Color space

A color model is an abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as
tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or color components (e.g. RGB and CMYK are
color models). However, a color model with no associated mapping function to an absolute color space
is a more or less arbitrary color system with little connection to the requirements of any given
application.

Adding a certain mapping function between the color model and a certain reference color space results
in a definite "footprint" within the reference color space. This "footprint" is known as a gamut, and, in
combination with the color model, defines a new color space. For example, Adobe RGB and sRGB
are two different absolute color spaces, both based on the RGB model.

In the most generic sense of the definition above, color spaces can be defined without the use of a
color model. These spaces, such as Pantone, are in effect a given set of names or numbers which are
defined by the existence of a corresponding set of physical color swatches. This article focuses on the
mathematical model concept.

Understanding the concept

Most people have heard that a wide range of colors can be created by the primary colors red, blue, and
yellow, if working with paints. Those colors then define a color space. We can specify the amount of
red color as the X axis, the amount of blue as the Y axis, and the amount of yellow as the Z axis,
giving us a three-dimensional space, wherein every possible color has a unique position.

However, this is not the only color space. For instance, when colors are displayed on a computer
monitor, they are usually defined in the RGB (red, green and blue) color space. This is another way of
making the same colors, and red, green and blue can be considered as the X, Y and Z axes. Another
way of making the same colors is to use their hue (X axis), their saturation (Y axis) and their
brightness (Z axis). This is called the HSV color space. Many color spaces can be represented as three-
dimensional (X,Y,Z) values in this manner, but some have more, or fewer dimensions, and some
cannot be represented in this way at all.

Notes

When formally defining a color space, the usual reference standard is the CIELAB or CIEXYZ color
spaces, which were specifically designed to encompass all colors the average human can see. This is
the most accurate color space but is too complex for everyday uses.

Since "color space" is a more specific term for a certain combination of a color model plus a color
mapping function, the term "color space" tends to be used to also identify color models, since
identifying a color space automatically identifies the associated color model. Informally, the two terms
are often used interchangeably, though this is strictly incorrect. For example, although several specific
color spaces are based on the RGB model, there is no such thing as the RGB color space.
Since any color space defines colors as a function of the absolute reference frame, color spaces, along
with device profiling, allow reproducible representations of color, in both analogue and digital
representations.

Color space density

The RGB color model is implemented in different ways, depending on the capabilities of the system
used. By far the most common general-use incarnation as of 2006 is the 24-bit implementation, with 8
bits, or 256 discrete levels of color per channel. Any color space based on such a 24-bit RGB model is
thus limited to a gamut of 256×256×256 ≈ 16.7 million colors. Some implementations use 16 bits per
component, resulting in the same range with a greater density of distinct colors. This is especially
important when working with wide-gamut color spaces (where most of the more common colors are
located relatively close together), or when a large number of digital filtering algorithms are used
consecutively. The same principle applies for any color spaces based on the same color model, but
implemented in different bit depths.

Partial list of color spaces

CIE 1931 XYZ color space is the first attempt to produce a color space based on measurements of
human color perception and it is the basis for almost all other color spaces. Variants of the CIE space
include

 CIELUV color space - a modification to display color differences more conveniently, replaced
by:
 CIELAB color space
 CIE 1964 color space - measurements over a larger field of view than the 1931 color space
which produces slightly different results.

Generic color models

RGB uses additive color mixing, because it describes what kind of light needs to be emitted to produce
a given color. Light is added together to create form from out of the darkness. RGB stores individual
values for red, green and blue. RGBA is RGB with an additional channel, alpha, to indicate
transparency.

Common color spaces based on the RGB model include sRGB, Adobe RGB and Adobe Wide Gamut
RGB.

