonal to brightness: absolute
colorfulness; we perceive a color correctly independently of the
illumination level
Objective term: CIE chroma (C*uv, C*ab)

1.0.5.2 Colorfulness — Saturation 10
Saturation: The attribute of a visual sensation which permits a
judgement to be made of the degree to which a chromatic stimulus
differs from an achromatic stimulus regardless of their brightness
In other words, it is the colorfulness of an area judged in proportion to its
brightness: relative colorfulness; we can judge the uniformity of an object’s
color in the presence of shadows and independently of the incident light’s
angle
Objective terms: purity (p), CIE saturation (Suv)
saturation scale
Colorfulness is absolute, chroma is relative to a white area and absolute

w.r.t. brightness, saturation is in proportion to brightness
1.1 Our goal 11

• We would like to be able to predict the color of a sample by
making a measurement
• Humans can distinguish about 7 to 10 million different colors —
just name them and build an instrument that identifies them
• Task: find good correlates to the subjective color terms
• Some observations:
• If you want to buy a skirt or a pair of slacks to match a jacket, you cannot
match the color by memory — you have to take the jacket with you
• Just matching in the store light is insufficient, you have to match also
under the incandescent light in the dressing room and outdoors
• You always get the opinion of your companion or the store clerk
• Three fundamental components of measuring color:

• light sources
• samples illuminated by them
• observers

1.2 Spectral curves 12
quantities we can measure
• The spectral power curve gives at each wavelength the power (in watts), i.e.,
the rate at which energy is received from the light source
• The spectral reflectance curve gives at each wavelength the percentage of
incident light that is reflected
0.40
reflectance
human complexion
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 nm
1.2.1 Spectral color reproduction 13

• By spectral color reproduction we intend the physically correct
reproduction of color, i.e., the duplication of the original
object's spectrum
• The general reproduction methods (micro-dispersion and
Lippmann) are too impractical for normal use
• For some special applications like painting restoration or
illuminant reconstruction, the spectrum may be sampled at a
small number of intervals and combined with principal
component analysis
• Fortunately, spectral color reproduction is required only in rare
cases, such as paint swatches in catalogs, and in this cases it is
often possible to use identical dyes
Our aim is to achieve a close effect for a normal viewer under average
viewing conditions
Mathematically: build a simple model of color vision

2 Color theories 14
• 800 B.C.E. — Indian Upanishads
• there are relations among colors
• 400 B.C.E. — Hellenic philosophers

• Plato: light or fire rays emanate from the eyes
• Epicurus: replicas of objects enter the eyes
• First Millennium — Arab school, pure science

• Abu Ali Mohammed Ibn al Hazen: image is formed
within the eye like in a camera obscura
• 15th century — Renaissance, technology

• Leonardo da Vinci:
• color perception
• color order system
• black & white are colors
• 3 pairs of opponent colors (black–white, red–green, yellow–blue)
• simultaneous contrast
• used color filters to determine color mixtures
2.0.1 Opponent colors 15

W
Y
R
G W
B Y
Y
K
G
R
B
K
G R
Note: rendered with chiaro-scuro technique

2.0.2 Color theories (cont.) 16
• 18th century — Enlightenment, physics & chemistry

• Isaac Newton:
• spectral dispersion, white can be dispersed in a spectrum by a prism
• colors of objects relate to their spectral reflectance
• light is not colored and color perception is elicited in the human visual
system
• 19th century — scientific discovery

• Thomas Young: trichromatic theory
• Hermann von Helmholtz: spectral sensitivity curves
• Ewald Hering:
• opponent color theory (can explain hues, saturation, and why there is
no reddish green or yellowish blue)
• black and dark gray are not produced by the absence of light but by a
lighter surround
2.0.3 Color theories (cont.) 17
• 20th century — advanced scientific instruments

• Johannes A. von Kries: chromatic adaptation
• why is white balance necessary?
• Georg Elias Müller & Erwin Schrödinger: zone theory
• physiological evidence for inhibitory mechanisms becomes available in the
1950s
• molecular biology
• functional MRI techniques
• see http://webvision.med.utah.edu/ for the latest progress

2.1 Color vision is not based on a bitmap 18
• Vision is based on contrast
• Vision is not hierarchical. The simple model
distal event
↓
proximal stimulus
↓
brain event
is very questionable. It is believed that feedback loops exist between all 26
known areas of visual processing
• In fact, it has been proved that a necessary condition of some activity in even
the primary visual cortex is input from “higher” areas
• Like the other sensory systems, vision is narcissistic
• Many sensory signals are non-correlational — a given signal does not always
indicate the same property or event in the world
The “inner eye’s” function is not to understand what the sensory
states indicate
Science 17 March 2006: Vol. 311. no. 5767, pp. 1606 - 1609
2.1.1 Cognitive model for color appearance 19

stimulus detectors early mechanisms pictorial register
color
edges
contour
motion
depth
…
context parameters
chroma
etc.
hue
Color lexicon lightness
chroma internal
etc.
color space
amber hue
lightness
action color name apparent color

representation
• Reliable color discrimination: 1 week

• Color-opponent channels: 3 months
• Color constancy: 4 months
• Internal color space
• Color names
2.1.2 Memory colors 20
• Vision is not hierarchical
• Delk & Fillenbaum experiment (1965)
• We tend to see colors of familiar objects as we expect them to be

Surround
10º
Sky
Complexion
2º
Adapting
field
Vegetation
2.2 Color vision physiology 21

• The retina has a layer of photoreceptors, which grow like hair (10μm per day).
They are of two kinds: rods and cones
• The cones are of three kinds, depending on the pigments they contain. One
pigment absorbs reddish light, one absorbs greenish light, and one absorbs
bluish light
• This leads to the method of trichromatic color reproduction, in which we try to
stimulate independently the three kinds of cones
s
ell m
b ers o nc lls cells s he
liu
fi gl i
e l ls s c e i t
rve an ec cel
l
tal ne one t ep
c ne a lg c rin l ar z on & co s & c men
ti in a o r i d
op ret am bip ho ro rod pig
stimulus

2.2.1 Photoreceptors 22

Credit: Carlos Rozas (CanalWeb, Chile) http://webvision.med.utah.edu/movies/3Drod.mov
2.2.1.1 Outer segment 23
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/movies/discs.mov
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/movies/phago4.mov
Credit: Helga Kolb

2.2.2 Evolution 24
• From the difference in the amino-acid sequences for the various
photoreceptor genes it is clear that the human visual system did not evolve
according to a single design
Finding Rod and S Mechanisms L and M Mechanisms
Distribution perifoveal foveal

Anatomy one class two classes
Bipolar circuitry
(only on) (on and off)
Spatial resolution low high
Temporal resolution low high
Psychophysics
Weber fraction high low
Wavelength sensitivity short medium
Response function saturates does not saturate
Latencies long short
ERG-off-effect negative positive
Electrophysiology
Ganglion cell response afterpotential no afterpotential
Receptive field large small
Vulnerability high low
Genetics autosomal sex-linked
Source: Eberhart Zrenner, 1983
2.2.3 Catching photons 25

• Retinal pigments: rhodopsin, cyanolabe, chlorolabe, erythrolabe
• lysine attaches chromophore to a protein backbone
• electronic excitation (two-photon catch) initiates a large shift in electron
density in less than 10–15 seconds
• shift activates rotation around two double-bonded carbon atoms in the
backbone
• entire photocycle lasts less than a picosecond (10–12 sec.)
• photoisomerization induces shift in positive charge perpendicular to
membrane sheets containing the protein
• this generates a photoelectric signal with a less than 5 psec. rise time
• forward reaction is completed in ~50 μsec. (10–6 sec.)
• Quantum efficiency: measure of the probability S harpe et al. ∑Human R ed, G reen, and R ed-G reen Hybrid C one P igments
that the reaction will take place after the

absorption of a photon of light
• 4 pigments sensitized to photons at 4 energy levels
(wavelength): L, M, S, and rods

2.2.4 Phototransduction 26
Credit: Helga Kolb,http://webvision.med.utah.edu/movies/trasduc.mov
2.2.5 Catch probabilities 27

• Quantum energy of a photon: hν
• For each pigment, there is a probability distribution for a reaction, depending
on the photon’s wavelength
• w(λ) dλ
• What counts is not the energy of a single photon, but the average
• For a spectral power distribution Pλ:
S = ∫ Pλ w(λ) dλ
absorbance
S-cone
1.0
M-cone
0.8
L-cone
0.6 Rod
0.4
0.2
nm
0.0
400 450 500 550 600 650
Dartnall, H. J. A., Bowmaker, J. K., & Mollon, J. D. (1983). Human visual pigments: microspectrophotometric results from
the eyes of seven persons. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 220, 115-130

2.2.6 Retinal mechanisms 28
Surround
Center
Surround
Retinal Amacrine Bipolar Horizontal Receptor

ganglion cell cell cell
cell
• Receptors in retina are not like pixels in a CCD

• Receptive field: area of visual field that activates a retinal ganglion
(H.K. Hartline, 1938)
• Center-surround fields allow for adaptive coding (transmit contrast instead of
absolute values)
• Horizontal cells presumed to inhibit either its bipolar cell or the receptors:
opponent response in red–green and yellow–blue potentials (G. Svaetichin,
1956)
• Balance of red–green channel might be determined by yellow
• Retinal ganglion can be tonic or phasic: pathway may also be organized by
information density or bandwidth
2.2.7 Parvocellular and magnocellular pathways 29

P– M–
Originating retinal ganglion cells Tonic Phasic
Fast (mostly transient responses, some sustained,

Temporal resolution Slow (sustained responses, low conduction velocity)
high conduction velocity)
Chromatic Luminance
Modulation dominance
Adaptation occurs at high frequencies Adaptation occurs at all frequencies
Receives mostly combined (broadband) input

Receives mostly opponent type input from cones
Color from M and L cones, both from the center and
sensitive to short and long wavelengths
from the surround of receptive fields
Contrast sensitivity Low (threshold > 10%) High (threshold < 2%)
LGN cell saturation Linear up to about 64% contrast At 10%
Spatial resolution High (small cells) Low (large cells)
When fixation is strictly foveal, extraction of high

spatial frequency information (test gratings), Responds to flicker
Spatio-temporal resolution reflecting small color receptive fields
Short integration time
Long integration time
Could be a site for both a lightness channel as for Might be a site for achromatic channels because
opponent-color channels. The role depends on the the spectral sensitivity is similar to Vλ, it is more
Relation to channels
spatio-temporal content of the target used in the sensitive to flicker, and has only a weak opponent
experiment color component
Possible main role in the visual Sustain the perception of color, texture, shape, and Sustain the detection of movement, depth, and
system fine stereopsis flicker

2.2.8 Color constancy 30
Optic
tract Lateral Primary Blob
geniculate visual
Optic cortex
body
radiations
• Axons of retinal ganglion cells in optical nerve terminate at LGN and synapse
with neurons radiating to striate cortex
• LGN might generate masking effects; combination with saccadic motion of eye
• Blobs in area 17 consist mainly of double opponent cells
• May be site for color constancy
• Requires input from V4 (Zeki)
Why is white balancing necessary in color reproduction?
2.3 Limited knowledge 31
• Reaction time at rhodopsin level: femtoseconds

• Reaction time at perceptual level: seconds
• From photon catches to constant color names
We do not know exactly what happens in-between
• Examples: simultaneous contrast, chromatic induction

2.3.1 1 color appears as 2 32
Appearance mode
Three flat objects or picture of a white cube illuminated from the top and right?
2.4 Basis for colorimetry 33

• Too many unknowns in physiology and cognitive processes
• Cannot yet build accurate color vision model
• Unlike auditory system, visual system is not spectral but
integrative
• Advantage of integrative system: metamerism
• Basis of colorimetry:
1. Instead of a physiological model, build a psychophysical model
• Physiology:
physical stimulus → physiological response
• Psychophysics:
physical stimulus → behavioral response
2. Assume additivity
3. Keep the viewing conditions constant

