2. Basics of colorimetry

2.1 Trivariance of visual sensation

The visual appearance of color is three-dimensional in nature. It involves three psychosensory parameters corresponding to the subjective sensations of hue, saturation and luminosity. Hue is defined by the words blue, green, red and so on. Saturation expresses the degree of coloration, as opposed to the quantity of white radiation appreciated in colored radiation; a color is less saturated the more it appears washed white. Finally, luminosity, an achromatic factor, refers to the level of colored stimulus; it varies from a maximum non-glare value to the absence of light (black). It's easy to see how, by varying these three parameters independently of each other, you can achieve every imaginable color sensation.

But while trivariance...

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Basics of colorimetry

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page Properties of color vision

CIE colorimetric system

Bibliography

(1) - BOUMA (P.J.) - Les couleurs et leur perception visuelle - . 348 p., 113 fig., 1949, Dunod, Paris.
(2) - PARRA (F.) - Seuils différentiels de couleur et perception de l'espace - . Lux (F) n° 110, déc. 1980, p. 7-9.
...

Organizations

(non-exhaustive list)

AFNOR (Association Française de NORmalisation) http://www.afnor.fr

AIC (Association Internationale de la Couleur) http://www.iscc.org/aic2001

CFC (Centre français de la Couleur)

CIE publications

(non-exhaustive list)

1. Method for measuring and specifying the color rendering qualities of light sources. CIE Publication No. 13.3, Paris, 1995.

2. Colorimetry. CIE Publication No. 15.2, Vienna, 1986.

3. International Lighting Vocabulary. CIE Publication No. 17.4, Geneva, 1987.

4. The basis of physical photometry. CIE...

Publication of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

1. International Lighting Vocabulary. IEC Publication 50 (845)/ CIE No. 17-4, 1987, 365 p., Central Office of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Geneva, Switzerland.

Publication by Centre d'Information de l'Éclairage

1. Luminance meter. Center d'Information de l'Éclairage, Hors-série, n° 7, Oct. 1987.

Standards

(non-exhaustive list)

Illuminants colorimétriques normalisés CIE, 1999. - ISO/CIE 10526 : -
Observateurs de référence colorimétriques CIE, 1991. - ISO/CIE 10527 : -
Standard method for computing the colors of objects by using the CIE system. ASTM E 308-85. American Society for testing and materials. Philadelphie 1985. - ASTM : -