CMYK uses subtractive color mixing used in the printing process, because it describes what kind of
inks need to be applied so the light reflected from the substrate and through the inks produces a given
color. One starts with a white substrate(canvas, page, etc), and uses ink to subtract color from white to
create an image. CMYK stores ink values for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. There are many
CMYK colorspaces for different sets of inks, substrates, and press characteristics (which change the
dot gain or transfer function for each ink and thus change the appearance).
YIQ was formerly used in NTSC (North America, Japan and elsewhere) television broadcasts for
historical reasons. This system stores a luminance value with two chrominance values, corresponding
approximately to the amounts of blue and red in the color. It corresponds closely to the YUV scheme
used in PAL (Australia, Europe, except France, which uses SECAM) television except that the YIQ
color space is rotated 33° with respect to the YUV color space. The YDbDr scheme used by SECAM
television is rotated in another way. (work needed)

YPbPr is a scaled version of YUV. It is most commonly seen in its digital form, YCbCr, used widely
in video and image compression schemes such as MPEG and JPEG.

xvYCC is a new international digital video color space standard based on the Munsell Color Cascade
system accepted by the IEC.

HSV (hue, saturation, value), also known as HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) is often used by artists
because it is often more natural to think about a color in terms of hue and saturation than in terms of
additive or subtractive color components. HSV is a transformation of an RGB colorspace, and its
components and colorimetry are relative to the RGB colorspace from which it was derived.

HSL (hue, saturation, lightness/luminance), also known as HLS or HSI (hue, saturation, intensity) is
quite similar to HSV, with "lightness" replacing "brightness". The difference is that the brightness of a
pure color is equal to the brightness of white, while the lightness of a pure color is equal to the
lightness of a medium gray.

Once you've decided which color model you want to work in, if you are working on a computer, you
must then address the problem of color space encoding.

Hue

A hue refers to the gradation of color within the visible spectrum, or optical spectrum, of light. "Hue"
may also refer to a particular color within this spectrum, as defined by its dominant wavelength, or the
central tendency of its combined wavelengths. For example, a light wave with a central tendency
within 565-590 nm will be yellow.

In painting color theory, a hue refers to a pure color —one without added white (tint) or black (shade)
pigment. A hue is a color on the Color wheel.

In an RGB color space, hue can be thought of as an angle φ in standard position. To calculate φ, let R,
G, B be the color coordinates in RGB space, defined on a scale from zero to one. Then, after obtaining
the brightness μ and the saturation σ, the hue could be obtained from

(Compare with standard score). Using this formula, φ = 0° [0c] would corresponds to red, while φ =
120° [2π/3c] would correspond to blue, and φ = 240° [4π/3c] would correspond to green.
The RGB coordinates should be derivable from the μ, σ, φ coordinates as follows:

Hue is a coordinate (an angle of rotation) in HSL color space and HSV color space.

Manufacturers of pigments use the word hue e.g. 'Cadmium Yellow (hue)' to indicate that the original
pigmentation ingredient, often toxic, has been replaced by safer (or cheaper) alternatives whilst
retaining the hue of the original. Replacements are often used for Chromium, Cadmium and Alizarin.

Saturation (color theory)

In color theory, saturation or purity is the intensity of a specific hue. A highly saturated hue has a
vivid, intense color, while a less saturated hue appears more muted and grey. With no saturation at all,
the hue becomes a shade of gray. Saturation is one of three components of the HSL color space and
the HSV color space.

The saturation of a color is determined by a combination of light intensity and how much it is
distributed across the spectrum of different wavelengths. The purest color is achieved by using just
one wavelength at a high intensity such as in laser light. If the intensity drops the saturation also drops.
To desaturate a color in a subtractive system (such as watercolor), the person can add white, black,
gray, or the hue's complement.

Purity in CIE 1931 XYZ color space

In the CIE XYZ color space, the purity or saturation is the Euclidean distance between the position
of the color (x,y) and the illuminant's white point (xI,yI) on the CIE xy projective plane, divided by the
same distance for a pure (monochromatic, or dichromatic on the purple line) color with the same hue
(xP,yP) = ρmax(x − xI,y − yI) + (xI,yI) :

and ρmax maximal within the boundary of the chromaticity diagram.

