Color science is the scientific study of color including lighting and optics; measurement of light and color; the physiology, psychophysics, and modeling of color vision; and color reproduction. It is the modern extension of traditional color theory.
The preeminent scholarly journal publishing research papers in color science is Color Research and Application , [1] started in 1975 by founding editor-in-chief Fred Billmeyer, along with Gunter Wyszecki, Michael Pointer and Rolf Kuehni, as a successor to the Journal of Colour (1964–1974). Previously most color science work had been split between journals with broader or partially overlapping focus such as the Journal of the Optical Society of America (JOSA), Photographic Science and Engineering (1957–1984), and the Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists (renamed Coloration Technology in 2001).
Other journals where color science papers are published include the Journal of Imaging Science & Technology , the Journal of Perceptual Imaging , the Journal of the International Colour Association (JAIC), the Journal of the Color Science Association of Japan , Applied Optics , and the Journal of Vision .
Color or colour is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorption, reflection, emission spectra and interference. For most humans, colors are perceived in the visible light spectrum with three types of cone cells (trichromacy). Other animals may have a different number of cone cell types or have eyes sensitive to different wavelength, such as bees that can distinguish ultraviolet, and thus have a different color sensitivity range. Animal perception of color originates from different light wavelength or spectral sensitivity in cone cell types, which is then processed by the brain.
A set of primary colors or primary colours consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a broad range of colors in, e.g., electronic displays, color printing, and paintings. Perceptions associated with a given combination of primary colors can be predicted by an appropriate mixing model that reflects the physics of how light interacts with physical media, and ultimately the retina. The most common color mixing models are the additive primary colors and the subtractive primary colors.
The International Commission on Illumination is the international authority on light, illumination, colour, and colour spaces. It was established in 1913 as a successor to the Commission Internationale de Photométrie, which was founded in 1900, and is today based in Vienna, Austria.
In colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three properties of color: hue, chroma, and value (lightness). It was created by Albert H. Munsell in the first decade of the 20th century and adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the official color system for soil research in the 1930s.
Imaging is the representation or reproduction of an object's form; especially a visual representation.
A luminous efficiency function or luminosity function represents the average spectral sensitivity of human visual perception of light. It is based on subjective judgements of which of a pair of different-colored lights is brighter, to describe relative sensitivity to light of different wavelengths. It is not an absolute reference to any particular individual, but is a standard observer representation of visual sensitivity of theoretical human eye. It is valuable as a baseline for experimental purposes, and in colorimetry. Different luminous efficiency functions apply under different lighting conditions, varying from photopic in brightly lit conditions through mesopic to scotopic under low lighting conditions. When not specified, the luminous efficiency function generally refers to the photopic luminous efficiency function.
In radiometry, photometry, and color science, a spectral power distribution (SPD) measurement describes the power per unit area per unit wavelength of an illumination. More generally, the term spectral power distribution can refer to the concentration, as a function of wavelength, of any radiometric or photometric quantity.
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. When this model is associated with a precise description of how the components are to be interpreted, taking account of visual perception, the resulting set of colors is called "color space."
In the study of color vision, a MacAdam ellipse is roughly a region on a chromaticity diagram which contains all colors which are indistinguishable, to the average human eye, from the color at the center of the ellipse. Specifically, it is the standard deviation of a number of experimental color matches to the central color. Assuming a bivariate normal distribution of these match points, a MacAdam ellipse thus contains about 39% of the color match points. A 2X MacAdam ellipse will contain about 86% of the match points, and a 3X MacAdam ellipse will contain about 99% of the match points. The just-noticeable differences of chromaticity is generally taken to be a 3X MacAdam ellipse. Standard Deviation Color Matching in LED lighting uses deviations relative to MacAdam ellipses to describe color precision of a light source.
A standard illuminant is a theoretical source of visible light with a spectral power distribution that is published. Standard illuminants provide a basis for comparing images or colors recorded under different lighting.
Lightness is a visual perception of the luminance of an object. It is often judged relative to a similarly lit object. In colorimetry and color appearance models, lightness is a prediction of how an illuminated color will appear to a standard observer. While luminance is a linear measurement of light, lightness is a linear prediction of the human perception of that light.
David Lewis MacAdam was an American physicist and color scientist who made important contributions to color science and technology in the fields of colorimetry, color discrimination, color photography and television, and color order.
The International Colour Association is a learned society whose aims are to encourage research in all aspects of colour, to disseminate the knowledge gained from this research, and to promote its application to the solution of problems in the fields of science, art, design and industry on an international basis. The AIC also aims for a close cooperation with existing international organizations, such as, for example, the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Commission for Optics (ICO), regarding issues concerned with colour. The AIC will neither duplicate the work of these bodies nor will it attempt to assume any of their responsibilities. In 2009 the AIC agreed on the creation of an International Colour Day, which is celebrated in many countries around the world.
Deane Brewster Judd was an American physicist who made important contributions to the fields of colorimetry, color discrimination, color order, and color vision.
A tristimulus colorimeter, colloquially shortened to colorimeter, is used in digital imaging to profile and calibrate output devices. It takes a limited number of wideband spectral energy readings along the visible spectrum by using filtered photodetectors; e.g. silicon photodiodes.
Dorothy Nickerson was an American color scientist and technologist who made important contributions in the fields of color quality control, technical use of colorimetry, the relationship between color stimuli and color perceptions, standardization of light sources, color tolerance specification, and others.
Günter Wolfgang Wyszecki was a German-Canadian physicist who made important contributions to the fields of colorimetry, color discrimination, color order, and color vision.
The Inter-Society Color Council (ISCC) is a non-profit learned society which was created in 1931 to advance the understanding and application of visual color as it relates to science, industry, and art. The Council also serves to coordinate between different organizations in the United States for which color plays a major role. The Council is composed of individual members and Sustaining Members, and supplies the United States' representatives to the International Commission on Illumination. The society maintains three Interest Groups to provide focus for presentations at conferences. The Interest Groups are Fundamental and Applied Color Research, Industrial Applications of Color, and Art, Design, and Psychology.
A color appearance model (CAM) is a mathematical model that seeks to describe the perceptual aspects of human color vision, i.e. viewing conditions under which the appearance of a color does not tally with the corresponding physical measurement of the stimulus source.
Data visualization involves presenting data and information using visual elements like charts, graphs, and maps. It simplifies complex data, making patterns and trends more apparent, and aiding in better understanding and decision-making. And color coding in data visualization is implemented to help users of data to easily read, understand, and categorize the different facets of information that a given set data is trying to explain.