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Basic Concepts of Colour Measurement
Basic Concepts of Colour Measurement
Basic Concepts of Colour Measurement
e-mail: akrc2008@yahoo.in
From time immemorial, man must have watched inquisitively the wonder-work of sunlight in
creating blue colour of zenith sky, glowing scarlet of rising and setting sky and various hues of
rainbow. Colour is also an integral part of our daily life, be it textiles, paints, plastics or printing.
We can’t even imagine a colourless world around us. All our daily necessities are packed in
attractive colourful packaging that tempts us to buy even if we do not need it. We can’t even
imagine our television without colour. We choose our garments primarily by colour, which projects
our personality. We select paints and furniture for our house by colour, which gives us pleasing
atmosphere. The colour depicts the nature and inner personality of the car owner. Colour of a
gem or precious stone also guides a person to overcome obstacles in his life. Colour has become
Despite being so important and so close to everyone’s day-to-day life, it is not possible to express
colour in unique or in specific language. We remember colour till we look at it. The moment we
take away our sight from it, it gets erased from our memory. The colour scientists attempted to
specify colour in explicit universal language so that it could be understood by everyone involved
with colour and colour reproduction. This led to express colour numerically which is unique and
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1) Illuminant mode - when the light stimulus comes directly from a source of light, say, an
wavelengths, which is denoted by the term spectral power distribution (SPD). When a light beam
falls on an object, it is modified by absorption, scattering and other physical processes depending
on the physical and chemical construction of the object. The light (colour stimulus) that reaches
the eye of the observer in the form of reflected light interacts with the photosensitive pigments
present in the eye. This gives rise to nerve impulses which are transmitted to brain. The human
eye-brain mechanism makes rapid and continuous evaluation of object appearance and colour.
The light, which enters our eyes, contains the characteristic imprints of the light source and the
object. Light can also fall directly (without interaction with object) on our eyes creating nerve
impulses.
Colour Perception
The Committee on Colorimetry of the Optical Society of America in 1922 defined colour as the
general name for all sensations arising from the activity of the retina of the eye and its attached
nervous mechanisms, this activity being, in nearly every case in the normal individual, a specific
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Colour is sometimes used as a name for materials such as dyes and pigments, but the name
Colorant will be more appropriate in these cases. The spectral composition of radiant energy and
the spectral transmittance or reflectance of substances is also called colour, but it is again an
inappropriate name for these purely physical concepts. Psychophysical concept of colour as
Perception of colour which is solely a prerogative of human beings is purely individualistic and
For expressing colour objectively one must measure and quantify it. The colour can be objectively
Colour Mixing
According to one reliable estimate, we can distinguish among ten million different colours (Judd
and Wyszecki, 1975). Kuehni further estimated that the humans with normal colour vision can
distinguish among some two million colours when viewed against a mid-grey background and
Newton explicitly stated that colour is a perceptual property, not a physical attribute, which meant
that the light mixtures occurred in the eye, not in the light. Newton recognised three aspects of
colour perception: brightness, hue and intensity. Painters and dyers already from before Newton’s
time believed in three fundamental chromatic colours that they sometimes equated with pigments
or dyes: yellow, red and blue, from which all other hues can be created. With long experience
with paints and dyes they also affirmed that material colour mixtures and light mixtures behaved
very differently.
Colour perception for humans is three-dimensional, a fact almost certainly stems from the
existence in the retina of three different classes of light-receptive cells. LeBlon (1756) was first to
make clear distinction between mixing pigment colours and mixing colours of light. He stated that
all visible objects can be represented by three colours, yellow, red and blue and mixture of these
three colours makes black or all other colours. He named those as material colours or those used
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by painters. He further added that for a mixture of spectral colours those proposed by Sir Isaac
Primary colours are sets of colours that can be combined to make a useful range of colours. For
human applications, three primary colours are usually used, since human colour vision is
trichromatic.
Primary colours are not a fundamental property of light but are often related to the physiological
dimensional stimulus space. However, the human eye normally contains only three types of
colour receptors, called cone cells. Each colour receptor responds to different ranges of the
colour spectrum. Humans and other species with three such types of colour receptors are known
as trichromats. These species respond to the light stimulus via a three-dimensional sensation,
which generally can be modelled as a mixture of three primary colours (Sobel, 1989).
Many birds and marsupials are tetrachromats (Backhaus and Werner, 1998), and it has been
suggested that some human females are tetrachromats as well (Mollon and Jordan,
1993), having an extra variant version of the long-wave (L) cone type.