Saturation in RGB color space

In an RGB color space, saturation can be thought of as the standard deviation σ of the color
coordinates R(red), G(green), and B(blue). Letting μ represent the brightness, then
 .

An example of saturation in layman's terms in the RGB color model is one in which a person has
maximum saturation if he or she has 100% brightness in the red channel while having 0% brightness
in the other channels; he or she would have no saturation if all the color channels were equal. Thus,
saturation is the difference between the values of the channels.

In term of absolute colorimetry, this simple definition in the RGB color space exhibits several
problems. The RGB color space is not an absolute colorimetric space; therefore, the value of saturation
is arbitrary, depending on the choice of the color primaries and the white point illuminant. For
example, the RGB colorspace does not necessarily have an unitary Jacobian in term of absolute
colorimetry.

Although the above math would make a lot more sense, most (all?) software that represents a
saturation value to the user returns this value:

Chromaticity in CIE 1976 L*a*b* and L*u*v* color spaces

The naïve definition of saturation does not specify its response function. In the CIE XYZ and RGB
color spaces, the saturation is defined in terms of additive color mixing and has the property of being
proportional to any scaling centered at white or the white point illuminant. However, neither color
space is linear in term of psychovisually perceived color differences. It is also possible and sometimes
desirable to define a saturation-like quantity that is linearized in term of the psychovisual perception.

In the CIE 1976 L*a*b* and L*u*v* color spaces, the unnormalized chromaticity is the radial
component of the cylindrical coordinate CIE L*C*h (luminance, chromaticity, hue) representation of
the L*a*b* and L*u*v* color spaces, also denoted as CIE L*C*h(a*b*) or CIE L*C*h for short and
CIE L*C*h(u*v*). The transformation of (a * ,b * ) to (C * ,h) is given by

and analogously for CIE L*C*h(u*v*).

The chromaticity in the CIE L*C*h(a*b*) and CIE L*C*h(u*v*) coordinates has the advantage of
being more psychovisually linear, yet they are non-linear in the in term of linear component color
mixing. Therefore, chromaticity in CIE 1976 L*a*b* and L*u*v* color spaces is very different from
the traditional sense of "saturation".
Chromaticity in color appearance models

Another, psychovisually even more accurate, more complex method to obtain or specify the saturation
is to use the color appearance model, like CIECAM. The chromaticity component of the JCh
(lightness, chromaticity, hue) coordinate and becomes a function of parameters like the chrominance
and physical brightness of the illumination, or the characteristics of the emitting/reflecting surface,
which is also psychovisually more sensible.

Brightness

Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to emit a given amount of
light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target.

"Brightness" was formerly used as a synonym for the photometric term luminance and (incorrectly)
for the radiometric term radiance. According to Federal Standard 1037C, "brightness" should now be
used only for nonquantitative references to physiological sensations and perceptions of light.

Note, that the same target luminance can elicit different perceptions of brightness in different contexts.
(See, e.g. White's illusion and Wertheimer-Benary illusion)

In the RGB color space, brightness can be thought of as the arithmetic mean μ of the Red, Green, and
Blue color coordinates (although some of the three components make the light seem brighter than
others, which, again, may be compensated by some display systems automatically):

Brightness is also a color coordinate in HSB color space.

Commercial color spaces

 Munsell color system

 Natural Color System (NCS)

Special-purpose color spaces

 The RG Chromaticity space is used in Computer vision applications, and shows the color of
light (red, yellow, green etc.), but not its intensity (dark, bright).

Obsolete color spaces

Early color spaces had two components. They largely ignored blue light because the added complexity
of a 3-component process provided only a marginal increase in fidelity when compared to the jump
from monochrome to 2-component color.
  RG for early Technicolor film
 RGK for early color printing

Lab color space

Lab is the abbreviated name of two different color spaces. The best known is CIELAB (strictly CIE
1976 L*a*b*) and the other is Hunter Lab (strictly, Hunter L, a, b). Lab is an informal abbreviation,
and without further checking should not be assumed to be one or the other. The color spaces are
related in intention and purpose, but are different.