3 Colorimetry 34
Colorimetry is the branch of color science concerned with specifying
numerically the color of a physically defined visual stimulus in such a
manner that:
1. when viewed by an observer with normal color vision, under the
same observing conditions, stimuli with the same specification
look alike,
2. stimuli that look alike have the same specification, and
3. the numbers comprising the specification are functions of the
physical parameters defining the spectral radiant power
distribution of the stimulus
Trichromatic generalization: over a wide range of conditions of
observation, many color stimuli can be matched in color completely
by additive mixtures of three fixed primary stimuli whose radiant
powers have been suitably adjusted (proportionality). In addition,
the color stimuli combine linearly, symmetrically, and transitively
Grassmann’s laws of additive color mixture
3.1 Color matching 35

Colors are assessed by matching them with reference colors on a
small-field bipartite screen:

3.1.1 Color-matching functions 36
Given a monochromatic stimulus Qλ of wavelength λ, it can be written as
Qλ = RλR + GλG + BλB,
where Rλ, Gλ, and Bλ are the spectral tristimulus values of Qλ
Assume an equal-energy stimulus E whose mono-chromatic constituents are Eλ
(equal-energy means Eλ ≡ 1)
The equation for a color match involving a mono-chromatic constituent Eλ
of E is
Eλ = r(λ)R + g(λ)G + b(λ)B,
where r(λ), g(λ), and b(λ), are the spectral tristimulus values of Eλ. The sets
of such values are called color-matching functions
3.0
Stiles-Burch (1955;1959)
2.5
2.0 b(λ)
1.5 g(λ)
1.0 r(λ)
0.5
0.0
nm
-0.5
400 500 600 700
3.1.2 Metameric stimuli 37

Consider two color stimuli
Q1 = R1R + G1G + B1B
Q2 = R2R + G2G + B2B
0.6
reflectance
If Q1 and Q2 have
different spectral radiant 0.5
D
power distributions, but C
R1 = R2 and G1 = G2 and B1 0.4 B
= B2, the two stimuli are A
called metameric stimuli 0.3
• Color reproduction 0.2

works because of
metamerism 0.1
nm
0.0
400 500 600 700

3.1.2.1 Kinds of metamerism 38
• Illuminant metamerism
• example: daylight and a D65 simulation fluorescent lamp
• Object metamerism
• example: metameric inks (see metamerism kit)
• Sensor metamerism
• example: scanner and human visual system
• Complex metamerism
• example: two inks metameric under two illuminants
3.2 Chromaticity diagrams 39

We can normalize the color-matching functions and thus obtain new
quantities
r (λ) = r (λ) / [r (λ) + g(λ) + b(λ)]
g(λ) = g(λ) / [r (λ) + g(λ) + b(λ)]
b(λ) = b(λ) / [r (λ) + g(λ) + b(λ)]
with r(λ) + g(λ) + b(λ) = 1 2.0
g(m)
The locus of chromaticity points 1.5
for monochromatic colors so

determined is called the spectrum 1.0 2° pilot group
Stiles-Burch (1955)
locus in the (r, g)-chromaticity
diagram 0.5
r(m)
0.0
-1.2 -1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
-0.5

3.2.1 Imaginary color stimuli 40
• The fact that the color-matching functions and the chromaticity coordinates
can be negative presents a problem when the tristimulus values are computed
from a spectral radiant power distribution
• Because the color-
matching space is spectrum locus
linear, a linear
transformation can 2.0
be applied to the
primary stimuli to A: ~2856˚K
obtain new 1.5 Planckian locus
imaginary stimuli D65: ~6504˚K
that lie outside the ∞

chromaticity region 1.0
bounded by the
spectrum locus. This
ensures that the
0.5 z2(λ)
chromaticity y2(λ)
coordinates are x2(λ)
never negative nm
0.0
400 500 600 700 800
3.3 CIE 1931 standard colorimetric 41

observer
We want to obtain results valid for the group of normal trichromats
(95% of population)
Because
R = ∫ P λ r (λ ) d λ , G = ∫ Pλ g(λ) dλ, B = ∫ Pλ b(λ) dλ,
an ideal observer can be defined by specifying values for the color-

matching functions
The Commission Internationale de l'Éclairage (CIE) has
recommended such tables containing x(λ), y(λ), z(λ)
for λ ∈ [360 nm, 830 nm] in 1 nm steps

3.3.0.1 CIE 1931 Observer (cont.) 42
In addition to the color-matching properties, the CIE 1931 Standard
Observer is such that it has also the heterochromatic brightness-
matching properties. The latter is achieved by choosing y (λ) to
coincide with the photopic luminous efficiency function
X and Z are on the alychne, which in the chromaticity diagram is

a straight line on which are located the chromaticity points of
all stimuli having zero luminance
The data is based averaging the results a) on color matching in a 2°

field of 17 observers and b) the relative luminances of the colors of
the spectrum, averaged for about 100 observers
3.4 Tristimulus normalization 43
• X, Y, and Z are defined up to a common normalization factor. This factor is

different for objects and for emissive sources
• The perfect reflecting diffuser is an ideal isotropic diffuser with a reflectance
equal to unity
• The perfect reflecting diffuser is completely matt and is entirely free from any
gloss or sheen. The reflectance is equal to unity at all wavelengths
• When the tristimulus values are measured with an instrument, YL represents a
photometric measure, such as luminance. For object surfaces it is customary to
scale X, Y, Z, so that Y = 100 for the perfect diffuser
In practice a working standard such as a BaSO4 plate or a ceramic tile is used in lieu of the perfect
diffuser
• For emissive sources there is no illuminant and therefore the perfect diffuser is
not relevant. So it is customary to use the photometric measures

4 Objective color terms 44
quantities we can measure
Dominant wavelength: Wavelength of the monochromatic stimulus

that, when additively mixed in suitable proportions with a specified
achromatic stimulus, matches the color stimulus considered
(In disuse, replaced by chromaticity)
Luminance: The luminous intensity in a given direction per unit projected

area
L v = K m ∫ L e, λ V ( λ ) dλ
λ
where Km is the maximum photopic luminous efficacy (683 lm W–1), Le,λ the
radiance, and V(λ) the photopic efficiency
Luminance factor: The ratio of the luminance of a color to that of a

perfectly reflecting or transmitting diffuser identically illuminated
Symbol: β
4.1 Y 45
Y stimulus (luminosity in some literature): In the XYZ system the

luminance depends entirely on the Y stimulus. The Y values of any
two colors are proportional to their luminances. Therefore, Y gives
the percentage reflection or transmission directly, where a perfectly
reflecting diffuser or transmitting color has a value of Y = 100
Y = V
where V is the luminance of the stimulus computed in accordance
with the luminous efficiency function V(λ)
Application: conversion of a color image to black and white

4.1.1 Excitation purity 46
Excitation purity: A measure of the proportions of the amounts of

the monochromatic stimulus and of the specified achromatic
stimulus that, when additively mixed, match the color stimulus
considered
(In disuse, replaced by chromaticity)
x – xw y – yw
p c = ------------------ or p c = ------------------
xb – xw yb – yw
where w denotes the achromatic stimulus and b the boundary color
stimulus
4.1.2 Chromaticity 47
Chromaticity: Proportions of the amounts of three color-matching stimuli

needed to match a color (see p. 39).
Relationship between chromaticity coordinates r(λ), g(λ), b(λ) and x(λ), y(λ),
z(λ) of a given spectral stimulus of wavelength λ are expressed by the
projective transformation
0.49000r ( λ ) + 0.31000g ( λ ) + 0.20000b ( λ )

x ( λ ) = -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.66697r ( λ ) + 1.13240g ( λ ) + 1.20063b ( λ )
0.17697r ( λ ) + 0.81240g ( λ ) + 0.01063b ( λ )
y ( λ ) = -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.66697r ( λ ) + 1.13240g ( λ ) + 1.20063b ( λ )
0.00000r ( λ ) + 0.01000g ( λ ) + 0.99000b ( λ )
z ( λ ) = -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.66697r ( λ ) + 1.13240g ( λ ) + 1.20063b ( λ )

4.2 Uniformity 48
• The X, Y, Z tristimulus
coordinates allow us to
decide if two colors match in
y
a given context. If there is 520
no match, it does not tell us 0.8

530
540
how large the perceptual 510
550
Stiles Line Element
mismatch is Ellipses plotted 3 x
560
0.6
• Consequently, the CIE 1931 500
570
chromaticity diagram is not 580
a perceptually uniform 0.4

590
600
chromaticity space from 610
620
which the perception of 490 630
700
chromaticity can be derived 0.2

x = X ⁄ (X + Y + Z), 480
y = Y ⁄ (X + Y + Z), 470
x+y+z = 1
0
460 x
45
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
4.2.1 Uniform chromaticity diagram 49

• The CIE 1976 UCS (Uniform Chromaticity Scale) chromaticity diagram is
perceptually uniform
u' = 4X ⁄ ( X + 15Y + 3Z ) = 4x ⁄ ( – 2x + 12y + 3 )
v' = 9Y ⁄ ( X + 15Y + 3Z ) = 9y ⁄ ( – 2x + 12y + 3 )
0.6 v'
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
u'
0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

4.2.2 CIELAB 50
1976 CIE L*a*b* color space
• CIE 1976 lightness, L*

• A non-linear function to provide a measure that correlates with lightness more
uniformly
• Similar lightness distribution to the Munsell Value scale
L* = 116 ⋅ 3 Y ⁄ Y n – 16
• Tangential near origin
• Two color opponent channels a*, b*
a* = 500 ⋅ { 3 X ⁄ X n – 3 Y ⁄ Y n }
b* = 200 ⋅ { 3 Y ⁄ Y n – 3 Z ⁄ Z n }
• Xn, Yn, Zn: reference white
• D50: 96.422, 100, 82.521; D65: 95.047, 100, 108.883
• von Kries type adaptation
4.2.3 Color difference formulæ 51

• The CIE has defined two uniform color spaces, 1976 CIE L*u*v* and 1976 CIE
L*a*b* in which the difference of two color stimuli can be measured
• u* and v* (but not a* and b*) are coordinates on a uniform chromaticity
diagram. The third dimension is the psychometric lightness
2 2
C* ab = a* + b*
h ab = atan ( b* ⁄ a* )
ΔL* ⎞ 2 ⎛ ΔC* ab ⎞ 2 ⎛ ΔH* ab ⎞ 2

⎛ ----------------
ΔE* 94 = + ----------------- + ⎝ -----------------⎠
⎝k ⋅ S ⎠ ⎝k ⋅ S ⎠ kH ⋅ SH
L L C C
SL = 1
S C = 1 + 0.045 ⋅ C* ab
S H = 1 + 0.015 ⋅ C* ab
kL = kC = kH = 1
4.3 Color spaces 52
color model operators
• device dependent spaces

• counts received from or sent to a device
• typically RGB counts or CMYK percentages
• device independent spaces

• human visual system related
• counts for an idealized device
• colorimetric spaces
• analytically derived from the CIE colorimetry system
• uniform spaces
• Euclidean, with a distance metric
• visually scaled spaces

• spaces defined by an atlas
4.3.1 Colorimetric spaces 53

XYZ + basis for all other CIE color spaces
– non-uniform
RGB + can be produced by additive devices
+ linear transformation of XYZ
– non-uniform
R 0.019710 – 0.005494 – 0.002974 X

e.g., G = – 0.009537 0.019363 – 0.000274 Y
B 0.000638 – 0.001295 0.009816 Z
matrix elements are the primary colors
sRGB + contains non-linearity typical for PC CRTs
+ easy to implement
– non-uniform and non-linear
CIELAB + most uniform CIE space
+ widely used in the printing industry
– cubic transformation

4.3.1.1 Colorimetric spaces (cont.) 54
CIELUV + simple transformation of XYZ
+ uniform
+ related to YUV (PAL, SECAM)
– less uniform than CIELAB
YIQ + used for NTSC encoding
+ black and white compatible
– contains gamma correction
– non-uniform
YES, YCC + linear transformations of XYZ
+ black and white compatible
+ opponent color models
– less uniform than CIELAB and CIELUV
– YCC contains gamma correction
– private standards
L*C*hab + has perceptual correlates
+ good for gamut mapping
+ perceptually uniform
– cylindrical
– not uniform for compression
4.3.2 Uniform color spaces 55

• Munsell
• perceptually uniform
• based on atlas
• CIELAB
• colorimetric
• CIELUV
• colorimetric
• OSA
• based on atlas
• Coloroid
• æstetically uniform
• based on atlas

