10/30/2012

Chapter 9: Color
What is color?

Color mixtures
Intensity-distribution curves
Additive Mixing
Partitive Mixing

Specifying colors
RGB Color
Chromaticity

What is Color?
Wavelength is a property of an electromagnetic
wave in the frequency range we call light

Color is a psychological phenomenon that occurs

when light waves of different wavelengths
interact with the human visual system
Color
Human eye

Light wave with wavelength 650 nm Human visual system and brain

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Color Mixtures
A spectral color is a single line on this graph:

Green laser pointer

532 nm

Color Mixtures
Almost everything we see is not a spectral color
but a mixture of many spectral colors.

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Intensity-Distribution Curves

Both of these lights would appear white, so we can see there may
be several intensity distributions that generate the same color

Additive Color Mixing

How can we describe the sensation of a mixture
of lights?

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Additive Primary Colors

Red, green and blue are called
the additive primaries 530-nm green

We want to select primary yellow cyan

colors that allow us to create
the largest possible number of
other colors using just those 650-nm red 460-nm blue
primary colors magenta

Most colors can be described in

terms of mixtures of red, green
and blue

Additive Mixing: Yellow

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Additive Mixing: Cyan

Additive Mixing: Magenta

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RGB Color Specification

RGB (red green blue) is
another way of specifying
530-nm green
colors.
yellow cyan
White is made by maximum
saturation of all three colors
650-nm red 460-nm blue
magenta

Instead of hue, saturation

and brightness, you can
specify the amount of each
color

RGB Colors: Example

Hue: 35
Saturation: 100%
Brightness: 100%

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RGB Colors: Example

Hue: 60
Saturation: 100%
Brightness: 35%

RGB Colors: Example

Hue: 60
Saturation: 0%
Brightness: 40%

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Complementary Colors
Weve seen that red light plus green light plus
blue light equals white light:
R + G + B = White
But we also know that red light plus green light
equals yellow light:
R+G=Y
If we do some dodgy color math, we get that
yellow light plus blue light equals white light:
Y + B = White

Complementary Colors
We then define blue and yellow as complementary
colors:

When additively mixed, complementary colors

produce white.

NOT additive mixing

Additive mixing

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Concept Question

What is the complementary

color to green? 530-nm green

A. Red yellow cyan

B. Magenta
C. Blue
650-nm red 460-nm blue
D. Yellow magenta

E. Cyan

Recall: R + G + B = White
We want: G + ?? = White

Chromaticity

This is a chromaticity diagram (see color plate 9.2 in the book)

We are not going to discuss where this comes from, please read that
section of the book

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Chromaticity

A chromaticity diagram has a

Saturated colors
fixed brightness or lightness for
all colors
The most saturated colors (of
different hues) are around the
rim (perimeter)
Inside are the less saturated
colors, including white at the
Unsaturated colors
interior

Chromaticity

The colors on the curved part of

Wavelength colors
the edge are wavelength colors

The colors on the straight part

are non-wavelength colors, but
are still 100% saturated.

Non-wavelength colors

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hue
Chromaticity: Lightness

hue

lightness
lightness

saturation
saturation

Uses of Chromaticity Diagrams

To identify colors with three numbers

To predict the results of additive mixing
To understand complementary colors
To find the dominant hue of a color
To understand color gamuts and the significance
of RGB mixing

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Chromaticity: Identifying Colors

The numbers that we use to
identify a color are its x-value
and y-value inside the diagram
and a z-value to indicate its
brightness or lightness
x and y specify the
chromaticity of a color
Example: Apple pickers are told
around the country that certain
apples are best picked when
they are a certain red (see black
dot)
x = 0.57
y = 0.28

Chromaticity: Identifying Colors

The "purest" white is at

x = 0.33
y = 0.33

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Chromaticity: Color Mixtures

An additive mixture of two
wavelength colors lies along
the line joining them
Example: The colors seen by
mixing 700 nm red and 500
nm green lie along the line
shown
Where along the line is the
color of the mixture?

Chromaticity: Color Mixtures

This depends on the relative
intensities of the 700 nm red
and the 500 nm green.
Much more green than red
gives a green
Much more red than green
gives an orange-red
Slightly more red than green
gives a yellow

This also works for mixing

colors not at the edges

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Concept Question: Chromaticity

What color would a
mixture of these two
colors (green and blue),
equal amounts of each,
look like?
A. Yellow
B. Red
C. Pink
D. Cyan
E. Green

Chromaticity: Complementary Colors

Recall that a color

combined with its
complement produces
white

If mixtures lie on the line

between the two colors,
then we can find the
complement by drawing
a line through white to
the other side

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Chromaticity: Complementary Colors

Using this diagram, we

can see that the
complement of 700 nm
red is 490 nm cyan

And the complement of

520 nm green is magenta
(a non-wavelength color)

Concept Question: Chromaticity

What is the complementary
color of blue, shown by the
black dot?
A. Yellow
B. Red
C. Pink
D. Cyan
E. Green

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Chromaticity: Dominant Hues

Unsaturated colors are

related to their
saturated counterparts
by the additive mixture
with white

Ex: Pink (unsaturated) =

red (saturated) + white

Chromaticity: Dominant Hues

To find the dominant
hue of the color
indicated by the black
dot
Draw straight line from
white through the point
to get dominant
wavelength, and hence,
hue (547 nm green)

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Chromaticity: Dominant Hues

If hue is in the non-
wavelength purples, find
the complementary
dominant wavelength by
extending backwards
through white (get 495 nm
cyan)

There is no dominant
wavelength color for
magentas and purples

Concept Question: Chromaticity

What is the dominant hue of
the color shown by the black
dot?
A. Yellow
B. Red
C. Pink
D. Cyan
E. Green

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Chromaticity: Color Gamuts

The gamut of colors
which can be reproduced
by an additive mixture of
red, green and blue light
is inside the triangle we
now draw at right.

530-nm green
460-nm blue
650-nm red

Chromaticity: Color Gamuts

Other gamuts are
generally even smaller

Say we picked red blue

and yellow, the artists
primaries:

We would not be able to

make cyans or greens

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Concept Question: Color Gamuts

If we selected our
primaries as the three
black dots shown, which
colors would we NOT be
able to make by combining B
them? A
In other words, which
color is OUTSIDE the color E
gamut generated by these C
three primaries? D

Color Gamut of Flat Panel Displays

The intensity distribution of the The color gamuts of LED vs. CCFL backlit
primary colors used in an LED backlit displays
display

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Display Pixels: Partitive Mixing

In additive mixing, we assume that the different

wavelength colors reaching your eye are all
coming from the same place:

Display Pixels: Partitive Mixing

What it instead, we make the different colors

coming from separate, very small, very closely
spaced points

You eye cannot see them as separate sources, so

the colors mix and you see the same color. This is
called partitive mixing

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Partitive Mixing: Pointillism

Partitive Mixing: Pixels

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