Both spaces are derived from the "master" space CIE 1931 XYZ color space. However, CIELAB is
calculated using cube roots, and Hunter Lab is calculated using square roots.[1] Except where data must
be compared with existing Hunter L,a,b values, it is recommended that CIELAB be used for new
applications.[1]

The intention of both spaces is to produce a color space that is more perceptually linear than other
color spaces. Perceptually linear means that a change of the same amount in a color value should
produce a change of about the same visual importance. When storing colors in limited precision
values, this can improve the reproduction of tones. Both are also absolute color spaces, so they define
colors exactly, unlike (for example) RGB or CMYK which do not exactly define color, only a mixing
recipe for light or ink (respectively).

Which Lab?

Some specific uses of the abbreviation in software, literature etc.

 In Adobe Photoshop, image editing using "Lab" is CIELAB.

 In ICC Profiles, the Lab color space used as a profile connection space is CIELAB.
 In TIFF files, the Lab color space is CIELAB.
 In PDF documents, the Lab color space is CIELAB.

CIE 1976 L*, a*, b* Color Space (CIELAB)

CIE L*a*b* (CIELAB) is the most complete color model used conventionally to describe all the
colors visible to the human eye. It was developed for this specific purpose by the International
Commission on Illumination (Commission Internationale d'Eclairage, hence its CIE initialism). The *
after L, a and b are part of the full name, since they represent L*, a* and b*, derived from L, a and b.
CIELAB is an Adams Chromatic Value Space.

The three parameters in the model represent the lightness of the color (L*, L*=0 yields black and
L*=100 indicates white), its position between magenta and green (a*, negative values indicate green
while positive values indicate magenta) and its position between yellow and blue (b*, negative values
indicate blue and positive values indicate yellow).

The Lab color model has been created to serve as a device independent, absolute model to be used as a
reference. Therefore it is crucial to realize that the visual representations of the full gamut of colors in
this model are never accurate. They are there just to help in understanding the concept, but they are
inherently inaccurate.

Since the Lab model is a three dimensional model, it can only be represented properly in a three
dimensional space. A useful feature of the model however is that the first parameter is extremely
intuitive: changing its value is like changing the brightness setting in a TV set. Therefore only a few
representations of some horizontal "slices" in the model are enough to conceptually visualize the
whole gamut, assuming that the luminance would be represented on the vertical axis.

CIE 1976 L*a*b* is based directly on the CIE 1931 XYZ color space as an attempt to linearize the
perceptibility of color differences, using the color difference metric described by the MacAdam
ellipse. The non-linear relations for L*, a*, and b* are intended to mimic the logarithmic response of
the eye. Coloring information is referred to the color of the white point of the system, subscript n.

RGB and CMYK conversions

Programmers and others often seek a formula for conversion between RGB or CMYK values and
L*a*b*, not understanding that RGB and CMYK are not absolute color spaces and so have no precise
relation to an absolute color space such as L*a*b*. To convert between RGB and L*a*b*, for
example, it is necessary to determine or assume an absolute color space for the RGB data, such as
sRGB or Adobe RGB. For each of these absolute spaces, there are standard techniques for converting
to and from the XYZ absolute color space (see for example SRGB color space#Specification of the
transformation) which can be combined with the following transformations to convert them to L*a*b*.

XYZ to CIE L*a*b* (CIELAB) and CIELAB to XYZ conversions

The forward transformation

where

for
otherwise

Here Xn, Yn and Zn are the CIE XYZ tristimulus values of the reference white point.