4.3.3 Visually scaled color spaces 56
• Munsell
• based on atlas
• OSA
• based on atlas
• Coloroid
• æstetically uniform
• based on atlas
• NCS
• atlas with uniform coordinates
• not perceptually uniform
4.3.4 Color spaces defined by an atlas 57
• Munsell
• OSA
• Coloroid
• NCS
• Scandinavian, popular in Europe
• RAL
• German, popular in Europe
• Pantone
• popular in the U.S.A.
• Many atlases defined by government agencies, industrial

associations, companies

4.4 Uniform discretization errors 58
Cartesian coordinates (e.g.,
CIELAB):
Cylindrical coordinates (e.g., L*C*hab):
5 Color imaging 59
Application
Protocol
Format
Compression
Color image
Requirement for digital color imaging

• The total size of a page should be such it can be transferred quickly
• Therefore, the color space must compress well

5.1 Luma-chroma spaces 60
L fR ( R )
C1 = A ⋅ f ( G )
G
C2 fB ( B )
YIQ YUV YC1C2
NTSC EBU SMPTE CCIR sRGB

XYZ RGB RGB RGB 709
Photo
CIELAB YES YCC
5.2 RGB separations 61
G B
• Allow quick display — no processing necessary

• Unsuitable for color image communication — separations not decorrelated

5.3 CIELAB separations 62
L*
a* b*
5.4 Chroma subsampling 63
L*
b* a*

6 Illumination 64
• The spectral power distribution of the light reflected to the eye
by an object is the product, at each wavelength, of the object's
spectral reflectance value by the spectral power distribution of
the light source
CWF Complexion
400 500 600 700 400 500 600 700 400 500 600 700
Incident SPD x Reflectance curve = Reflected SPD
Deluxe Complexion
CWF
400 500 600 700 400 500 600 700 400 500 600 700
6.1 Light sources of interest 65
• At the beginning of color perception there is radiant energy
• Treatment in color science is slightly different from what we

learned in high school physics — it can be limited to the visible
domain
• The spectral power distribution of a tungsten filament lamp

depends primarily on the temperature at which the filament is
operated
• Typical average daylight has a color temperature of 6504˚K,

which can be achieved also by Artificial Daylight fluorescent
lamps, a.k.a. North-light or Color Matching lamps

6.2 CIE standard illuminants 66
• CIE standard illuminant A 300
represents light from a full

(or blackbody) radiator at 250
relative radiant power

2854°K
200 D65
• CIE standard illuminant D65
A
represents a phase of natural
150
daylight with a correlated
color temperature of 6504°K
100
CIE standard illuminants B and C were intended to
represent direct sunlight with a correlated color
temperature of 4874°K resp. 6774°K. They are 50
being dropped because they are seriously deficient
in the UV region (important for fluorescent
materials) wavelength [nm]
0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
6.3 CIE standard sources 67
• Illuminant refers to a specific spectral radiant power distribution

incident to the object viewed by the observer
• Source refers to a physical emitter of radiant power, such as a
lamp or the sun and sky
• CIE illuminant A is realized by a gas-filled coiled-tungsten
filament lamp operating at a correlated color temperature of
2856°K
• There are no artificial sources for illuminant D65, due to the
jagged spectral power distribution. However, some sources
qualify as daylight simulators for colorimetry
• For more information see
http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/mostly_color/archive/2007/06/22/
HPPost3682.aspx

7 Measuring color 68
• There are no filters that approximate well the color matching functions
• There are no artificial sources for the popular illuminants D65 and D50
• Today’s hardware situation has changed dramatically
• Embedded processors are inexpensive
• Holographic gratings are inexpensive
• Light sources are highly efficient
• CCD sensors have much less dark noise
• It is better to perform spectral measurements and let the instrument do the
colorimetry
• Spectroradiometer: determine the reflected SPD
• Spectrophotometer: determine the reflectance curve
• see drawing on page 64 (Illumination)
• Because they are a closed system, spectrophotometers are very reliable
7.1 Trusting your instrument 69
Sooner or later all users enter a deep trust crisis in their instruments.
Some survival tips:
• Illuminate your work area with a source simulating your target illuminant
• see what the instrument “sees”
• Compact spectrophotometers have a very small geometry; perpendicularity
between optical axis and sample, as well as distance to the sample are critical
• maintain an uncluttered work space
• The instrument’s light source generates heat, which increases dark current
noise in the CCD and causes geometric deformations in the grating
• wait between measurements
• recalibrate
• at each session start
• after each pause
• after a long series of measurements,
• when the ambient temperature has changed by more than 5˚C

7.2 Calibration 70
White calibration: adjusts computational parameters so the calculated
tile’s reflectance curve is the same as the absolute reflectance curve
• do it often
Absolute certification: verifies that the measured color of the tile is

within the tolerance (e.g. 0.6 ΔE units) from the absolute color of the tile
• important for agreement between laboratories
Relative certification: verifies if the measured color of the tile is within

the tolerance (e.g. 0.3 ΔE units) from the initial color of the tile with the
same instruments
• important for reproducibility
Collaborative testing: verifies that the entire color measurement

procedure is in agreement with outside laboratories
Collaborative Testing Services Inc, 21331 Gentry Drive, Sterling, VA 20166, 571-434-1925
http://www.collaborativetesting.com/
7.3 Effect of variability 71
• A measurement is never perfect

• The effect of variability of color measurement is reduced by using multiple
measurements
• How many measurements should I make and average?
• Rule of thumb: 10× for each variability parameter
• instrument’s variability: measure each spot — 10×
• sample uniformity: repeat at several locations — 100×
• sample variability: repeat for several samples — 1000×
• …
• Follow ASTM standard practice E 1345 – 90 to determine how many
measurements are necessary in each case
• ASTM, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, West Conshohoken, PA 19428, 610-832-9585,
http://www.astm.org
• Improve all process aspects to minimize the required number of measurements
• ISO 9001

7.4 Geometries of illumination and 72
viewing
• On a glossy surface there are mirror-like (specular) reflections
• There are more reflections in the case of diffuse light sources
• Since the color of the illuminant is white, specular reflections add white, with
the effect of desaturating the color
• Non-metallic glossy surfaces look more saturated in directional than in diffuse
illumination
• Matte surfaces scatter the light diffusely — matte surfaces usually look less
saturated than glossy surfaces
• Most surfaces are between glossy and matte
• Diffuse illumination is provided by integrating spheres
• usually they are provided with gloss traps
• Instruments with 45/0 and 0/45 geometry are less critical
• ASTM recommendation for partly glossy samples:
• use the geometry that minimizes surface effects (usually the one that gives
lowest Y and highest excitation purity)
• 45/0 geometry gives rise to polarization problems
8 Color reproduction 73
In most cases, color reproduction is simple and inexpensive because
of metamerism
Spectral color reproduction: equality of spectral reflectance or SPD
• rarely needed
• paint samples, metamerism assessment
Colorimetric reproduction: equality of chromaticities and relative
luminances
• useful when viewing conditions are the same and light source is
the same
Exact reproduction: equality of chromaticities, absolute & relative
luminances
• useful when viewing conditions are identical

8.0.1 Reproduction modes (cont.) 74
Equivalent reproduction: same appearance of chromaticities,

absolute & relative luminances
• useful when the luminance level is the same
Corresponding reproduction: same appearance of chromaticities
and relative luminances when the luminance levels are the same
• current focus of research in color reproduction; CIECAM
Preferred reproduction: achieve more pleasing reproduction of
memory colors by departing from equality of appearance
8.1 Additive and substractive color 75

Mixing of colored lights vs. mixing of colorants
• Additive color: start with black and add primaries

• red green blue
• Substractive color: start with white and substract complements

of primaries
• cyan magenta yellow

8.1.1 The additive method 76
• Probable sensitivity absorbance

S-cone
1.0
curves of the human eye
M-cone
and the three best lights 0.8
for additive color L-cone
reproduction 0.6 Rod

• Note the strong overlap
0.4
in the orange-yellow
interval 0.2
• This means that correct
color reproduction 0.0 nm
400 450 500 550 600 650
cannot be achieved with
simple trichromatic methods, because there are always unwanted stimulations
• Hence, the trivial idea of stimulating the cones independently does not work
with a simple approach
8.1.2 The subtractive method 77

• The additive method has two major disadvantages when the set-up is not
light-emissive:
• the required filters significantly reduce the brightness of the image
• the reproduction of a mosaic can be tricky
• It is easier to generate colors from a beam of white light and varying the
proportions of reddish, green, and bluish parts
• On top to the unwanted stimulations, there is a problem with unwanted
absorptions, making the subtractive method even harder to master than the
additive method
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4 10%
50%
0.2
100%
0.0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6 10%
0.4 50%
0.2 100%
0.0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700
1.0
0.8
0.6 10%
0.4 50%
100%
0.2
0.0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700

8.1.3 Dithering 78
• Color is a usually represented with at least 8 bits per channel,
for 256 levels
• Some devices can display less levels
• mobile LCD displays often have only 6 bits per channel
• most printers have only 1 bit per channel
• Displays: temporal dithering

• Printers: spatial dithering, a.k.a. halftoning
8.2 Scan — think — print 79
• Because of the unwanted stimulations and absorptions, it is

practically impossible to engineer a color reproduction system
based on light and lenses producing satisfactory image quality
• Because of the large amount of data and lengthy computations,
digital systems are possible only slowly
• Initially, closed proprietary solutions
• Later, open solutions based on standards and a color
management system
• SWOP inks
• ICC profiles

8.2.1 Managed color reproduction 80
sRGB
PROFILE
profile maker
)##
spectro- business
negative
YCC TIJ printer
PROFILE
photometer
)##
PhotoCD CMYK
PROFILE
scanner
)##
graphic arts
CIELAB
TIJ printer
RGB
PROFILE
ICC profile
)##
RGB
PROFILE
graphic arts workstation
)##
scanner and archive digital
positive
proof printer
AdobeRGB
PROFILE
RGB
CMYK
PROFILE
)##
Inte
ICC profile
digital
)##
rne
camera display and platemaker or
t
softcopy direct press
CIELAB+sRGB any
ICC profile color rendering dictionary
repository raster image

(database) processor
9 Milestones in color printing 81

30,000 BCE: hand is commonly used as a stencil by holding it against
a cave wall and blowing powder on it
1457: Fust and Schöffer use colored metal plates
to print the Psalterium with colored initial
letters. They had to discover and solve the
problems of color trapping and registration
Breakthrough: mass-production of illuminated
books
1580–1644: during the Ming dynasty, techniques are perfected for
the mass-production of multicolored book illustrations
~1700: invention of the katagami stencil. The stencil’s loose
elements are connected with silk wires fine enough that ink
can flow around them, enabling the mass-production of fine
illustrations. Ukiyo-e — pictures of the floating world

9.0.1 Color printing milestones (cont.) 82
1719: Le Blon receives British patent 423 for inventing the
trichromatic printing principle. Yellow, red, blue plus black for
better gray balance and clean blacks
1797: Senefelder invents lithography, enabling the inclusion of a
large number of illustrations in very long run books like the
Encyclopédie
1816: Engelmann invents chromolithography; 6 to 19 partial colors,
sometimes even 24 and 30
1816: Young invents color filters, which will allow to separate color
images
1852: Fox Talbot invents concept of halftone screening
1879: Swan invents line screen
1888: Meisenbach invents crossline screen
9.0.2 Color printing milestones (cont.) 83

1910: invention of the panchromatic film emulsion, allowing the
use of Maxwell’s filters
From here on all effort goes into color correction (masking)
1937: Neugebauer proposes an eight-color analytical method based
on colorimetry
1948: Hardy and Wurzburg invent the scanner — electronic circuitry
is used to determine the color correction in one single step.
The 1941 Murray and Morse scanner just tried to simulate masking
Hardy and Wurzburg’s solved the Neugebauer equations
1957: Patent 2,790,844 — early effort towards gamut mapping

1977: Ichiro Endo receives U.S. patent 4,723,129 for thermal ink jet
technology
1987: Canon launches CLC-1 color copier
10 Color image communication 84
Application
Protocol
Format
Compression
Color image
10.1 Lossless coding 85