Most mammals other than primates have only two types of colour receptors and are, therefore,
Any choice of primary colours is essentially arbitrary; for example, an early colour photographic
process, autochrome, typically used orange, green, and violet primaries. However, unless
negative amounts of a colour are allowed the gamut of colour generated will be restricted by the
Fundamental laws of colour mixing can, therefore, be classified into two types namely
1) Additive colour mixing (Figure 2 a) occurs when two or more lights mix together.
2) Subtractive colour mixing (Figure 2 b) occurs when colorants are mixed together.
Virtually all our visible colours can be produced by utilizing some combination of the three primary
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For additive combination of colours, as in overlapping projected lights or in CRT displays, the
primary colours normally used are red (R), green (G), and blue (B). The result of additive mixing
R + G = Y (Yellow),
G + B = C (Cyan or blue-green)
B + R = M (Magenta)
R + G + B = W (white)
colours, as in mixing
(C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), though the set of red, yellow, blue is popular among artists.
The subtractive primaries can be obtained by removing red, green and blue from white light using
W - R = C (- R)
W - G = M (- G),
W – B = Y (- B),
The mixing of subtractive primaries yellow, magenta and cyan can be predicted mathematically
as follows:
Y + M = (W - B) + (W - G) = W - B - G = R,
Y + C = (W - B) + (W - R) = W - B – R = G
M+ C = (W - G) + (W - R) = W - G - R = B,
Y + M + C = W - R - G - B = K (Black)
When the three subtractive primaries are mixed in proper proportions as in case of mixing
colorants, the mixture is unable to reflect light anymore and appear black (K) in colour. Similarly
when white light is passed through filters of three subtractive colours, the whole of white light will
be removed. Mixture of two primaries is called secondary. The most commonly used additive
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colour primaries are the secondary colours of the most commonly used subtractive
The age-old belief that three primary colours are required to make white was also proved false
(Helmholtz, 1852). The idea of complimentary spectral colours came into existence and was
To every colour belongs another homogeneous colour, which when mixed with it, gives colourless
light.
Subsequently Helmholtz confirmed that every spectral colour does not have a spectral
complement as proposed by Grassman. A range of green colours ranging from about 484 nm to
about 570 nm, has complimentary colours in the non-spectral purple range.
Colour Communication
recorded and formulated on regular basis. This necessitates systematic classification of colours.
The objects can be classified in various ways in terms of colour. The classification may be based
While communicating or talking about colour, a language which is understandable by both the
parties must be followed. A logical scheme for ordering and specifying colours on the basis of
some clearly defined attributes is known as colour notation system. The attributes are generally
three in number as our vision is trichromatic and they constitute the coordinates of the resultant
‘colour space’. Colour notation systems also encompass ‘colour order systems’ which are
typically comprised of material standards in the form of colour atlas. Due to constraints of colorant
gamut, the atlases may depict only a physically realisable subset of a colour order system.
1) Device dependant systems – the most common imaging devices used for reproducing colour
are the computer controlled CRT displays and the colour printers. The associated colour
order system and colour spaces are hardware-oriented and they lack perceptually based
attributes.
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2) Mathematical systems – uniform colour spaces based on mathematical transformation of CIE
3) Systems based on database of aim points – colour order systems existing principally in
physical form, the colour samples of which can be measured to establish a database of aim
points. Using interpolation techniques among limited available samples, many more colours
can be defined.
The monitors and printers follow device-dependant specification systems. In cathode ray tube
(CRT) displays, colour television, and most computer video displays, colour stimuli are generated
with three different types of phosphors after activated by electron beams. The three additive
primary colours generated by such activation are orange-red, leaf green, and violet. A large
Two most common additive systems used in connection with computer display are RGB (based
on mixing of three additive primary colour red, green and blue produced by the phosphors of the
display unit in cubic space) and HSB (hue, saturation and brightness in cylindrical form).
For instrumental colour measurement of an object, additive primaries are used to predict the
quantity of subtractive colours required to reproduce that colour. This entails the use of standard
source of light, viewing geometry and a standard observer. The expression of colour as numerals
has been standardized by Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) set up in 1931 for
helpful in, communication of colour across the entire supply chain as well as comparing samples
and setting pass-fail criterion for sourcing and supply of products. In this form it is a useful tool for
quality control.
It is very convenient, easily understandable and memorable when the colours are called by
names similar to common objects orange, ultramarine, olive, malachite green, bottle-green,
peanut-green, sea-green etc. But such colour names are very approximate, unreliable and
temporary. Their meaning also changes with observer, time, place, style, technology, language,
culture etc.