The division of the f(t) function into two domains was done to prevent an infinite slope at t=0. f(t) was
assumed to be linear below some t=t0, and was assumed to match the t1/3 part of the function at t0 in
both value and slope. In other words:

(match in value)
 (match in slope)

The value of b was chosen to be 16/116. The above two equations can be solved for a and t0:

where δ = 6 / 29. Note that 16 / 116 = 2δ / 3

The reverse transformation

The reverse transformation is as follows (with δ = 6 / 29 as mentioned above):

1. define
2. define
3. define
4. if then    else
5. if then    else
6. if then    else

XYZ to CIELUV & CIELUV to XYZ conversions

The forward transformation

CIE 1976 L*u*v* (CIELUV) is based directly on CIE XYZ and is another attempt to linearize the
perceptibility of color differences. The non-linear relations for L*, u*, and v* are given below:

The quantities un' and vn' refer to the reference white point or the light source. (For example, for the 2°
observer and illuminant C, un' = 0.2009, vn' = 0.4610.) Equations for u' and v' are given below:

The reverse transformation

The transformation from (u',v') to (x,y) is:

 .

The transformation from CIELUV to XYZ is performed as following:

Hunter Lab Color Space

L is a correlate of Lightness, and is computed from the Y tristimulus value using Priest's
Approximation to Munsell Value:

where Yn is the Y tristimulus value of a specified white object. For surface-color applications, the
specified white object is usually (though not always) a hypothetical material with unit reflectance and
which follows Lambert's law.. The result will be Ls scaled between 0 (black) and 100 (white); roughly
10 times Munsell value. Note, however, that a mid-range Lightness of 50 is produced not by a Y of 50,
but rather of 25.

a and b are termed opponent color axes. a represents, roughly, Redness (positive) versus Greenness
(negative), and is computed:

where Ka is a coefficient which depends upon the illuminant (for D65, Ka is 172.30; see approximate
formula below) and Xn is the X tristimulus value of the specified white object.

The other opponent color axis, b, is positive for yellow colors and negative for blue colors. It is
computed as:

where Kb is a coefficient which depends upon the illuminant (for D65, Kb is 67.20; see approximate
formula below) and Zn is the Z tristimulus value of the specified white object.[2]
Both a and b will be zero for objects which have the same chromaticity coordinates as the specified
white objects. Usually this is the case for neutrals.

Approximate Formulas for Ka and Kb

In the previous version of the Hunter Lab color space, Ka was 175 and Kb was 70. Apparently, Hunter
Associates Lab discovered that better agreement could be obtained with other color difference metrics,
such as CIELAB (see below) by allowing these coefficients to depend upon the illuminants.
Approximate formulae are:

which result in the original values for Illuminant C, the original illuminant with which the Lab color
space was used.

The Hunter Lab Color Space as an Adams Chromatic Valance Space

Adams Chromatic Valance spaces are based on two elements: a (relatively) uniform lightness scale,
and a (relatively) uniform chromaticity diagram.[3] If we take as the uniform lightness scale Priest's
approximation to the Munsell Value scale, which would be written in modern notation:

and, as the uniform chromaticity coordinates:

where ke is a tuning coefficient, we obtain the two chromatic axes:

and
which is identical to the Hunter Lab formulae given above if we select K = Ka / 100 and ke = Kb / Ka.
Therefore, the Hunter Lab color space is an Adams Chromatic Valance space.

CIE 1931 color space

In the study of the perception of color, one of the first mathematically defined color spaces was the
CIE XYZ color space (also known as CIE 1931 color space), created by the International
Commission on Illumination (CIE) in 1931.

The human eye has receptors for short (S), middle (M), and long (L) wavelengths, also known as blue,
green, and red receptors. That means that one, in principle, needs three parameters to describe a color
sensation. A specific method for associating three numbers (or tristimulus values) with each color is
called a color space: the CIE XYZ color space is one of many such spaces. However, the CIE XYZ
color space is special, because it is based on direct measurements of the human eye, and serves as the
basis from which many other color spaces are defined.

The CIE XYZ color space was derived from a series of experiments done in the late 1920s by W.
David Wright (Wright 1928) and John Guild (Guild 1931). Their experimental results were combined
into the specification of the CIE RGB color space, from which the CIE XYZ color space was derived.
This article is actually concerned with both of these color spaces.