• Huffman coding
• Arithmetic coding
• LZ coding
• LZW coding (USP 4,558,302)
• Flate and deflate (IETF RFC 1951)
• Binary image compression
• Group 3 1-d (MH) and 2-d (MR)
• ITU-T Rec. T.4
• Group 4 (MMR)
• ITU-T Rec. T.6
• JBIG — progressive bi-level image compression
• ISO 11544 / ITU-T Rec. T.82
• ITU-T Rec. T.85 — application profile for fax
• ITU-T Rec. T.43 — bit-plane coding for color fax images using JBIG
• JBIG2 — lossy/lossless coding for bi-level images
• ISO 14492 / ITU-T Rec. T.88
• text halftone, and generic modes
• lossless JPEG
• lossless JPEG 2000

10.2 Palette color 86
Counting colors
• 24-bit pixels can represent 16 million colors
• Humans can distinguish 10 million colors
• A 2×3K image contains

6 million pixels
• A 512×512 image contains

250 thousand pixels
• A “typical” 5122 image has

26 thousand colors
• One byte can represent 256 colors
10.2.1 Color palettes (mapped color) 87

• Represent original colors by indices into a map with reduced set
of colors (paint by numbers)
• choose N colors (palette)
• image dependent (adaptive) or image independent (fixed)
• e.g., median cut
• quantize (map) original to palette colors
• use look-up table to map index to palette color
• may use dither in palettized image
quantize
original index
Q

10.3 JPEG 88
• No color space specification
• Baseline JPEG: 4 or less color components
• Colorimetric color representation is possible
• Full JPEG: 256 or less color components
• Discrete spectral color representation is possible
• Compression can be improved with chroma subsampling
JPEG 2000
• Wavelet-based follow-on to JPEG

• same committee, different contributors
• Single compression architecture
• continuous-tone and binary compression
• lossy, lossless, and lossy-to-lossless coding
• progressive rendering
• 1–256 color (spectral) components
10.4 Mixed Raster Content — background 89

T.6 T.4
black-and-white black-and-white
MMR text and line text and line MH
diagrams diagrams
T.85 in1
out
in1
out
in2 in2
JBIG
black-and-white
text, halftones,
stipples, line art, PSTN
and so on
Multiple, independent
compression methods—
T.42 T.43 each optimized for one
JPEG JBIG kind of image content
CIELAB CIELAB

10.4.1 Mixed Raster Content — solution 90
black-and-white
T.44
text & digrams
as before, Mixed
colored Raster
text Content
too
interchange
black-and-white
text and line
diagrams
black-and-white
text, halftones,
stipples, line art,
color text and
in1 and so graphics
on
in2 out
MRC is a method for using

multiple compression methods
in raster documents that contain
multiple kinds of content
10.4.2 Mixed Raster Content — overview 91
• MRC = Mixed Raster Content

• multi-layer model for representing compound images
• described in ITU-T Recommendation T.44
• originally proposed in joint Xerox/HP contribution
• efficient processing, interchange and archiving of raster-oriented pages
with a mixture of multilevel and bilevel images
• Technical approach
• segmentation of an image into multiple layers (planes), by image content
• use spatial resolution, color representation and compression method
matched to the content of each layer
• Compound image architecture

• framework for using compression methods
• Performance
• can achieve compression ratios of several 100 to 1 on typical documents

10.4.3 Mixed Raster Content — model 92
Image
3-layer model
black-and-white
text & digrams
colored text • Foreground
• multilevel, e.g., text color
bla • JBIG @ 12 bpp, 100 dpi
ck
red
• Mask
• bilevel, e.g., text shape
bla
tex ck-a
• MMR @ 1 bpp, 400 dpi
t n
co & dig d-wh
lor i
ed rams te
tex
• Background
t • multilevel, e.g., contone im.
• JPEG @ 24 bpp, 200 dpi
Image = M • FG + M’ • BG
10.4.4 Internet fax 93

What is it?
• Store-and-forward Internet fax

• scanned document transmission using e-mail attachments
• ITU-T standards and IETF protocols
• uses ESMTP with delivery confirmation and capabilities exchange
• ITU-T Recommendation T.37 — approved September 1999

• references IETF standards
• requires use of TIFF-FX
• Simple Mode — TIFF-FX Profile S: April 1999
• minimal b&w with no delivery confirmation or capability exchange
• Full Mode — TIFF-FX all profiles: September 1999
• range of b&w and color with delivery confirmation and capability
exchange

10.4.4.1 Internet fax — configurations 94
Internet
all-in-one
workstation
PSTN
on/off ramp fax
10.4.5 IPP — Internet Printing Protocol 95

What is it?
• Firewall problem
• IETF standard developed with help from the Printer Working
Group
• Client-server protocol for distributed printing on the Internet
• intended to replace LPR/LPD
• Uses HTTP 1.1 POST application protocol

• Internet media type: application/ipp

10.4.5.1 IPP — Internet Printing Protocol 96
Sample configurations
Client to printer
IPP
client IPP object
Client to server
IPP
client IPP object
10.5 Document ecosystems 97

Seamless office imaging
• Scanners, copiers, connected to Ethernet instead of computer

• Documents distributed via e-mail, fax servers, remote printers,
or ISV applications
HP 9100C Imaging
Service Application
write read
TCP/IP
image +
metadata
NOTIFY.DAT
HP 9100C Windows Shared Application

Digital Sender Server Disk Server
11 Color appearance modeling 98
• Recommended model: CIECAM02

• Do not use an appearance model when
• stimulus specification is simple (CIELAB, sRGB, …)
• simple color tolerances (CIE94)
• only one viewing condition
• it is not clear it will help
• What they allow you to do

• map from measurements to color names
• predict color matches across viewing conditions
• render color across media
• gain a deeper understanding of color
• no metric for color differences
11.1 Cognitive context 99
stimulus detectors early mechanisms pictorial register
color
edges
contour
motion
depth
…
context parameters
chroma
etc.
hue
Color lexicon lightness
chroma internal
etc.
color space
amber hue
lightness
action color name apparent color

representation

11.2 CIECAM02 100
• Conditions modeled
• adaptation
• discounting the illuminant
• surround effects
• Predictions missing from the model

• rod contributions
• color difference metric
• constant hue lines
• Helson-Judd effect
• Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect
• Graphical representation
• CIECAM02 is represented in cylindrical coordinates
• lightness J
• chroma C
• hue h
• trigonometric transformation necessary for plots
• Includes the 5 years of revisions since CIECAM97s
11.3 The color selection problem 101
Surround
10º
Background
Color
considered
2º
Adapting
field Proximal field
• This user interface problem cannot be solved without color appearance model
• Currently users converge towards their intended rendering by trial and error

11.4 The gamut mapping problem 102
b*
Printer
a*
Measure original Monitor
Compute appearance
CG Image
Gamut compression
Modify appearance (L*C*hab)
Compute colorant quantities
12 Color image communication synopsis 103

Application Internet Internet
Web Browsers Image Transfer Fax Printing
Protocol HTTP *TP IIP *TP ESMTP IPP
Format
HTML FlashPix JP2 TIFF-FX
other formats Profile Profile
via plug-ins C M supported
e.g., PDF, document
TIFF, SVG GIF PNG JFIF formats
Compression LZW flate JPEG JPEG JPEG 2000 MRC
palette JPEG
Color Space
Application
Protocol
Format
RGB sRGB ICC YCbCr sRGB Photo- sRGB, simple CIELAB binary
Compression
profile YCC Gray ICC profile
Color image

13 Color space support 104
by file format
LZW flate JPEG

GIF device RGB n/a n/a
PNG n/a device RGB, sRGB n/a
JFIF n/a n/a YCbCr
FlashPix n/a n/a PhotoYCC, sRGB
TIFF-FX Profile C n/a n/a CIELAB
PDF dev. RGB, dev. CMYK, cal. RGB, CIELAB, XYZ, ICC profiles
• LZW, flate for text, graphics, and indexed images

• JPEG for images
14 Conclusions 105
• What you should take home from this course:

• a more realistic expectation from color reproduction
• color is more an art than a science
• practice, practice, practice
• develop your intuition
• color reproduction algorithms could not be patented before the late 80s
• prior art is in the literature, not in the USPTO
• algorithms often wrapped in an apparatus
• how to interpret the result of a color measurement
• how to trust your instrument
• Acknowledgements:
• collaboration with Robert R. Buckley, Xerox Corporation
• metamerism test kits donated by X-Rite
• www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Giordano_Beretta/

15 Bibliography 106
• R.S. Berns. Billmeyer and Saltzman’s Principles of Color Technology. 3rd edition,
John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2000
• CIE Publ. No. 17.4. International Lighting Vocabulary. 1987
• J. Davidoff. Cognition through Color. The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1991
• M.D. Fairchild. Color Appearance Models. 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons,
Hoboken, 2005
• G.A. Gescheider. Psychophysics. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, 1985
• E.J. Giorgianni and Th.E. Madden. Digital Color Management. Prentice Hall
PTR, 1998, ISBN: 0201634260
• R.W.G. Hunt. Measuring Colour. 3rd edition, Fountain Press, Kingston-upon-
Thames, 1998
• R.W.G. Hunt. The Reproduction of Colour in Photography, Printing &
Television. 6th edition, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2004, ISBN: 0-470-02425-9
• R.S. Hunter and R.W. Harold. The Measurement of Appearance. 2nd edition,
John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1987
• P.K Kaiser and R.M. Boynton. Human Color Vision, Second Edition. Optical
Society of America, 1996 (original publication 1979)
• H.R. Kang. Color Technology for Electronic Imaging Devices. SPIE, Bellingham,
1997
• H.R. Kang. Digital Color Halftoning. SPIE, Bellingham, 1999

• H.R. Kang. Computational Color Technology. SPIE, Bellingham, 2006, ISBN: 0-
107
8194-6119-9
• Helga Kolb et al. Webvision—The Organization of the Retina and Visual
System. http://webvision.med.utah.edu/
• R.G. Kuehni. Color: An Introduction to Practice and Principles. John Wiley &
Sons, Chichester, 2000
• A. Nemcsics. Colour Dynamics—Environmental Colour Design. Akadémiai
Kiadó, Budapest, 1993
• R. Tilley. Colour and the Optical Properties of Materials. John Wiley & Sons,
New York, 1987
• R.L. van Renesse. Optical Document Security. Artech House, Boston, 2005
• H. Widdel and D.L. Post, Editors. Color in Electronic Displays. Plenum Press,
New York, 1992
• S.J. Williamson and H.Z. Cummins. Light and Color in Nature and Art. John
Wiley & Sons, New York, 1983
• G. Wyszecki and W.S. Stiles. Color Science: Concepts and Methods,
Quantitative Data and Formulæ. 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York,
2000, ISBN: 0-471-39918-3
• H. Zollinger. Color: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Helvetica Chimica Acta,
Zurich, 1999, ISBN: 3-906390-18-7

16 Short color dictionary (CIE)
English Italiano Deutsch Français Español
absorptance fattore di assorbimento Absoptionsgrad facteur d’absorption absortancia
absorption assorbimento Absorption absorption absorción
accommodation accomodamento Akkommodation accommodation acomodación
achromatic (perceived) colour colore acromatico unbunte Farbe couleur (perçue) achromatique color acromático (percibido)
actinism attimismo Aktinität actinisme actinismo
adaptation adattamento Adaptation adaptation adaptación
afterglow postluminescneza Nachleuchten postluminescence postluminiscencia
alychne alicne Alychne alychne alychne
aperture colour colore di apertura freie Farbe couleur-ouverture color-apertura (percibido)
base; cap attacco Sockel culot casquillo
binary hue tinta binaria Zwischenton teinte binaire tono binario

bright brillante hell lumineux luminoso
brightness (luminosity) brillanza Helligkeit luminosité luminosidad
bulb bulbo Kolben ampoule ampolla
chroma croma Buntheit chroma croma
chromatic adaptation adattamento cromatico Farbumstimmung adaptation chromatique adaptación cromática
chromatic (perceived) colour colore cromatico bunte Farbe couleur (perçue) chromatique color-cromático (percibido)
chromaticity cromaticità Farbart chromaticité cromaticidad
chromaticity coordinates coordinate tricromatiche Farbwertanteile coordonnées trichromatiques coordenadas de cromaticidad
chromaticity diagram diagramma colorimetrico Farbtafel diagramme de chromaticité diagrama de cromaticidad
SC076 — Understanding Color Alexandria, 6 June 2008 108

