Chapter Two

Color Order Systems and Color Scale

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 2.1 introduction
• Any discussion of color requires a logical
framework that allows the interrelationships
of colors to be unambiguously expressed. The
logical frame work is usually provided by a
color-order system

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A colour-order system is a set of principles that defines:
(a) an arrangement of colours according to attributes such
that the more similar their attributes, the closer are the
colours located in the arrangement, and
(b) a method of denoting the locations in the arrangement,
and hence of the colours at these locations.

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 Why do we order colors?

in which the samples are arranged in an ordered

fashion, enabling interpolation to be made
between adjacent samples.
Used as a reference for explaining color

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 ...continued...
 Color order system can be classified into two groups
:

(1) Color order systems which are based on collection

of samples- Munsell color order system, Ostwald
system, OSA-UCS system ,ISCC -NBS, Natural color
system , Chroma Cosmos 5000 and many others.
• Each of this systems represented by its own color
atlas (chart).

• The atlas contains various color chips which are

arranged in a definite configuration and are identified
by definite name or numbers.

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 ...
...continued

(2) Color order system which describe the color by

mathematical numbers(scale) - Hunter L,a, b, CIE
system and others.

• The description of color in these systems are

based on the measurement of spectral
reflectance of the sample.
• These color order systems are used in
instrumental color measurements.
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 2.2. Munsell Color Order System
• The Munsell Color Order System is based
on the collection of samples.
• MCOS- describes the color by its
psychophysical dimension: Hue, chroma
and lightness.
• Munsell samples are prepared to
represent equal intervals of vision
perception b/n adjacent samples.

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Munsell Color Order System

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 Cont…
• Munsell hue qualify by names.
• Munsell hue consists of five principal hues :
Red, Yellow, Green , Blue, Purple and
five intermediate hues as : Yellow-Red, Green
- Yellow, Blue-Green, Purple - Blue and Red-
Purple.

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 ...continued...
• The Munsell hues form a circle R,YR,Y,GY,G,BG,
B,PB,P,RP.

• The centre of hue circle is a gray pole varying in

value. This lightness dimension is called as
Munsell value.

• The Munsell value varies from black at bottom

with '0' value to white at top with value of 10.

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5GY 8/2 :
Hue:5GY
Value:8
Chroma:2

Fig.2.1 Munsell system (Munsell value, hue circle & chroma)

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Munsell color tree

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Fig 2.2: Munsell value, and chroma scales in color space
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 2.3. CIE System
• Almost all modern colour measurement is based
on the CIE system of colour specification.
• The initials come from the French title of the
international committee (Commission
Internationale de l¢Eclairage) who set up the
system in 1931.
• It should also be emphasized at this point that
the system is empirical, i.e. it is based on
experimental observations rather than on
theories of colour vision.
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The CIE Standard Observer: Color
Matching Functions

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 Cont…
• The Tristimulus values of any one wavelength
are the amounts of the three chosen
primaries required to much the light of the
particular wavelength.

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 2.3.2 Computation of Tristimulus values
• In previous section ,the methods used to express
Light source, object and observer in number were
considered.
• In 1931 CIE proposed a method to reduce these
sets of numbers in three numbers called as CIE
tristimulus values of X,Y,Z.

• The values are determined by multiplying:

– The relative power of 'P' of CIE illuminant,
– The reflectance factor 'R' and

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Fig .2.6 Methods of calculations of CIE tristimulus values of color.

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 X, Y and Z are arbitrary values and have no units,
while
 tristimulus values are numbers which represent how
the human eye-brain responds to or sees a colour.
 Y defines the luminance factor and is normalized so

that it lies between 0–100.

 The Y value for all illuminants is normalized to 100,
while X and Z vary, Z more significantly than X.

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2017
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 ...continued...
• The products, P , P and P called as weights
for calculations of CIE tristimulus values of any color.
• Two colors having the same values of tristiulus of X Y Z
under given illuminant will appear exactly identical
under that illuminant.
• CIE tristimulus values though precisely describe the color, don't give any
information about how the color look like, only Y coordinate gives the
information about the lightness of color.
• If the colors of two objects have tristimulus values :
X1= 48.36 Y1= 60.14 Z1= 11.50
X2 = 53.20 Y2= 66.15 Z2= 12.65
Hence, one conclude that the color of the second object is
lighter than the first object. The CIE system describe the
color in objective terms ,but not give information about
appearance of color.
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Fig .2.7 Quantification of color using source ,object & observer

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 8.8
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 2.3.6 Transformation of the CIE system

 The important feature of CIE system are that it represents

additive color mixing.
 Attempts are made to correlate CIE coordinates with
visual assessment of color though it is not really
supposed to do so. What is CIE then supposed to do?
• CIE system is not equally visually spaced system. Attempts
are made to transform CIE system to obtain a system
which is more nearly equally visually spaced.
• To achieve the goal ,the linear as well as non-linear
transformations of CIE are tried.
• The linear transformation preserves the importance
characteristics of additive color mixing ,while non-linear
transformation doesn’t not.