In the CIE XYZ color space, the tristimulus values are not the S, M, and L stimuli of the human eye,
but rather a set of tristimulus values called X, Y, and Z, which are also roughly red, green and blue,
respectively. Two light sources may be made up of different mixtures of various colors, and yet have
the same color (metamerism). If two light sources have the same apparent color, then they will have
the same tristimulus values, no matter what different mixtures of light were used to produce them.
The CIE xy chromaticity diagram

The CIE 1931 color space chromaticity diagram. The outer curved portion is the spectral (or
monochromatic) locus, with wavelengths shown in nanometers. Note that the colors depicted depend
on the color space of the device on which you are viewing the image, and therefore may not be a
strictly accurate representation of the color at a particular position.

Since the human eye has three types of color sensor that respond to different ranges of wavelengths, a
full plot of all visible colors is a three-dimensional figure. However, the concept of color can be
divided into two parts: brightness and chromaticity. For example, the color white is a bright color,
while the color grey is considered to be a less bright version of that same white. In other words, the
chromaticity of white and grey are the same while their brightness differs.

The CIE XYZ color space was deliberately designed so that the Y parameter was a measure of the
brightness or luminance of a color. The chromaticity of a color was then specified by the two derived
parameters x and y which are functions of all three tristimulus values X, Y, and Z:

The X and Z tristimulus values can be calculated back from the chromaticity values x and y and the Y
tristimulus value:
The figure on the right shows the related chromaticity diagram. The outer curved boundary is the
spectral locus, with wavelengths shown in nanometers. Note that the chromaticity diagram is a tool to
specify how the human eye will experience light with a given spectrum. It cannot specify colors of
objects (or printing inks), since the chromaticity observed while looking at an object depends on the
light source as well.

Mathematically, x and y are projective coordinates and the colors of the chromaticity diagram occupy
a region of the real projective plane.

The chromaticity diagram illustrates a number of interesting properties of the CIE XYZ color space:

 The diagram represents all of the chromaticities visible to the average person. These are shown
in color and this region is called the gamut of human vision. The gamut of all visible
chromaticities on the CIE plot is the tongue-shaped or horseshoe-shaped figure shown in color.
The curved edge of the gamut is called the spectral locus and corresponds to monochromatic
light, with wavelengths listed in nanometers. The straight edge on the lower part of the gamut
is called the purple line. These colors, although they are on the border of the gamut, have no
counterpart in monochromatic light. Less saturated colors appear in the interior of the figure
with white at the center.

 It is seen that all visible chromaticities correspond to positive values of x and y (and therefore
to positive values of X, Y, and Z).

 If one chooses any two points on the chromaticity diagram, then all colors that can be formed
by mixing these two colors lie between those two points, on a straight line connecting them. It
follows that the gamut of colors must be convex in shape. All colors that can be formed by
mixing three sources are found inside the triangle formed by the source points on the
chromaticity diagram (and so on for multiple sources).

 The mixture of two equally bright colors will not generally lie on the midpoint of that line
segment. In more general terms, a distance on the xy chromaticity diagram does not correspond
to the degree of difference between two colors. Other color spaces (CIELuv and CIELab in
particular) have been designed to meet this problem.

 It can be seen that, given three real sources, these sources cannot cover the gamut of human
vision. Geometrically stated, there are no three points lying within the gamut that include the
entire gamut.

 Light with a flat energy spectrum corresponds to the point (x,y) = (1/3,1/3).
Definition of the CIE XYZ color space

Experimental results - The CIE RGB color space

In the 1920s, W. David Wright (Wright 1928) and John Guild (Guild 1931) independently conducted a
series of experiments on human sight which laid the foundation for the specification of the CIE XYZ
color space.

Gamut of the CIE RGB primaries and location of primaries on the CIE 1931 xy chromaticity diagram.

The experiments were conducted by using a circular split screen 2 degrees in size, which is the angular
size of the human fovea. On one side of the field a test color was projected and on the other side, an
observer-adjustable color was projected. The adjustable color was a mixture of three primary colors,
each with fixed chromaticity, but with adjustable brightness.