CIE 1931 standard colorimetric osservatore colorimetrico CIE farbmeßtechnischer Normalbe- observateur de référence colo- observador colorimétrico
observer 1931 obachter CIE 1931 rimétrique CIE 1931 patrón CIE 1931
CIE 1931 standard colorimetric sistema colorimetrico CIE 1931 CIE-Normvalenzsystem 1931 système de référence colorimé- sistema colorimétrico patrón
system trique CIE 1931 CIE 1931
CIE 1964 supplementary stan- osservatore colorimetrico sup- farbmeßtechnischer Großfeld- observateur de référence colo- observador colorimétrico
dard colorimetric observer plementare CIE 1964 Normalbeobachter CIE 1964 rimétrique supplémentaire CIE patrón CIE 1964
1964
CIE standard illuminants illuminanti CIE CIE-Normlichtarten illuminants normalisés CIE iluminantes patrones CIE
CIE standard sources sorgenti CIE CIE-Normlichtquellen sources normalisées CIE fuentes patrones CIE
CIELAB colour space spazio colorimetrico CIELAB CIELAB-Farbenraum espace chromatique CIELAB espacio de color CIELAB
colorimeter colorimetro Farbmeßgerät colorimètre colorímetro

colorimetric purity purezza colorimetrica spektraler Leuchdichteanteil pureté colorimétrique pureza colorimétrica
colorimetry colorimetria Farbmessung colorimétrie colorimetría
colour colore Farbe couleur color
colour equation equazione colorimetrica Farbabgleichung équation chromatique ecuación de color
colour matching uguagliamento di colori Farbabgleich égalisation de couleur igualación de color
colour rendering resa dei colori Farbwiedergabe rendu des couleurs rendimiento en color
colour solid solido dei colori Farbkörper solide des couleurs sólido de color
colour space spazio colorimetrico Farbenraum espace chromatique espacio de color
colour stimulus stimolo di colore Farbreiz stimulus de couleur estimulo de color
colour-matching functions funzioni colorimetriche Spektralwertfunktionen fonctions colorimétriques funciones de igualación del
color
colourfulness; chromaticness predominanza di colore … chromie; niveau de coloration colorido; cromacidad
cones coni Zapfen cônes conos
conspicuity visibilità Auffälligkeit évidence conspicuidad

contrast contrasto Kontrast contraste contraste
contrast sensitivity sensibilità al contrasto Unterscheidungsempfindlich- sensibilité au contraste sensibilidad de contrastre

keit
correlated colour temperature temperatura di colore prossi- ähnlichste Farbtemperatur température de couleur proxi- temperatura de color correla-
male male cionada
dark scuro dunkel sombre oscuro
dark current corrente di buio Dunkelstrohm courant d’obscurité corriente oscura
daylight luce diurna Tageslicht lumière du jour luz de dia
defective colour vision anomalia della visione dei Farbenfehlsichtigkeit dyschromatopsie; vision anor- visión de color anómala
colori male des couleurs
diffraction diffrazione Beugung diffraction difractión

diffuser diffusore Diffusor diffuseur difusor
diffusion factor indice di diffusione Streuvermögen facteur de diffusion factor de difusión
diffusion; scattering diffusione Streuung diffusion difusión
dim fioco dunkel obscur ténue
disability glare abbagliamento fisiologico physiologische Blendung ébloissement peturbateur deslumbramiento peturbador
discomfort glare abbagliamento psicologico psychologisce Blendung ébloissement inconfortable deslumbramiento molesto
dispersion dispersione Dispersion dispersion dispersión
dominant wavelength lunghezza d’onda dominante bunttongleiche Wellenlänge longueur d’onde dominante longitud de onda dominante
equal energy spectrum spettro di uguale energia energiegleiches Spektrum spectre équieenergétique espectro equienergético
excitation eccitazione Anregung excitation excitación
excitation purity purezza di eccitazione spektraler Farbanteil pureté d’excitation pureza de excitación
exposure meter esposimetro Belichtungsmesser posemètre exposímetro
filament filamento Leuchtdraht filament filamento

flash tube lampada lampo a scarico Blitzröhre lampe à éclats lámpara de destello electrónica
flicker sfarfallamento Flimmern papillotement parpadeo
fluorescence fluorescenza Fluoreszenz fluorescence fluorescencia
fluorescent lamp lampada fluorescente Leuchtstofflampe lampe à fluorescence lámpara fluorescente
fovea fovea Netzhautgrube fovea fóvea
fusion frequency frequenza critica di sfarfalla- Verschmelzungsfrequenz fréquence de fusion frecuencia de fusión
mento
glare abbagliamento Blendung éblouissement deslumbramiento
gloss lucentezza Glanz brillant; luisance brillo
glossmeter lucentimetro Glanzmesser luisancemètre brillómetro
hue tinta Buntton teinte; tonalité (chromatique) tono

illuminance illuminamento Beleuchtungsstärke éclairement (lumineux) iluminancia
illuminant illuminante Lichtart illuminant iluminante
incandescence incandescenza Glühen incandescence incandescencia
integrating sphere sfera integratrice Ulbrichtsche Kugel sphère intégrante esfera integrante
irradiance irradiamento Bestrahlungsstärke éclairement énergétique irradiancia
Lambertian surface superficie di Lambert vollkommen matte Fläche surface lambertienne superficie lambertiana
lamp lampada Lampe lampe lámpara
light chiaro hell clair claro
(perceived) light luce (wahrgenommenes) Licht lumière (perçue) luz (percibida)
light stimulus stimolo luminoso Lichtreiz stimulus lumineux estímulo luminoso
lighting; illumination illuminazione Beleuchtung éclairage iluminación
lightness chiarore Helligkeit clarté claridad

liquid crystal display; LCD visualizzatore a cristalli liquidi Flüssigkristallanzeige affichage à cristaux liquides visualizador de cristal liquido
luminaire apparecchio di illuminazione Leuchte luminaire luminaria
luminance luminanza Leuchtdichte luminance luminancia
luminous colour colore luminoso Lichtfarbe couleur-lumière (perçue) color-autoluminoso (percibido)
luminous efficiency fattore di visibilità visueller Nutzeffekt efficacité lumineuse relative eficiencia luminosa
luminous intensity intensità luminosa Lichtstärke intensité lumineuse intensidad luminosa
mesopic vision visione mesopica Dämmerungssehen vision mésopique visión mesópica
metameric colour stimuli stimuli di colore metamerici bedingt-gleiche Farbreize stimulus de couleur métamères estímulos metámeros
metamerism metamerismo Metamerie métamérisme
metamers metameri metamere Farbreize métamères estímulos metámeros
mixture of colour stimuli miscela di stimoli di colore Farbmischung mélande de stimulus de couleur mezcla de estímolos de color
neutral step wedge filtro grigio a gradini Graustufenfilter filtre neutre à transmission cuña neutra escalonada
échelonnée
neutral wedge filtro grigio a cuneo Graukeil coin photométrique cuña neutra
object-colour colore oggetto gebundene Farbe couleur-object color-objeto (percibido)
perfect reflecting diffuser diffusore perfetto per rifles- vollkommen mattweißes diffuseur parfait par réflexion difusor perfecto por reflexión
sione Medium bei Transmission
photometric standard campione fotometrico photometrisches Normal étalon photométrique patrón fotométrico
photonic vision visione fotopica Tagessehen vision photopique visión fotópica
Planckian locus luogo del corpo nero Planckscher Kurvenzug lieu des corps noirs lugar de los estímulos (de color)
planckianos
purple boundary retta degli stimoli porpora Purpurlinie limite des pourpres límite púrpura
purple stimulus stimolo porpora Purpurfarben stimulus pourpre estímulo (de color) púrpura
radiance radianza Strahldichte luminance énergétique; radiancia

radiance

radiant efficiency rendimento energetico Strahlungsausbeute rendement énergétique eficiencia radiante
radiant energy energia raggiante Strahlungsenergie énergie rayonnante (cantitad de) energia radiante
radiation radiazione Strahlung rayonnement; radiation radiación
reference colour stimuli stimoli primari di colore Primärvalenzen stimulus de couleur de réfé- estímulos de referencia
rence
reference illuminant illuminante di riferimento Bezugslichtart illuminant de référence iluminante de referencia
reflectance fattore di riflessione Reflexionsgrad facteur de réflexion reflectancia
reflection riflessione Reflexion réflexion reflexión
reflectivity … Eigenreflexionsgrad réflectivité reflectividad
refractive index indice di rifrazione Brechzahl indice de réfraction indice de refracción
related (perceived) colour colore relativo bezogene Farbe couleur (perçue) non isolée color dependiente (percibido)
responsivity; sensitivity sensibilità Empfindlichkeit sensibilité responsividad
retina retina Netzhaut rétine retina
rods bastoncini Stäbchen bâtonnets bastones
saturation saturazione Sättigung saturation saturación
scotopic vision visione scopotica Nachtsehen vision scotopique visión escotópica
single-coil filament filamento a spiralizzazione sem- Wendel filament à simple boudinage filamento en espiral
plice
skylight luce dal cielo Himmelslicht lumière du ciel luz del cielo
spectral distribution distribuzione spettrale spektrale Verteilung; densité spectrale; concentración espectral
Strahlungsfunktion reepartition spectrale
spectral luminous efficiency fattore spettrale di visibilità spektraler Hellempfindlich- efficacité lumineuse relative eficiencia luminosa espectral
keitsgrad spectrale relativa
spectral stimulus; monochro- stimolo monocromatico spektraler Farbreiz stimulus monoschomatique; estímulo (de color) espectral
matic stimulus stimulus spectral

spectrophotometer spettrofotometro Spektralphotometer spectrophotomètre espectrofotómetro
spectroradiometer spettroradiometro Spektralradiometer spectroradiomètre espectroradiómetro
spectrum spettro Spektrum spectre espectro
spectrum locus luogo spettrale Spektralfarbenzug lieu spectral lugar de los estímulos (de color)
espectrales
sunburn eritema solare Sonnenbrand coup de soleil quemadura solar
suntan abbronzatura Sonnenbräunung bronzage bronceado
surface colour colore superficiale Aufsichtfarbe couleur de surface color-superficie (percibido)
threshold soglia Schwelle seuil umbral
transmittance fattore di trasmissione Tranmissionsgrad facteur de transmission transmitancia
transmission trasmissione Transmission transmission transmisión

trichromatic system sistema tricromatico; trichromatisches System système trichromatique sistema tricromático
sistema colorimetrico
tristimulus values componenti tricromatiche Farbwerte composantes trichromatiques valores triestímulos

tungsten halogen lamp lampada ad alogeni Halogen-Glühlampe lampe (à incandescence) à lámpara (incandescente) con
halogènes halógenos
UCS diagram diagramma colorimetrico uni- UCS-Farbtafel diagramme de chromaticité diagrama de cromaticidad uni-
forme uniforme forme
uniform colour space spazio colorimetrico uniforme gleichförmiger Farbenraum espace chromatique uniforme espacio de color uniforme
unique hue tinta unitaria Urfarbe teinte eelémentaire tono unitario
unrelated (perceived) colour colore non relativo unbezogene Farbe couleur (perçue) isolée color-independiente (perci-
bido)
veiling reflections riflessioni di velo Schleierreflexionen réflexions-voile reflejos velantes
visual acuity; visual resolution acuità visiva Sehschärfe acuité visuelle agudenza visual
visual performance prestazione visiva Sehleistung performance visuelle actuación visual

visual threshold; threshold of soglia di illumnamento Schwellenbeleuchtungsstärke seuil de visibilité; seuil d’éclai- umbral de visión puntual
illuminance rement
von Kries’ persistence law legge della persistenza di von Persistenzsatz nach von Kries loi de persistance de von Kries ley de von Kries de persistencia
Kries
wavelength lunghezza d’onda Wellenlänge longueur d’onde longitud de onda
working photometric standard campione fotometrico di lavoro photometrisches Arbeitsnor- étalon photométrique de tra- patrón fotométrico de trabajo
mal vail
yellow spot macchia lutea gelber Fleck tache joune mancha amarilla
zonal flux flusso zonale Zonenlichtstrom flux zonal flujo zonal