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 Linear Transformation of the CIE system
• Various linear transformations of CIE chromaticity
coordinate are proposed by many authors to improve
the visual spacing of CIE system.
• One of them was named as uniform chromaticity
scale(UCS).
• The linear transformation of CIE chromaticity
coordinates proposed by MacAdam received more
attention and referred as u,v coordinate.
• Thus CIE chromaticity diagram is replaced by u,v
diagram.
• The white point corresponding to CIE illuminant C
now no longer remains at centre of the diagram as
shown in Figure 2.11.
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 Fig.2.11 : CIE 1960 u,v chromaticity diagram

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 Non-Linear Transformation and
Opponent Type Color Order system
• Developed by Ewald Hering(1920/1964), the
opponent-color theory states that the cone
photoreceptors are linked together to form three
opposing colour pairs: blue/yellow, red/green,
and black/white. Activation of one member of
the pair inhibits activity in the other.
• The opponent color theory of color vision
seemingly contradicts the young-Helmholts
trichromatic theory.

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2017
 Cont…

• The normal observer discriminate the color as light-dark,

yellow-blue and red-green .These are called psychological
primaries.
• The important fact about these psychological primaries is
that all of the possible combinations of pairs can not be
perceived simultaneously.
• The perceived combined sensations are observed as
follows:
Possible Impossible
redness +yellowness redness + greenness
yellowness + greenness yellowness +blueness
greenness + blueness
blueness + redness
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 ...Continued...
 The color can not be perceived as red and green or yellow and
blue simultaneously.
 Thus red-ness or green-ness can be expressed by a single number
and yellow-ness and blue-ness by anther number.
 Based on the above facts the opponent color coordinate system
was proposed.
 First opponent color order system was proposed by
Hunter as shown in Figure 2.12.

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Fig.2.12 : Hunter opponent color space F
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 ...continued...
• This opponent type color order system are most
popular for industrial use as it describes the color
,the way in which the eye perceives.
• It can be seen that Hunter L,a,b coordinate are
obtained by non-linear transformation of CIE
coordinates.
• When the non-linear transformation are made ,the
additive mixing features associated with CIE system
are no longer maintained.
• The non-linear transformation will completely change
the CIE chromaticity diagram.
• Therefore, in CIE terminology the resulting a,b, L
diagram can no longer be called as chromaticity
diagram ,though it still displays the chromatic
character of the color.
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 ...Continued...
• It is called as psychometric chroma
diagram or only chroma diagram.
• MacAdam in 1973 suggested L*,a*,b* color
space in CIE as modificatin of Hunter L,a,b
coordinates with abbreviation CIELAB (CIE
1978)
• The uncertainty in location of black is
eliminated by multiplying each opponent
by L* ,thus uniquely located on neutral axis.

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• where Xn, Yn and Zn are the tristimulus
values, for a particular standard illuminant
and observer, for a sample reflecting 100%
of the light at all wavelengths.

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 ...continued...
• The CIELAB system is used for textiles and
leather

• All the color measuring instruments incorporate

program in their microprocessor to compute
the CIELAB.

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 CIELab
Today the most widely used of
the opponent-type scales is the
CIELab color scale. It was
adopted in 1976 and identifies
object color using three
coordinates (L*a*b*).

The tristimulus XYZ values of a

color, when converted to L*a*b*
values, do a better job of
describing the color as seen by
an observer.

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 LCH
• While CIELAB uses cartesian(planar)
coordinates to calculate a color in a color
space, CIELCH uses polar coordinates. This
color expression can be derived from CIELAB.
The L* defines lightness, C* specifies Chroma
and h° denotes hue angle, an angular
measurement. The L*C*h° expression offers
an advantage over CIELAB in that it’s very easy
to relate to the earlier systems based on
physical samples, like the Munsell Color Scale
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