The observer would alter the brightness of each of the three primary beams until a match to the test
color was observed. Not all test colors could be matched using this technique. When this was the case,
a variable amount of one of the primaries could be added to the test color, and a match with the
remaining two primaries was carried out with the variable color spot. For these cases, the amount of
the primary added to the test color was considered to be a negative value. In this way, the entire range
of human color perception could be covered. When the test colors were monochromatic, a plot could
be made of the amount of each primary used as a function of the wavelength of the test color. These
three functions are called the color matching functions for that particular experiment.
The CIE 1931 RGB Color matching functions.

Although Wright and Guild's experiments were carried out using various primaries at various
intensities, and a number of different observers, all of their results were summarized by the
standardized CIE RGB color matching functions , , and , shown in the plot on the
right (CIE 1931). Note that and are zero at 435.8, and are zero at 546.1 and
and are zero at 700 nm. These color matching functions are the amounts of three standard
monochromatic primaries needed to match the monochromatic test primary at the wavelength shown
on the horizontal scale. The three monochromatic primaries are at standardized wavelengths of 700 nm
(red), 546.1 nm (green) and 435.8 nm (blue). The last two wavelengths were chosen because they are
easily reproducible monochromatic lines of a mercury vapor discharge. The 700 nm wavelength,
which in 1931 was difficult to reproduce as a monochromatic beam, was chosen because it is at the
peak of the eye's red response, and therefore small errors in wavelength of this primary would have
little effect on the results.

The color matching functions and primaries were settled upon by a CIE special commission after
considerable deliberation (Fairman 1997). The cut-offs at the short- and long-wavelength side of the
diagram are chosen somewhat arbitrarily; the human eye can actually see light with wavelengths up to
about 810 nm, but with a sensitivity that is many thousand times lower than for green light. These
color matching functions define what is known as the "1931 CIE standard observer". Note that rather
than specify the brightness of each primary, the curves are normalized to have constant area beneath
them. This area is fixed to a particular value by specifying that

The resulting primaries are found to be in the ratio of 1:4.5907:0.0601 for luminosity and
72.0962:1.3791:1 for radiant power. By proposing that the primaries be standardized, the CIE
established an international system of objective color notation.
Grassmann's law

One might ask: "Why is it possible that Wright and Guild's results can be summarized using different
primaries and different intensities from those actually used?" One might also ask: "What about the
case when the test colors being matched are not monochromatic?" The answer to both of these
questions lies in the (near) linearity of human color perception. This linearity is expressed in
Grassmann's law (optics).

The CIE RGB space can be used to define chromaticity in the usual way: The chromaticity coordinates
are r and g where:

Construction of the CIE XYZ color space from the Wright-Guild data

Having developed an RGB model of human vision using the CIE RGB matching functions, the
members of the special commission wished to develop another color space which related to the CIE
RGB color space. It was assumed that Grassmann's law held, and the new space would be related to
the CIE RGB space by a linear transformation. The new space would be defined in terms of three new
color matching functions , , and . The corresponding XYZ tristimulus values for a
color with a spectral power distribution I(λ) would then be given by:
Diagram in CIE rg chromaticity space showing the construction of the triangle specifying the CIE
XYZ color space. The triangle Cb-Cg-Cr is just the xy=(0,0),(0,1),(1,0) triangle in CIE xy chromaticity
space. The line connecting Cb and Cr is the alychne. Notice that the spectral locus passes through
rg=(0,0) at 435.8 nm, through rg=(0,1) at 546.1 nm and through rg=(1,0) at 700 nm. Also, the equal
energy point (E) is at rg=xy=(1/3,1/3).