17 Terminology
AATCC American Association of textile Chemists and Colorists.
Abney’s law An empirical law stating that if two color stimuli, A and B, are perceived
to be of equal brightness and two other color stimuli, C and D, are per-
ceived to be of equal brightness, then the additive mixtures of A with C
and B with D will also be perceived to be of equal brightness. The valid-
ity of Abney’s law depends strongly on the observing conditions.
Abney phenomenon Change of hue produced by decreasing the purity of a color stimulus
while keeping its dominant wavelength and luminance constant.
achromatopsia Loss of all color vision after cortical lesions. Also called monochroma-
tism.
actinism Property of optical radiations which enables them to cause chemical

changes on certain living or non-living materials.
action time Duration of stimulation required to permit any visual sensation, chro-
matic or achromatic, to build up to maximum strength.
Adams theory of color A theory devised by E.Q. Adams combining the tristimulus Young-
vision Helmholtz theory and the Hering opponent-colors theory, on the basis
of a non-linear assumed photometric response from each of the three
retinal photoreceptors.
adaptation The process by which the state of the visual system is modified by pre-
vious and present exposure to stimuli that may have various lumi-
nances, spectral distributions and angular subtenses.
additive color mixture Superposition or other nondestructive combination of light of different

chromaticities.
affective That has to do with feelings rather than intelligence.
affective aspects of color Capacity of colors to evoke responses, such as liking, disliking, plea-
sure, displeasure, excitement, depression, or other feelings, emotions, or
moods.
after-image Sensation that occurs after the stimulus causing it has ceased.
alychne Surface in tristimulus space that represents the locus of color stimuli of
zero luminance.
Alexandria 2008 116

angular subtense Angle subtended (by an object) at the first nodal point of the eye.
aperture Opening through which light passes.
aperture color Perceived color for which there is no definite spatial localization in
depth, such as that perceived as filling a hole in a screen.
appearance The aspect of visual experience by which things are recognized. →

Color appearance.
appearance mode Perceived color may appear in several modes of color appearance. The
names for various modes of appearance are intended to distinguish
among qualitative and geometric differences of color perceptions.
Modes of color appearance include object-color, surface color, aperture
color, film color, volume color, illuminant color, body color, and Ganzfeld
color. Each of these modes of color appearance may be further qualified
by adjectives to describe combinations of color or their spatial and tem-
poral relationships. Other terms that relate to qualitative differences
among colors perceived in various modes of color appearance are lumi-
nous (perceived) color, non-luminous (perceived) color, related (perceived)
color, and unrelated (perceived) color. [broadly after CIE 845-02-18]
aspect Element of the collection of attributes and parameters of an apparent

color.
— Face as it is seen. That part of a multi-faceted entity that is being consid-

ered.
association Mental connection established by process of learning.
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials.
attention The allocation of conscious processing resources to the performance of

some cognitive task. Attention is a constraint that stems from a system’s
having limited conscious processing resources; typically, therefore, only
a few tasks can be attended to simultaneously. Attention is also a crucial
factor in perceptual processing, determining whether early perceptual
information is retained.
attitude Mental state assumed in order to serve a purpose.
attribute Distinguishing characteristic of a sensation, perception, or mode of

appearance.
— Quality naturally belonging to an entity and particular to this entity.
autosome A chromosome other than a sex-chromosome.
117 Alexandria 2008

basic color terms Group of eleven color names found in anthropological surveys to be in
wide use in fully developed languages: white, black, red, green, yellow,
blue, brown, gray, orange, purple, pink.
Bezold-Brücke Change of hue produced by changing the luminance (within the range
phenomenon of → photopic vision) of a color stimulus while keeping its → chroma-
ticity constant. Within certain monochromatic stimuli, hue remains con-
stant over a wide range of luminances (for a given condition of
adaptation). The wavelengths of these stimuli are sometimes referred to
as invariant wavelengths.
binary hue Perceived hue that can be described as a combination of two → unique
hues. For example: orange is a yellowish-red or reddish-yellow; violet is
reddish-blue, etc.
binocular luster Luster, or glossy appearance, resulting from binocular combination of

two very different color combinations.
blackbody → Planckian radiator.
bleeding The unintentional transfer of coloring matter from one medium to or

through another.
blobs Small enclosed areas that are identified in an early stage of visual image
processing. They form part of a primal sketch.
body color Color produced by absorption and scattering of light by colorants

within a colored material.
brightness Attribute of a visual sensation according to which an area appears to

emit more or less light.
Levels of brightness range from “bright” to “dim.”
brilliance Colloquial term denoting sparkling brightness.
candela (cd) SI unit of → luminous intensity: The candela is the luminous intensity,
in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of
frequency 540⋅1012 hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direc-
tion of 1/683 watt per steradian.
categorization Classification of information into groups or concepts. Categorization

may be viewed as an instance of reasoning by inductive argument. Tra-
ditionally, conceptual categories were regarded as being sharply defined
through a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for category mem-
bership. More recently, it has been recognized that category boundaries
are not always sharp and that some members of a given category tend to
be regarded as more typical than other members.
Alexandria 2008 118

cesia Set of visual sensations due to differences in the spatial distribution of
light. [Caivano]
choroid Resilient network of connective tissue within the → sclera.
chroma Chromaticness, → colorfulness, of an area judged as a proportion of the

brightness of a similarly illuminated area that appears white or highly
transmitting. For given viewing conditions and at luminance levels
within the range of photopic vision, a color stimulus perceived as a
related color, of a given chromaticity and from a surface having a given
luminance factor, exhibits approximately constant chroma for all levels
of illuminance except when the brightness is very high. In the same cir-
cumstances, at a given level of illuminance, if the luminance factor is
increased, the chroma usually increases.
Levels of chroma range from “strong” to “weak.”
chromatic adaptation → Adaptation by stimuli in which the dominant effect is that of differ-
ent relative spectral distributions.
chromaticity Property of a color stimulus defined by its chromaticity coordinates, or

by its dominant or complementary wavelength and purity taken
together.
chromaticity coordinates Ratio of each of a set of three tristimulus values to their sum.
chromaticness → Colorfulness. Formerly it denoted the combined perceptions of hue

and saturation, i.e., the perceptual correlate of chromaticity.
chromatopsia Capacity of color vision.
CIE International Commission on Illumination. Organization devoted to

international cooperation and exchange of information among its mem-
ber countries on all matters relating to the art and science of lighting.
clarity Characteristic of a transparent body whereby distinct high-contrast

images or high-contrast objects (separated by some distance from the
body) are observable through the body.
CMC Color Measurement Committee of the Society of Dyers and Colourists.
cognition Any instance of a mental operation that displays intentionality.
colorant Dye, pigment, or other agent used to impart a color to a material.
color appearance Representation of a color sensation mediated by an internal color space,

and the conditions that parametrize this representation.
119 Alexandria 2008

— That aspect of visual perception by which an observer is able to assign
perceptual attributes, such as hue, saturation, and brightness, to a given
visual stimulus displayed in the observers field of view. [Wyszecki,
quoted by Sève]
color atlas Collection of color samples arranged and identified according to speci-
fied rules.
— Selected set of color samples, arranged according to their notations in a

particular color order system, and designed to be used under specified
illuminating and viewing conditions. [Robertson AIC 93]
color constancy The general tendency of the colors of an object to remain constant when
the color of the illuminant is changed.
— Effect of visual adaptation whereby the appearance of colors remains

approximately constant when the level and color of the illuminant are
changed.
color dynamics A science concerned with the relations between the surface appearance
of environment and environmental elements, and man living in this
environment. It studies the interrelations of color, man and environ-
ment.
colorfulness Attribute of a visual sensation according to which the perceived color of

an area appears to be more or less chromatic. For a color stimulus of a
given → chromaticity and, in the case of related colors, of a given lumi-
nance factor, this attribute usually increases as the luminance is raised
except when the brightness is very high.
Levels of colorfulness range from “vivid” to “grayish.”
color harmony Intrinsic pleasantness of color combinations.
colorimetry Measurement of colors based on a set of conventions.
color matching Action of making a color stimulus appear the same in color as a given
color stimulus.
color-matching functions The tristimulus values of monochromatic stimuli of equal radiant power.
color mixture Short term for additive color mixture.
color name Audible or written symbol of a restricted group of color perceptions.
color notation The symbols used in a systematic way to designate colors.
Alexandria 2008 120

color order system A rational method or plan of ordering and specifying all object colors,
or all within a limited domain, by means of a set of material standards
selected and displayed so as to represent adequately the whole set of
object colors under consideration.
color perception Awareness of a color sensation and its categorization mediated by an

internal color space with the possibly ensuing facilitation of a color
name.
— The consciousness content arising when the observer is able to distin-

guish in the visual field two adjacent parts of equal size, shape and tex-
ture, by means of the difference between the spectral distributions of
the observed radiations.
color, (perceived) Attribute of visual perception consisting of any combination of chro-

matic and achromatic content. This attribute can be described by chro-
matic color names such as yellow, orange, brown, red, pink, green, blue,
purple, etc., or by achromatic color names such as white, gray, black,
etc., and qualified by bright, dim, light, dark, etc., or by combinations
of such names.
Perceived color depends on the spectral distribution of the color stimu-

lus, on the size, shape, structure and surround of the stimulus area, on
the state of adaptation of the observer’s visual system, and on the
observer’s experience of the prevailing and similar situations of obser-
vation.
color preference Preference, within a specific application, for one color over other related
colors. Examples include preferred blue for sky or green for grass in
photographic color reproduction, and preferred white for bond paper.
color, psychophysical A specification of a color stimulus in terms of operationally defined val-

ues, such as three tristimulus values.
color rendering Effect of an → illuminant on the color appearance of objects by con-

scious or subconscious comparison with their color appearance under a
reference illuminant.
color scale Series of ordered numbers which represents observable gradations of a

given attribute or gradations of a combination of attributes of color per-
ception.
color solid That part of a color space which contains surface colors.
color space Geometric representation of colors in space, usually of three dimensions.
121 Alexandria 2008

color specification Notation or set of three color-scale values used to designate a color in a
specified color system. Practical color specifications may include color
tolerances as well as target color designation.
color stimulus Visible radiation entering the eye and producing a sensation of color,
either chromatic or achromatic.
color tolerance The permissible color difference between sample and specified color.
color-vision theory Attempt to explain color vision in terms of structure and physiological
processes in eye and nervous system.
complexion Natural color of the skin.
cones Photoreceptors in the → retina containing light-sensitive pigments

capable of initiating the process of photopic vision.
There are three types of cones, and these are maximally responsive to
short (S), middle (M), or long (L) wavelengths.
consciousness Being aware. The stage in the cognitive process before an inference is
drawn. Some theorists (the representationalists) consider that conscious-
ness is constructed from stored knowledge by the act of paying atten-
tion.
— An ability to experience or perceive the environment, or to represent an

actual or possible state of affairs (for example, through imagination). In
general, consciousness is expressible, either through verbal or nonver-
bal behavior. Since it may admit of various degrees, a person (animal,
machine) might be aware of some phenomena but not aware of other
phenomena. In traditional modern philosophy, consciousness has been
considered the fundamental hallmark of any mind. For biological crea-
tures, the range of possible consciousness appears to be determined by
neurophysiological capacities under the influence of environmental his-
tories. Consciousness should be distinguished from self-consciousness,
which is an awareness of awareness.
conspicuity The characteristics of an object that determine the likelihood that it will
come to the attention of an observer.
contrast 1. In the perceptual sense: Assessment of the difference in appearance

of two or more parts of a field seen simultaneously or successively
(hence: brightness contrast, lightness contrast, color contrast, simulta-
neous contrast, successive contrast, etc.
Alexandria 2008 122

