The Fundamentals of Color Measurement
The modern science of color measurement had its origin in the researches of Helmholtz, Maxwell, and Grassmann in the years from 1852 to 1855. This science found no important practical application until the opening of the twentieth century when the (F. E.) Ives colorimeter was applied to the measurement and specification of the colors of practical illuminants. In 1922 the Optical Society of America, through its Committee on Colorimetry, recommended data and technics for color measurement which were immediately adopted throughout the world, replacing numerous unrelated, and often inconsistent, technics that had been developed to meet the insistent demands of various industries for color specifications. A set of data based upon the most recent researches was recommended by the International Commission on Illumination in 1931, and these more satisfactory data have in turn replaced the data and extended the unification of methods which orginated with the O.S.A. Report of 1922. — Standard I.C.I. color specifications can be computed from spectrophotometric data. The fundamental relations that are used to define the quantities in terms of which colors are specified are most concisely expressed in mathematical formulas, which will be simply explained. As a matter of fact, short cuts based upon the standard I.C.I. 1931 data have been developed in the past few years so that no acquaintance with any mathematics other than ordinary arithmetic is now necessary for the performance of any of the essential operations encountered in standard color measurement. A typical example will be exhibited, and the interpretation of the results in terms of the dominant wavelength, purity, and brightness will be made clear by use of the chromaticity diagram. The conditions required in order that the colors of two samples shall match under some definite illuminant are that the three quantities in terms of which the colors are specified must be the same for the two samples.
- Print ISSN
- 0097-5834
- Published
- 1938-10
- Content type
- Original Research
- DOI
- 10.5594/J08465