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When we deal with a reasonable number of specimen, say a few thousands, to cover the whole
range of possible colours (1millions or more), the specimen must be selected according to a
system or plan. It is well known that the colours are three-dimensional. However, the dimensions
of colour are expressed in various ways in different fields. For systematic arrangements, the
According to him, group B attributes are more useful because it is most easily understood and is
more fundamental for observers to represent colour appearance. However they are less studied
A colour order system is a systematic and rational method of arranging all possible colours or
subsets by means of material samples. Once the colours are arranged systematically they are
2) Colour-mixture system based on additive mixture of colour stimuli e.g. Ostwald system.
3) Colour appearance system based on the principles of colour perception or colour appearance
e.g. Munsell.
Examples of colorant-mixture systems are the colour atlases developed by different dye
manufacturers. ICI colour atlas (1969) was a collection of 1379 original colours and 27,580
Pantone Colour System (Figure 3) is basically a colourant mixture system. The Pantone system
(www.pantone.co.uk) began life in 1963 in the USA, for defining colours for printers, but
expanded into other fields later, e.g. textiles in 1984, plastics in 1993, and architecture and
interiors (1925 colours) in 2002, each of which has a 6-digit numerical notation (e.g. # 19-1764)
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and an inspirational colour name. This is widely used in graphic art and also in textile industry
mainly because of its low cost, though the colours are not equally spaced. The shades are
prepared on paper using printing inks. It is not a colour order system since it does not include a
naming system.
The main emphasis of appearance-based systems is the uniform visual spacing. The systems
thus allow easy interpolation between the samples represented and extrapolation of colours not
illustrated in a given collection. The collections of samples are generally represented in pages of
constant hue.
Six popular colour order systems, country of origin and their respective colour attributes are as
Most popular appearance-based colour order system is Munsell system. The system (Figure 4,
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dimensions which can be represented cylindrically in three dimensions as an irregular colour
solid.
2) Chroma (C) or purity of colour, measured radially outward from the neutral (grey) vertical
axis
10 (white).
The Munsell atlas is usually available on painted paper in glossy (1488 chips) and matt forms
(1277 chips). A method for specifying opaque object colours such as textiles, painted panel etc.
SCOTDIC, a textile version of Munsell created by fusion of two quite different systems - Standard
over 8,000 companies worldwide. Textile standard colours of the SCOTDIC colour system are
widely used as colour tools by fashion colour professionals. The system has three versions -
glossy (2468 colours on polyester crepe fabric), matt (2038 colours on cotton poplin fabric) and
yarn (1100 colours on wool yarns). It has incorporated many bright colours and the number of
constant hue chart has been increased to 54 (20 for Wool). SCOTDIC system uses a six digit
code for each standard colour – the first two digits for hue, the second two digits for value and the
third two digits for chroma. The prefix corresponds to the material of textile bases – P for
Polyester, C for Cotton, W for Wool. Therefore, the notation C-155010 means cotton Standard
sample having hue = 15, value = 50 and chroma = 10 (Roy Choudhury, 2008).
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Most of the material based atlases are now available in digitised form e.g. NCS Digital Atlas
Figure 5 shows two pages from the Munsell Book of Colours. Figure 5 (a) shows hue circle
having samples of 100 hues in two depths (moderate and dark shades) (samples of some hues
are missing). Figure 5 (b) shows constant hue page of hue = 05. In these pages, rows represent
Newton said that (light) rays are not coloured, but merely
perception.
Basically there are three types of colorimetric instruments in use - colorimeter, spectrophotometer
and spectroradiometer. They are available in the market with varying degrees of sophistication
and specialisation. While the spectroradiometer measures in illuminant-mode, the other two
generally measure in object mode. The recent trend on instrumental process control has resulted
in use of on-line instruments. However majority of the colorimetric instruments till date are off-line
and mostly used in laboratories. Laboratory instruments should be highly accurate and
standardised, while on-line instruments should be rugged under various environments and should
The colorimeters measure colour in terms of the quantities of the three primaries required to
match the colour. On the other hand, spectrophotometer measures percent reflectance or
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transmittance of the object plotted against wavelength at regular intervals of 1 nm, 5 nm, 10 nm,
20 nm throughout the visible range of light i.e. 380-750 nm or for practical purposes 400-700 nm.
Colour by Numbers!