2. In the physical sense: Quantity intended to correlate with the per-
ceived brightness contrast, usually defined by one of a number of
formulæ which involve the luminances of the stimuli considered, for
example: ΔL/L near the luminance threshold, or L1/L2 for much
higher luminances.
correlated color The temperature of the → Planckian radiator whose perceived color
temperature (Tcp) most closely resembles that of a given stimulus at the same brightness
and under specified viewing conditions. Unit: K.
corresponding color Pairs of color stimuli that look alike when one is seen in one set of adap-
stimuli tation conditions, and the other is seen in a different set.
cortex Outer layer of brain.
critical flicker frequency → Fusion frequency.
dark current (I0) Output current of a photoelectric detector or of its cathode in the
absence of incident radiation.
densitometry The science of measuring the optical densities of photographic deposits

on transparent films or solid reflection prints.
detector Device to convert radiant energy into a neural signal (such as the eye) or
an electrical signal (such as a phototube, photomultiplier tube, photo-
cell, photodiode, or the like).
diaphanous An objects’s characteristic of being transparent. This percept requires

that the “transparent” object and the object “seen” through it are per-
ceived as independent objects.
discharge lamp → Lamp in which the light is produced, directly or indirectly, by an

electric discharge through a gas, a metal vapor or a mixture of several
gases and vapors.
discrimination Ability to distinguish.
document Structured organization of information to influence or inform an audi-

ence.
emotional responses to Enthusiastic likes or dislikes for the visual appearance of surroundings.
color
epistemology The study of the sources, nature, and limits of knowledge, and related
concepts such as justification and belief.
123 Alexandria 2008

erythema, (actinic) Reddening of the skin, with or without inflammation, caused by the →
actinic effect of solar radiation or artificial optical radiation. Non-actinic
erythema can be caused by various chemical or physical agents.
eye Organ of sight, comprising a part sensitive to light stimuli called retina,
optic media diffracting these stimuli, and ancillary components such as
muscles, lacrimal gland, and protective tissue.
ocular conjunctiva ora serrata
zonule fibers vitreous body
aqueous humor fovea
lens optic disk (papilla)
iris
optic nerve
cornea
retina
ciliary muscle
sclera
field That portion of the surface of a specimen that is illuminated by the illu-
minator or viewed by the receiver.
film mode Mode of appearance of colors, in which no texture or other attributes

except size and shape are recognized.
flicker Impression of unsteadiness of visual sensation induced by a light stimu-

lus whose luminance or spectral distribution fluctuates with time.
fluorescent lamp A discharge lamp of the low pressure mercury type in which most of the
light is emitted by one or several layers of phosphors excited by the
ultraviolet radiation from the discharge.
fovea; fovea centralis Central part of the → retina, thin and depressed, which contains almost
exclusively → cones and forming the site of most distinct vision. The
fovea subtends an angle of about 1.5° in the visual field.
foveola Central region of the → fovea which contains only → cones. The fovea
subtends an angle of about 1° in the visual field.
functional color Colors or color combinations that promote the functional efficiency of
the visual mechanism.
Alexandria 2008 124

fusion frequency Frequency of alternation of stimuli above which → flicker is not percep-
tible.
gamma correction A correction factor applied to linearize the relationship between screen
luminance and electron gun voltage. It is more accurate to use a model
of the cathode ray tube.
gamut, device Set of colors that can be produced on a particular device and media
combination under given conditions. This set is usually finite.
gamut of colors Total variety of colors that can be produced by any prescribed method.
gloss The mode of appearance by which reflected highlights of objects are

perceived as superimposed on the surface due to the directionally selec-
tive properties of that surface.
glossiness An attribute of surface mode of visual appearance which is attributable

to gloss and which ranges from “matt” to “glossy.”
Grassmann’s laws The three empirical laws that describe color-matching properties of
additive mixtures of color stimuli:
1. To specify a color-match, three independent variables are necessary
and sufficient.
2. For an additive mixture of color stimuli, only their tristimulus values
are relevant, not their spectral compositions.
3. In an additive mixture of color stimuli, if one or more components of
the mixture are gradually changed, the resulting tristimulus values
also change gradually.
Grassmann’s laws do not hold for all observing conditions.
Helmholtz-Kohlrausch Change in brightness of perceived color produced by increasing the

phenomenon purity of a color stimulus while keeping its luminance constant within
the range of photopic vision. For related perceived colors, a change in
lightness can also occur when the purity is increased while keeping the
luminance factor of the color stimulus constant.
Helson-Judd effect Tendency, in colored illumination, for light colors to be tinged with the
hue of the illuminant, and for dark colors to be tinged with the comple-
mentary hue.
Hering theory of color An opponent-color theory according to which color is due to three pairs
vision of antagonistic processes in the optic system yielding respectively,
white and black, yellow and blue, and red and green.
homunculus Literally “little man,” the idea of a homunculus is presupposed by theo-

ries of mind that tacitly invoke cognitive processes in order to explain
125 Alexandria 2008

cognitive processes. For example, visual perception is sometimes
thought of as involving the production of pictorial images in the mind.
But if this were an accurate account, then the internal pictures would
presumably have to be looked at by some internal agent (homunculus)—
yet no such agent is to be found. Moreover, the homunculus approach
threatens to generate a vicious infinite regress, since the perceptions of a
homunculus would also need to be accounted for (in terms of its inter-
nal homunculus?). On a more subtle level, theories of cognition that
posit symbols that are “manipulated according to rules” must explain
how symbolic processing can be done without appealing to a conscious
agent that interprets symbols and consults rules.
hue Attribute of a visual sensation according to which an area appears to be

similar to one of the perceived colors, red, yellow, green, and blue, or to
a combination of two of them.
Hunt-Berns effect Inability of the cognitive factor to decide on a set. Example: When in an
environment with colored illumination the brightest object is not
known a priori to be white, the cognitive part of chromatic adaptation
fails because it is not possible to establish whether that object is white
or has a hue similar to that of the illuminant. This is especially so, if the
observer is knowledgeable about the Helson-Judd effect.
Hunt effect Increase in perceived colorfulness with increasing luminance.
illuminance (Eν; E) Quotient of the luminous flux dΦ ν incident on an element of the sur-
face containing the point, by the area dA of that element. Unit: lx.
illuminant Radiation with a relative spectral power distribution defined over the
wavelength range that influences object color perception.
illuminant mode Object mode of appearance by which sources of light are perceived.
illumination mode Located mode of appearance, by which the distribution of light in space
is perceived.
incandescent lamp → Lamp in which light is produced by means of an element heated to

incandescence by the passage of an electric current.
induction Adaptation caused by local or momentary exposure.
insistence Impressiveness or attention-catching power of a perceived color.
intensity General term used to designate the magnitude of a variable.
internal color space Memory “palette” from which color categorization proceeds.
Alexandria 2008 126

interval scale → Ordinal scale in which
1. Differences between different magnitudes can indeed be deter-
mined.
2. Numbers can be assigned to these magnitude differences so that the
differences between numbers characterize the sizes of the corre-
sponding observed magnitude differences of the attribute.
In an interval scale the numbers are determined to within a linear trans-

formation with an offset (that is, there is not necessarily a natural ori-
gin).
isomers Two or more colors with identical spectral power distributions. This
term was introduced by Ostwald; it is more common to speak of a spec-
tral match.
lamp Source made in order to produce an optical radiation, usually visible.
lateral geniculate nucleus Relay station in the midbrain where the axons of the retinal ganglion
cells in the optic nerve terminate and synapse with the neurons radiat-
ing to the striate cortex. It is divided into two anatomically distinct sec-
tions: the parvocellular (PC, dorsal) layers and the magnocellular (MC,
ventral) layers.
lateral geniculate nucleus
lightness (of a related The brightness of an area judged relative to the brightness of a similarly
color) illuminated area that appears to be white or highly transmitting. Only
→ related colors exhibit lightness.
Levels of lightness range from “light” to “dark.”
light, (perceived) Universal and essential attribute of all perceptions and sensations that
are peculiar to the visual system. Light is normally, but not always, per-
ceived as a result of the action of a light stimulus on the visual system.
light stimulus Visible radiation entering the eye and producing a sensation of light.
127 Alexandria 2008

— Light is radiant energy evaluated with respect to its ability to stimulate
the sense of sight of a human observer.
local adaptation Adaptation produced by a stimulus that has been confined to a specific,
more or less sharply defined region of the retina.
located modes of Stimulus object appears to be within definite limits of distance and
appearance direction from observer.
dΦ ν
luminance (Lν; L) - , where dΦ ν is
Quantity defined by the formula L ν = ----------------------------------
dA ⋅ cos θ ⋅ dΩ
the luminous flux transmitted by an elementary beam passing through
the given point and propagating in the solid angle dΩ containing the
given direction; dA is the area of a section of that beam containing the
given point; θ is the angle between the normal to that section and the
direction of the beam. Unit: cd⋅m–2.
βν ; β)
luminance factor (β (at a surface element of a non-self-radiating medium, in a given direc-
tion, under specified conditions of illumination)
Ratio of the luminance of the surface element in the given direction to

that of a perfect reflecting or transmitting diffuser identically illumi-
nated.
luminance threshold Lowest luminance of a stimulus which enables it to be perceived. The

value depends on field size, surround, state of adaptation, and other
viewing conditions.
luminous efficiency (V) Ratio of radiant flux weighted according to V(λ) to the corresponding
radiant flux.
luminous intensity (Iν, I) Quotient of the luminous flux dΦ ν , leaving the source and propagated
in the element of solid angle dΩ containing the given direction, by the
element of solid angle.
dΦ
I ν = ---------ν-
dΩ
Unit: cd.
luminous (perceived) Color perceived to belong to an area that appears to be emitting light as
color a primary light source, or that appears to be specularly reflecting such
light. Primary light sources seen in their natural surroundings normally
exhibit the appearance of luminous colors in this sense.
luster Contrast gloss. Gloss associated with contrasts of bright and less bright
adjacent areas of the surface of an object. Luster increases with
Alexandria 2008 128

increased ratio between light reflected in the specular direction and that
reflected in the diffuse directions which are adjacent to the specular
direction.
— The appearance characteristic of a surface that reflects more in some

directions than it does in other directions, but not of such gloss as to
form clear mirror images.
— Attribute of mode of appearance.
macula lutea Layer of photostable pigment covering parts of the → retina in the
foveal region.
match Appearance of visual identity.
matching Procedure for establishing visual equivalence.
memory color Color of the light that, according to the judgment of the observer,
would be reflected by any particular object if it were under the illumi-
nation in which that object is customarily seen.
mesopic vision Vision intermediate between → photopic and → scotopic vision. In

mesopic vision, both the cones and the rods are active.
metamers Spectrally different color stimuli that have the same tristimulus values.
The corresponding property is called metamerism.
Müller theory of color A theory proposed by G.E. Müller which suggested a three stage visual
vision response; a photopigment stage, a retinal stage, and an optic nerve
stage.
negative suggestion Influence on perception of skepticism concerning the reality of a subjec-

tive phenomenon.
neuroanatomy Science that treats of the structure of the nervous system.
neuron Nerve cell, consisting of a cell body containing the nucleus, mitochon-
dria, and other organelles; an axon, which conveys impulses from the
cell; and the dendrites, which receive impulses from other cells. Towards
129 Alexandria 2008

its end, the axon usually splits into many branches that come very close
to the dendrites of other neurons; these regions are called synapses.
dendrites
cell membrane
axon
synapse nucleus
neurophysiology Science that treats of the function of the nervous system.
neutral Hueless, or achromatic, color.
non-luminous (perceived) Color perceived to belong to an area that appears to be transmitting or

color diffusely reflecting light as a secondary light source. Secondary light
sources seen in their natural surroundings normally exhibit the appear-
ance of non-luminous colors in this sense.
nonobject mode Mode of appearance disassociated from any stimulus object.
nuance A two-dimensional attribute that distinguishes among colors having the

same hue.
object attitude Attitude in which the individual is trying to perceive the object itself.
object-color Color perceived as belonging to an object.
opacity Attribute of a mode of appearance, expressive of the degree to which a

surface or volume obscures objects or space beyond.
opaque medium Medium which transmits no radiation in the spectral range of interest.
operational definition Definition in terms of method of measurement.
optimal colors Object colors having the maximum possible luminance factor for each
chromaticity.
ordinal scale One-dimensional → color scale in which the numbers are assigned to
the magnitudes of the attribute, so that the order of the numbers corre-
sponds to the order of these magnitudes. An ordinal scale is represented
by a monotonic function.
Alexandria 2008 130

paramers Specimens having different spectrophotometric curves that produce
approximately the same color sensation under the same illuminating
and viewing conditions.
— Spectrally different color stimuli that have nearly the same tristimulus
values.
pearlescent Adjective to denote the reflecting colors that contain metallic or other
particles which impart reflective properties similar to those of pearls.
pellucid Very clear.
percept An imagelike entity traditionally thought to be produced in a perceiver

