COLOR SPECIFICATION &

MEASUREMENT

Dr. Deepali Rastogi, Associate Professor,

Department of Fabric and Apparel Science, Lady Irwin College, New Delhi
What is color?
Color is a physical sensation in the human eye
producing stimulus in the form of pulses by the
photoreceptors and is analyzed by the human brain
giving subjective results.

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Things required to see Color
A Light Source

An object

An observer

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Visual Observing Situation

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

 NATURE OF LIGHT
Light- Electromagnetic Radiations- a form of energy
Light and all forms of electromagnectic radiations travel at
fixed speed of 3 x 108 m/s in vacuum.
Speed of light in a medium = c/ƞ
where, c=speed of light in vacuum
ƞ= refractive index of the medium
Wavelength (λ)= distance between two wave peaks along the
line of travel of the radiation (meters, Å or nanometer nm)
Frequency (ν) = number of complete waves that occur per
second (expressed in Hertz s-1).
Velocity (c ) = ν × λ
Energy = E = h . ν or h . c/ λ,
h = Planck’s constant= 6.6261 x 10-34 Js
Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Light Source
Visible light is a small part of the electromagnetic
spectrum.
Wavelength range of visible spectrum is from 400-
700nm (380-770 nm, to be more accurate).
Plot of relative energy of light at each wavelength
creates a power distribution curve quantifying the
spectral characteristics of the light source

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Light Source
Light source normally emits light that
appears to be white.
Light dispersed by prism
shows it to be made of all visible
wavelengths.

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Wavelength range of sunlight

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

 LIGHT AND COLOUR
 Colour: Visually evaluated radiant energy in visible spectrum

COLOUR REFLECTED LIGHT

VIOLET 400-430 nm
BLUE 430-480 nm
GREEN 480-560 nm
YELLOW 560-590 nm
ORANGE 590-620 nm
RED 620-700 nm

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dyes and pigments impart colour to an object not by
reflecting light of different wavelengths, but by preferential
absorption of some wavelengths of incident light

The object appears coloured in the complementary colour

to that of the light absorbed.
ABSORBED LIGHT VISIBLE COLOUR
400-430 nm Yellow
430-480 nm Orange
480-560 nm Red
560-590 nm Violet
590-620 nm Blue
620-700 nm Green

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Wavelength (nm) Color absorbed Color visible

400-435 Violet Greenish yellow

435-480 Blue Yellow
480-490 Green Blue Orange
490-500 Blue Green Red
500-560 Green Purple
560-580 Greenish yellow Violet
580-595 Yellow Blue
595-605 Orange Green Blue
605-700 Red Blue Green

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
 SPECTROPHOTOMETER

In order to build an instrument that will

quantify human color perception, each
item in the visual observing situation
must be quantified.

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Spectrophotometer
Instrument that measures color of an object
To measure color of solution, we use transmittance
spectrophotometer
To measure color of solid, we use reflectance
spectrophotometer
In transmittance spectrophotometer, an object is
illuminated by monochromatic illumination, i.e. light
containing single wavelength.
In reflectance spectrophotometer, an object is illuminated
by polychromatic illumination, i.e. light containing all
wavelengths (daylight), that is the way we look at the object

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Spectrophotometric Curves:

Spectrophotometer is used to measure light

transmitted or reflected by coloured medium as a
function of wavelength.

Graph produced is termed as spectrophotometric

curves: Fingerprint of that colour.

Shape of the curve and the position of absorption

maximum describe the colour of the medium

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Instruments Components…
Spectrophotometers and Colorimeters consist of five
basic components
Light Source

Monochromator (Prism or Grating)

Reflectance Attachment (detector)

Photoelectric Receptor (Reflected monochromatic radiant

energy converted into Electric energy)

Computer (Digital Output)

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Light v/s Illuminant
Light source is a real physical source of light

Illuminant is a plot or table of relative energy

versus wavelength that represents the spectral
characteristics of different types of light
sources

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Spectral Power Distribution of visible light

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Light source versus illuminant

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Some common illuminants
A Tungsten Filament (2856K)
B Noon Temp. (4800K)
C Average normal day light (6770K)
D65 Noon daylight (6500K)
CWF Cool White Fluoroscent (4150K)
U30 Ultralume (3000K)

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Object
Objects modify light

Colorants in the object selectively absorb some

wavelengths of incident light while reflecting or
transmitting others

The amount of reflected or transmitted light at each

wavelength can be quantified which is the spectral
curve of objects color characteristics

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Spectrophotometric curve for yellow

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Observer
Relative sensitivity of the human eye to various
wavelengths of light.