The colour of an object depends on the relative quantity of the light reflected at different
wavelengths within the visible range (400-700 nm), but our colour sensation is not analytical in
nature. We cannot judge the existence of lights of different wavelengths individually. We get the
sensation from cumulative effect. As this cumulative quantity can be matched by mixing three
primary lights it is proved that our eyes have three types of colour-detecting cones, the stimuli
generated by them are mixed before reaching to brain. Various other phenomena of colour have
also lead to the conclusion that our eyes have three types of cones only. Each object colour is
sensed by each type of cone separately and each type sends a stimulus to the brain.
So, for each object colour, the brain receives three separate stimuli. Keeping similarity with colour
mixing experiment, we can consider the three types of cones as red-sensitive r, green-sensitive g
and blue-sensitive b equivalent to the three additive primaries. The spectral sensitivity of the three
colour-detecting cones has been measured and named as colour matching data
r (), g (), b () (bar stands for statistical average data of a number of colour normal observers)
and subsequently transformed into more usable CIE standard observer functions,
x ( ), y ( ), z ( ). The area under the functions signifies the amounts of three stimuli to be
transmitted to the brain for the incidence of light having one unit of energy at each of visible
wavelength. These three stimuli are represented by three numbers called CIE tristimulus values
700
100
X=
K
= 400
R( )E( )x( )
100 700
Y= R( )E( ) y( )
K = 400
100 700
Z= R( )E( )z( )
K = 400
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Where E(λ) is the relative spectral energy distribution of the illuminant, R(λ) is the spectral
reflectance factor of the object and x (), y (), z () are the colour matching functions of the CIE
light sources, such as daylight (D65), tungsten lamp (A), fluorescent lamp (F1 to F12),
departmental lamp (TL84) etc., emit different amounts of energy in the visible region of the
spectrum that can be expressed in the form of its relative spectral power distribution (SPD) curve.
An illuminant is an ideal form of a light source with defined SPD. The SPD of light source may
vary, but that of illuminant is constant or defined and hence, it is used for quantification of colour
as mentioned above.
In the visual observing situation, the observer is the human eye that receives the light reflected
from or transmitted through an object and the brain which perceives the vision. Since different
human perceive colour in different ways, subjectively, attempts have been made to standardise
the human observer as a numerical representation of what the average person sees. This
standard observer could then be used in lieu of a human observer when assessments are made
instrumentally. In 1931 CIE published the 2 CIE Standard Observer function based on colour
matching by viewing through a hole of 2 field of view. Later it came to know that cones present in
a larger area of the eye. Hence, in 1964, the 10 Standard Observer function was developed
When two objects have equal tristimulus values under a particular illuminant, they will look alike in
colour under the said illuminant. If their reflectance curves are same they will look alike in colour
under any illuminant (universal match). Otherwise they may or may not differ in colour when the
illuminant is changed. On the other hand, two alike colours with different lightness may have
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X Y Z
x = ————, y = ————, z = ————
X+Y+Z X+Y+Z X+Y+Z
specify chromaticity. Instead of tristimulus values (X, Y, Z), colours can also be specified by a
luminance parameter Y and two colour coordinates x and y (Yxy colour space).
However, none of the chromaticity coordinates is correlated with any meaningful visual attribute
of colour.
When the chromaticity coordinates of spectral colours are plotted in such diagram, a horse-shoe
shaped curve called chromaticity diagram is obtained. Chromaticity diagram is of great help in
finding colours generated by additive colour mixing. If two lights are represented by two points on
the chromaticity diagram, any additive mixture of the two will correspond to a point on the straight
line joining the two points. Since the locus of spectral colours is concave, all real colours must fall
within the area bounded by the spectrum locus and joining the ends.
Figure 6 shows CIE 1976 chromaticity diagram along with location of different spectral colours
(i.e. monochromatic lights of different wavelengths in nm). The figure also shows the regions of
locations of different surface colours viewed under daylight. Approximately in the centre of the
colours.
measurement. The system is unchanged since 1931 except some minor change in 1964. CIE
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tristimulus values are related only to the colour. It ignores all other aspects like surface texture,
gloss etc. which influence colour appearance significantly. It does not take into account
geometrical arrangements for illumination and viewing and the instrumental measures will match
The main limitation of CIE system is its visual non-uniformity. Equal changes in Yxy colour space
do not correspond to equal colour perception. In other words, the distribution of colours in CIE
CIE tristimulus values or chromaticity coordinates are not very convenient for identifying colour of
the objects, because these were designed for colour stimuli of different modes. None of the
values are directly correlated with any visual attributes of colour. Only Y value has high
correlation with luminance and object lightness. The spacing of colours in chromaticity diagram is
not visible uniform. A number of uniform colour scales are, therefore, developed which can
represent colours with equal visual spacing and are directly related to meaningful attributes of
colour appearance.