by acts of perception. Percepts are generally assumed to be available to
introspection.
— The result of the process of perception.
— A basis element or dimension in a representation of perceptions.
— An attribute of a visual sensation.
perception The acquiring of information about the external world by means of the
senses. Although some researchers have argued that a significant
amount of information about the environment is contained immediately
in perceptual stimuli, the primary research paradigm of contemporary
cognitive science maintains that information must be “recovered” or
extracted from sensory stimuli by means of internal processing mecha-
nisms (for the most part unconscious). → Color perception.
— An element of the content of consciousness elicited by an effect on a

sensory organ, which cannot be further analyzed.
— The combination of different sensations and the utilization of past expe-

rience in recognizing the objects from which the stimulation comes.
photopic vision Vision by the normal eye when it is adapted to levels of luminance of at
least several candelas per square meter. The → cones are the principal
active photoreceptors in scotopic vision.
photometry Measurement of quantities referring to radiation as evaluated according

to a given spectral luminous efficiency function, e.g., V(λ) or V’(λ).
Planckian radiator Ideal thermal radiator that absorbs completely all incident radiation,
whatever the wavelength, the direction of incidence or the polarization.
This radiator has, for any wavelength and any direction, the maximum
131 Alexandria 2008

spectral concentration of radiance for a thermal radiator in thermal
equilibrium at a given temperature.
primary light source Surface or object emitting light produced by a transformation of energy.
priming The activation of an area of memory by the presentation of a stimulus,

thereby making that area more quickly accessible when subsequent,
related stimuli are presented.
product standard Material having a color designated as standard for a specified product.
pronouncedness Quality or degree of “goodness” of a color perception, such as the

whiteness of a white or the greenness of a green.
psychophysical Specification of stimuli in accordance with equality or difference of sen-

measurement sations experienced by human observers.
psychophysics Scientific study of the relationships between the physical measurements

of stimuli and the sensations and perceptions that those stimuli evoke.
[Fairchild 92]
Purkinje phenomenon Reduction in the brightness of a predominantly long-wavelength color

stimulus relative to that of a predominantly short-wavelength color
stimulus when the luminances are reduced in the same proportion from
photopic to mesopic or scotopic levels without changing the respective
spectral distributions of the stimuli involved. In passing from photopic
to mesopic to scotopic vision, the spectral luminous efficiencies change,
the wavelength of maximum efficiency being displaced towards the
shorter wavelength.
radiant flux Power emitted, transmitted or received in the form of radiation.
ratio scale → Interval scale with a natural origin; that is, there exists a point on the
scale to which the number zero is assigned when the magnitude of the
attribute is considered.
reception The act of receiving a stimulus.
receptive field The receptive field of a ganglion cell on the retina corresponds to the
area of the visual field that activates the cell.
reference illuminant An illuminant with which other illuminants are compared.
reflection Process by which radiation is returned by a surface or a medium, with-

out change of frequency of its monochromatic components.
related (perceived) color Color perceived to belong to an area seen in relation to other colors.
Alexandria 2008 132

representation A symbol or process that stands for something else. A particular symbol
may be arbitrary and need not resemble the thing it stands for (both of
these points are illustrated by the English word eye and the Japanese
word me, which are alternative representations of the same thing). An
important topic in cognitive science concerns the way in which mental
symbols or processes come to represent reality.
— The homomorphism or image of a homomorphism from a given group to

a group or other structure having some further meaning or significance.
retina Membrane situated inside the back of the → eye that is sensitive to
light stimuli; it contains photoreceptors, the → cones and the → rods,
and nerve cells (→ neurons) that transmit to the optic nerve the signals
resulting from stimulation of the photoreceptors.
rods Photoreceptors in the retina containing a light-sensitive pigment capa-

ble of initiating the process of scotopic vision.
SAE Society of Automotive Engineers.
saturation Chromaticness, → colorfulness, of an area judged in proportion to its

brightness. For given viewing conditions and at luminance levels
within the range of photopic vision, a color stimulus of a given chroma-
ticity exhibits approximately constant saturation for all luminance lev-
els, except when the brightness is very high.
sclera White tough outer tunic of the → eye, contiguous with the transparent
corners in the front and contiguous with the sheath of the optic nerve at
the back of the eye.
scotopic vision Vision by the normal eye when it is adapted to levels of luminance less
than some hundreds of candela per square meter. The → rods are the
principal active photoreceptors in scotopic vision.
secondary light source Surface or object which is not self-emitting but receives light and re-
directs it, at least in part by reflection or transmission.
sensation Mode of mental functioning that is directly associated with stimulation

of the organism.
— That element of the consciousness concept elicited by effects via our

sensory organs, which cannot be analyzed further.
— Primitive awareness or uninterpreted conscious response to stimulation

of a sense receptor.
133 Alexandria 2008

set Attitude or intent of an observer that may have appreciable effect on his
perceptions of contrast and adaptation effects.
shade 1. A color produced by a dye or pigment mixture including black dye

or pigment.
2. An expression of color difference from a reference dyeing such that
another dye must be added to produce a match.
3. A color slightly different from a reference color.
“Shade” is the most overworked of the terms used to describe colors

and color differences in terms of colorant technology, sometimes even
being used as a general synonym for “color.”
shape Attribute possessed by all object modes of appearance.
sheen The specular gloss at a large angle of incidence for an otherwise matte
specimen.
simultaneous contrast Juxtaposition of different colors.
spectral distribution (Xλ) (of a radiant, luminous or photon quantity X(λ))
Quotient of the radiant or luminous or photon quantity dX(λ) contained

in an elementary range dλ of wavelength λ, by that range. The term dis-
tribution refers to the consideration of function Xλ(λ) over a wide range
of wavelengths.
dX ( λ )
X λ = ---------------
dλ
Unit: [X]⋅m–1, e.g., W⋅m–1, etc. [broadly after CIE 845-01-17]
spectral luminous (of a monochromatic radiation of wavelength λ)

efficiency
(V(λλ) for photopic vision; Ratio of the radiant flux at wavelength λm to that at wavelength λ such
V’(λλ) for scotopic vision) that both radiations produce equally intense luminous sensations under
specified photometric conditions and λm is chosen so that the maximum
value of this ratio is equal to 1.
spectral stimulus A stimulus consisting of a monochromatic radiation.
standard observer An ideal observer having visual response described by the CIE color-
matching functions.
Alexandria 2008 134

steradian SI unit of solid angle: Solid angle that, having its vertex at the center of
a sphere, cuts off an area of the surface of the sphere equal to that of a
square with sides of length equal to the radius of the sphere.
Stevens effect Increase in contrast with increasing luminance.
Stiles-Crawford effect Decrease of the brightness of a light stimulus with increasing eccentric-
ity of the position of entry of the light pencil through the pupil. If the
variation is in hue and saturation instead of in brightness the effect is
called the Stiles-Crawford effect of the second kind.
stimulus External condition capable of eliciting response of a living organism. →

Light stimulus.
stimulus object Object which is intuitively assumed to exist and to be responsible for a
unified experience, consisting of visual and other sensations and per-
ceptions.
stop Any window or diaphragm that restricts the passage of light rays in an
optical device.
subtractive color mixture Mixture of absorbing media or superposition of filters so that spectral
composition of light passing through the combination is determined by
simultaneous or successive absorption.
surface color Color perceived as belonging to a surface from which the light appears
to be diffusely reflected or radiated.
surface mode of An object mode that has the distinctive attribute of glossiness, as well as
appearance the attribute of less than perfect transparency.
surround Portion of the visual field immediately surrounding the central field or
pattern of interest.
TAPPI Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.
texture Structural quality of a surface determined by the topography of its ele-

ments.
— The visible surface structure depending on the size and organization of

small constituent parts of a material; typically, the surface structure of a
woven fabric.
tint A color produced by the mixture of white pigment or paint with a chro-
matic pigment or paint. A tint of a chromatic color is, therefore, lighter
and less saturated than the chromatic color.
135 Alexandria 2008

transformation Shift of mode of appearance of a color caused by either objective or sub-
jective factors.
translucent medium Medium which transmits visible radiation largely by diffuse transmis-
sion, so that objects are not seen distinctly through it.
transparent medium Medium in which the transmission is mainly regular and which usually
has a high regular transmittance in the spectral range of interest.
Objects may be seen distinctly through a medium which is transparent
in the visible region, if the geometric form of the medium is suitable.
tristimulus values Amounts of the three reference color stimuli, in a given trichromatic
system, required to match the color of the stimulus considered.
turbidity Loss of transparency due to diffusion caused by presence of particulate

matter.
uniform color scale → Interval scale of equal spacing.
uniform color space Color space in which equal distances are intended to represent thresh-
old or suprathreshold perceived color differences of equal size.
unique hue Perceived hue that cannot be further described by the use of hue names
other than its own. There are four unique hues: red, green, yellow and
blue.
— Unique yellow occurs at about 580 nm, unique green at about 500 nm,
and unique blue at about 475 nm. [Boynton p. 210]
unrelated (perceived) Color perceived to belong to an area seen in isolation from other colors.
color
UV quencing
vignetting Loss of light rays at stops of an optical instrument, other than the aper-
ture stop.
viewing conditions The conditions under which a visual observation is made, including the
angular subtense of the specimen at the eye, the geometric relationship
of source, specimen, and eye, the photometric and spectral character of
the field of view surrounding the specimen, and the state of adaptation
of the eye.
visual performance Performance of the visual system as measured for instance by the speed
and accuracy with which a visual task is performed.
volume color Perception of color in the volume mode of appearance.
Alexandria 2008 136

volume mode An object mode of appearance which has the attribute of transparency.
von Kries transformation Algebraic transformation whereby changes in → adaptation are repre-
sented as adjustments of the sensitivities of the three cone systems such
as to compensate fully for changes in the color of illuminants.
Weber’s fraction The constant in Weber’s law.
Weber’s law The change in stimulus intensity that can just be discriminated (Δφ) is a
constant fraction (c) of the starting intensity of the stimulus (φ):
Δφ = c·φ or δφ/φ = c.
white Lightest color of a surface.
window Daylight opening on a vertical or nearly vertical area of a room enve-

lope.
yellow spot Macula lutea.
Young-Helmholtz theory There must be three different kinds of retinal receptors, each differently
sensitive to different parts of the spectrum, and all colors must be per-
ceived as the result of blends of differing degrees and proportions of the
responses of these receptors.
137 Alexandria 2008

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SC076

Friday, 06 Jun 2008

In-Company Courses for US Patent and Trademark Office 2600

SC076 — Understanding Color 1

2 SC076 — Understanding Color

SC076 — Understanding Color 3

• Develop a systematic understanding of the principles of color

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

What is essential is invisible to the eye

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

Attribute of a visual perception consisting of any combination of chromatic and

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

1.0.2 Subjective color terms — Hue 5

Unique hue: A hue that cannot be further

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

Brightness: The attribute of a visual sensation according to which a

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

Lightness: The attribute of a visual sensation according to which the

• Brightness is absolute, lightness is relative to an area perceived

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

Chromaticness or Colorfulness: The attribute of a visual sensation

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

1.0.5.1 Colorfulness — Chroma 9

Chroma: The attribute of a visual sensation which permits a

Objective term: CIE chroma (C*uv, C*ab)

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

Objective terms: purity (p), CIE saturation (Suv)

Colorfulness is absolute, chroma is relative to a white area and absolute

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

1.1 Our goal 11

• Three fundamental components of measuring color:

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

1.2.1 Spectral color reproduction 13

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

• 400 B.C.E. — Hellenic philosophers

• First Millennium — Arab school, pure science

• 15th century — Renaissance, technology

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

2.0.1 Opponent colors 15

Note: rendered with chiaro-scuro technique

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

• 18th century — Enlightenment, physics & chemistry

• 19th century — scientific discovery

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

2.0.3 Color theories (cont.) 17

• 20th century — advanced scientific instruments

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

2.1.1 Cognitive model for color appearance 19

action color name apparent color

• Reliable color discrimination: 1 week

• We tend to see colors of familiar objects as we expect them to be

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

2.2 Color vision physiology 21

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

2.2.1.1 Outer segment 23

Credit: Helga Kolb

G.B. Beretta Alexandria, 6 June 2008 SC076 — Understanding Color

Distribution perifoveal foveal

Objective term: CIE chroma (Cuv, Cab)