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Human Eye
Rod shape receptors are responsible for night vision

Cone shape receptors are responsible for daylight and

color vision

There are three types of cone shaped receptors

sensitive to red, green and blue

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Human Eye

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Standard Observer
CIE (International Commission de I’eclairage ) :

They experimentally derived x, y and z functions which

quantify the red, blue and green cone sensitivity of the
average human observer

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

2o and 10o Observer

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Colour Blindness
An observer with defective colour vision can not
discriminate red/green or yellow/blue. Such an
observer is Colour Blind.
A red/green colour-blind observer sees all colours as
shades of yellow and blue.
A yellow/blue colour-blind observer sees all colours as
shades of red and green.
A totally colour-blind observer sees all colours as
shades of greys.
Colour order systems – Munsell’s system
Colour order system provides a meaningful way to
communicate colour
Munsell specified colour in 3 attributes – Hue, Value &
Chroma
Hue is an attribute to distinguish red from green or
yellow from blue and so on.
Value indicates lightness of colour. The scales ranges
from 0 for black to 10 for white. Value is neutral axis.
Chroma is the distance from achromatic point (Value
axis)
Munsell arranged the coloured chips, Huewise, in
such a way that the colour difference between two
adjacent chips always remained same.
Munsell Notations are expressed as – H V/C. For a
shade having Munsell Notations as 5R 4/12, Hue is 5R,
Value is 4 and Chroma is 12.
Color specifying System: CIE
International Commission de I’eclairage (1931)
Defined Standard Primaries, Standard Light sources,
Standard Observer with Standard viewing conditions

Standard Illuminants: A, B, C, D6500

Standard Observer: 1964 - 100

New reflectance Standard: MgO
Viewing Geometry: Sample illumination at 450
Calculation of Tristimulus values over 400 – 700 nm

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

CIE Lab and LCh system
Lab and LCh specify colour in three dimension space.

L specifies lightness/darkness
a specifies redness/greenness
b specifies yellowness/blueness
C specifies chroma or saturation
h specifies hue angle

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
a b L Colour
55 6.5 45
8.2 23 78
-32 4.5 48
0.5 -50 25
55 50 50
-30 -30 62

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

The Chroma or saturation `C' is the distance between
achromatic point and colour

C =

The point a=0 and b=0 lie at the center.

Lower is the value of a and b, higher is the achromaticity

and lower is the purity.

Higher the values of a and b (ignore the negative signs),

purer or more saturated or brighter is the colour.

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Hue `h' is also computed from a & b
All real hues fall within definite angles expressed in
degrees, like
 Red - 350 - 35
 Orange - 35 - 70
 Yellow - 70 - 105
 Green - 105 - 195
 Blue - 195 - 285
 Violet - 285 - 350

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Kubelka-Munk Theory
(1-R)
K/S = ---------
2R

K/S is linearly proportional to concentration of colourant

K/S is additive

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Computer colour matching systems
A spectrophotometer
A personal computer
A computer software - Colour matching software in a
colour system can be classified into three main groups
- Quality Assurance programs
- Recipe Prediction programs
- Utility programs

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

In most Quality Assurance applications, a sample or
a batch is compared against a standard. Hence, the QA
results are Relative and never Absolute.
Colour difference program calculates colour difference
between standard and sample/s. It calculates in terms
of dE, dL, da, db, dC and dh.
dE - Delta E - Delta means Difference and E means
Empfindung - that is sensation in German. dE is
calculated by a colour difference equation.
Pass/Fail program gives status of a batch, whether pass
or fail, against a standard using pre-set tolerances.
Tolerances are set in terms of dE, dL, da, db, dC or dh
Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Recipe prediction program
Recipe prediction programs comprise K/S Data
Generation, Colour Matching, Reformulation,
Production Correction and Shade Library programs.
When a trial dyeing mismatches a standard in
laboratory, the program reformulates the recipe to
bring the trial dyeing close to standard.
When a production dyeing mismatches a standard in
production, the program suggests the additions to be
made to the batch to bring the production batch close
to the standard.

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

 Advantages
Advantages
Substantialof CCM in the processing cost due to the
reduction
optimization of recipes (Around 25-40%)
Many alternate recipes can be studied
Recipes obtained in shortest possible time
Selection of optimum recipe possible
Elimination of trial and error method at laboratory
Selection of recipes with minimum metamerism
Reduction in Dye-inventory
Creation of color atlas
Customer service by the Dyestuff Manufacturer
New shade development possible in shortest time period
Matching of a shade on any other substrate possible
Much easier to standardize quality control measures
More consistent color matching with lesser complaints
Elimination of the visual disagreement

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Disadvantages of CCM
Difference in dyeing conditions on laboratory scale and in actual
production, the predicted shades may not produce the expected

Changes in the substrate such as fiber quality, yarn structure,

color, heat-setting cannot be accounted for

Each incoming batch of the dyestuff requires testing for tonal and
strength changes which needs recalculation of the recipes

Preferential dye uptake due to the differences in affinity of

different dyes in mixtures also cannot be accounted for

Acceptable color difference limits are different for different shades

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College
Metamerism
When a pair of standard and sample match under all
illuminant and observer, then the pair is called as
isomeric pair and matching is called as Isomeric
Matching.
When a pair of standard and sample matches under
one illuminant and observer conditions, and not under
other illuminants then the pair is called as metameric
pair and matching is called as metameric matching
Thank You

Dr Deepali Rastogi - Associate Professor Lady Irwin College