In 1976 CIE recommended CIELUV and CIELAB uniform colour spaces. Colorant industries were
in favour of a formula similar to Adam-Nickerson (AN40) formula, popular at that time. The
CIELAB formula was acceptable as colour-difference values were about 1.1 times those
produced by AN40 formula. On the other hand, television industries preferred a colour space
(CIELUV) associated with a chromaticity diagram because of its simple way of presentation of
additive mixture which also occur in television and other display devices. No simple relation exists
Both CIELUV and CIELAB formulae are plotted on rectangular coordinates. Lightness L* function
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Subscript n represent nominally white object colour stimulus given by a perfect reflecting diffuser
as reference surface illuminated by standard illuminant. For standard daylight illuminant D65, the
values are: Xn = 95.047, Yn = 100.000, Zn =108.883. White object has been taken into account
In recent years efforts have been made to define CIE correlates for perceptual attributes like
lightness, chroma and hue. Hence, two new attributes corresponding to visual attributes have
– the positive values are for red and negative for green. Similarly positive b* values are for yellow
Colour Difference
Measurement of difference in colour between two objects is one of the most complicated aspects
attribute like hue, chroma or lightness. For colorant users like textile, leather, paper or paint
industries, the difference in colour of two specimens namely a standard and a sample or of
different portions of a coloured specimen may be more important than the measurement of
absolute colour (Luo, 1986). The prime difficulty is that the perception of colour-difference by an
individual is not a precise phenomenon and may vary on successive assessment (Zeller and
Hemmendinger, 1978). Colour-difference perception and evaluation may also vary widely among
individuals.
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The colour-difference evaluation is necessary for day to day colour control and for colour
matching in colouration industries like textile, paint etc. Colour-difference formulae have
The colour differences are calculated by subtracting values of the standard from the respective
values of the sample. The total colour-difference (ΔE) is intended to be single number metric for
pass/fail decisions and in the CIELAB system ΔE is given by the following equation:
In addition to the overall colour difference (ΔE), the difference in individual parameters of the
ΔE (CIELAB) values are not always reliable in predicting perceptible differences between object
colours, especially when the variations are in different visual attributes. This is due to the fact that
The formulae based on surface-mode colour discrimination data mainly aimed at single number
shade-passing. Much of the available visual data related to physical samples are supplied by the
textile and dye industries, where prime criteria is that whether the colours will be acceptable
Main reason for poor correlation with visual data of the earlier formulae was equal weighting of
the colour parameters. The weighted values of lightness, chroma and hue showed significant
empirical fitting to experimental data-sets. These formulae are optimized by visual acceptability/
perceptibility scaling. They represent most closely the average visual results of judgments of
colour difference of textile and other physical samples under normal evaluation conditions
(Kuehni, 1984)
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1) JPC79 colour-difference Formula
However, none of the above formulae is completely satisfactory and acceptability of a particular
Colorimetry is the science of quantitative measurement of colour. Even though study on colour
science started as far back as the Newtonian age, research continues even today. Colour
Science is a vast field. Hunt (1977) identified three phases of development of colorimetry - colour
matching, colour difference evaluation and lastly, prediction of colour appearance. It is now
possible to predict colour appearance of an object under a test illuminant from the colour
appearance data under a reference illuminant with the help of complex mathematical
transformations.
References
Judd D.B. and Wyszecki G. (1975). Color in business, science and industry, 3rd Ed., John Wiley
Kuehni R. G. (1984). Colour Technology in the Textile Industry, AATCC, U.S.A., pp.123.
Kuehni R. G. (2005), Colour: an introduction to practice and principles, New Jersey, Wiley-
Interscience.
Leblon C. Jacob (1756). Coloritto or the harmony of colouring in painting, English and French
Luo M.R. (1986). New Colour Difference Formula for Surface Colours, Ph.D Thesis, University of
Optical society of America (OSA) (1953). The science of color, Committee on Colorimetry,
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Rhodes P A (2002), Colour notation systems. In Colour Engineering, P Green and L MacDonald
Roy Choudhury A.K. (2000). Modern concepts of colour and appearance, Science publishers
Roy Choudhury A.K. (2008), ‘Colorimetric Study of SCOTDIC Colour Specifier’, Color.
Roy Choudhury A.K. (2010). Chapter 2. Scales for communicating colour in Colour Measurement:
Sobel Michael I. (1989). Light, University of Chicago Press. pp. 52–62. ISBN 0226767515.
Wright W D (1984), ‘The basic concepts and attributes of colour order systems’, Col. Res. Appl.,
9, 229-233.
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