The new color space would be chosen to have the following desirable properties:

1. The new color matching functions were to be everywhere greater than or equal to zero. In
1931, computations were done by hand or slide rule, and the specification of positive values
was a useful computational simplification.
2. The color matching function would be exactly equal to the photopic luminous efficiency
function V(λ) for the "CIE standard photopic observer" (CIE 1926). The luminance function
describes the variation of perceived brightness with wavelength. The fact that the luminance
function could be constructed by a linear combination of the RGB color matching functions
was not guaranteed by any means but might be expected to be nearly true due to the near-linear
nature of human sight. Again, the main reason for this requirement was computational
simplification.
3. For the constant energy white point, it was required that x = y = z = 1/3.
4. By virtue of the definition of chromaticity and the requirement of positive values of x and y, it
can be seen that the gamut of all colors will lie inside the triangle [1,0], [0,0], [0,1]. It was
required that the gamut fill this space practically completely.
5. It was found that the color matching function could be set to zero above 650 nm while
remaining within the bounds of experimental error. For computational simplicity, it was
specified that this would be so.

In geometrical terms, choosing the new color space amounts to choosing a new triangle in rg
chromaticity space. In the figure on the right, the rg chromaticity coordinates are shown on the two
axes in black, along with the gamut of the 1931 standard observer. Shown in red are the CIE xy
chromaticity axes which were determined by the above requirements. The requirement that the XYZ
coordinates be non-negative means that the triangle formed by Cr, Cg, Cb must encompass the entire
gamut of the standard observer. The line connecting Cr and Cb is fixed by the requirement that the
function be equal to the luminance function. This line is the line of zero luminance, and is called
the alychne. The requirement that the function be zero below 650 nm means that the line
connecting Cg and Cr must be tangent to the gamut in the region of Kr. This defines the location of
point Cr. The requirement that the equal energy point be defined by x = y = 1/3 puts a restriction on the
line joining Cb and Cg, and finally, the requirement that the gamut fill the space puts a second
restriction on this line to be very close to the gamut in the green region, which specifies the location of
Cg and Cb. The above described transformation is a linear transformation from RGB space to XYZ
space. The standardized transformation settled upon by the CIE special commission was as follows:

CIE 1931 Standard Colorimetric Observer XYZ functions between 380 nm and 780 nm (at 5 nm
intervals)

The integrals of the XYZ color matching functions must all be equal by requirement 3 above, and this
is set by the integral of the photopic luminous efficiency function by requirement 2 above. It must be
noted that the tabulated sensitivity curves have a certain amount of arbitrariness in them. The shapes of
the individual X, Y and Z sensitivity curves can be measured with a reasonable accuracy. However, the
overall luminosity curve (which in fact is a weighted sum of these three curves) is subjective, since it
involves asking a test person whether two light sources have the same brightness, even if they are in
completely different colors. Along the same lines, the relative magnitudes of the X, Y, and Z curves
are arbitrary. One could as well define a valid color space with an X sensitivity curve that has twice the
amplitude. This new color space would have a different shape. The sensitivity curves in the CIE 1931
and 1964 XYZ color spaces are scaled to have equal areas under the curves.
Problems and solutions
 The 1924 luminous efficiency function V(λ) (CIE 1926) seriously underestimates sensitivity at
wavelengths below 460 nm. Judd (1951) and Vos (1978) proposed a modified version of the
luminous-efficiency function, which also gives a new set of XYZ color matching functions.
See also Stiles and Burch (1955).

 The CIE 1964 Standard Observer color matching functions are defined for a 10 degree field of
view. They were derived from the work of Stiles and Burch (1959), and Speranskaya (1959).
The 1931 standard observer field of view was 2 degrees which covers only the fovea. For the
10 degree experiments, the observers were instructed to ignore the central 2-degree spot. The
1964 supplementary standard observer is recommended for more than about a 4 degree field of
view.

 A problem with the CIE 1931 color system is that it does not give a direct way of estimating
color differences. It would be desirable if a distance on a chromaticity diagram corresponded to
the degree of difference between two colors. The idea of measuring the difference between two
colors was developed by D.L. MacAdam and summarized in the concept of a MacAdam
ellipse. Based on the work of MacAdam, the CIELuv color space was developed in 1960 and
was later replaced by the CIELab color space, both of which were designed to have an equal
distance in the color space correspond to equal differences in color, as measured by MacAdam.
Although they were a distinct improvement over the CIE 1931 system, they were not
completely free of distortion.