Pigments and the artist's palette

From the cave paintings at Lascaux to the latest experiments in contemporary art, artists have used all the colour materials available to them. Today, the range of colour and materials that artists can use isoverwhelming. Russell Kearton traces the development of painting pigments throughout the ages, from the yellows and reds of prehistoric times, to the overflowing palette of modern day art.     

The chemistry behind the artist's palette

The origin of color in organic and inorganic artists' pigments is discussed and, where possible, is related to their physical properties such as lightfastness and brilliance. Included in the discussion are the nature of color, the types of chemical species that exhibit color, and the structural features of these compounds that make them colored. The compounds are categorized according to the structural properties that enable them to absorb visible radiation.     

Comparative studies on color preference in Japan and other Asian regions,with special emphasis on the preference for white

The results of three surveys are presented. The first survey was carried out in four large cities in Japan, and the findings were analyzed by factor analysis and cluster analysis. The second survey was carried out in Seoul, Korea and Tokyo, Japan to determine color preference in the two countries, focusing on the preference for white. The last survey compared color preference in Taipei and Tokyo, also with emphasis on the preference for white. In these successive studies on color preference in Japan and other Asian cities, the subjects were mainly asked to choose from a color chart the three colors they liked most and the three they liked least, and to state the reasons for their choices. The results of Survey 1 showed that color preference could be influenced by differences in age, sex, and geographical region. Also factor analysis and cluster analysis indicated some relation between color preference and the subjects' life styles. Dual scaling analysis of the results of Surveys 2 and 3 indicated that each Asian area has unique color preference tendencies and that there are statistically significant differences in the frequency of selection of colors of certain hues and tones. However, a high preference for white was common to all areas, along with preferences for some other colors. These results thus demonstrated a common strong preference for white in three neighboring Asian areas. The reasons given for the choices suggested that besides the factors of age and sex, associative images based on environmental and cultural aspects may be an important factor influencing color preference. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Color preference affected by mode of color appearance

Most color preference research focuses on colors in an object color mode. In our daily life, however, colors are perceived not only as an object color mode but also as other modes, such as unnatural object color and light source color modes. To explore the effect of the color appearance mode on color preference, we examined the relationship between color preference and the mode of color appearance. Thirty‐three color chips were chosen from the Munsell notation varying in hues and chromas. The color chips were presented in different color appearance modes by changing the subject's room illuminance and the color chip room illuminance. The experimental results showed that the brightest and most saturated colors were preferred. It was found that the subject preferred color in a light source color mode and unnatural object color mode to color in an object color mode. Moreover, we found that hue had a small effect on color preference in the light source color mode. We also investigated the relationship between color preference and the perceived color attributes (perceived chromaticness, whiteness, and blackness). In a supplementary experiment, elementary color naming was conducted. The results showed that the perceived chromaticness, perceived whiteness, and perceived blackness play a role for the determination of color preference for different color appearance modes. We, consequently, suggest that color preference is dominated not only by color attributes but also by the mode of color appearance. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2010     

Interrelation of the natural color system and the munsell color order system

The CIE tristimulus values of the aim points of the Natural Color System (NCS) were converted to Munsell notations using a computer program. The values so converted were those from the four elementary hues R, Y, G, and B, and the intervening hues for which full pages of colors exist in the NCS Colour Atlas. The resulting notations were plotted on Munsell Value-Chroma and Hue-Chroma charts and analyzed for several features of interest, for example the locations of the points with 100% chromaticness and the relative spacing of the hue circles. Analytical equations are presented relating Munsell Chroma and NCS chromaticness, and Munsell Value and NCS blackness, for both achromatic and chromatic samples. Such analytical relationships could not be derived between the hues of the two systems, since a relatively wide range of hue in either system corresponds to constant hue in the other. This range appears to include both systematic and random components that must be removed before analytical relations between the two hues can be derived.     

Gender difference in color preference across cultures: An archetypal pattern modulated by a female cultural stereotype

A gender difference in color preference among British participants has been repeatedly reported, in which both males and females show a preference for blue‐green colors, while females express an additional preference for pink‐purple colors. To investigate the robustness of gender difference in color preference in a different culture, we tested 81 young adult Indians from a school of design and compared them to 80 young British students in Psychology. The 35‐item International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) and Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) questionnaires were also administered to explore possible links between personality traits, gender schemata, and color preferences. Results confirmed a gender difference in both cultures; participants collectively expressed a preference for cool over warm colors, while in addition females showed a preference for pink colors, with a warm bias for Indian females and a cool bias for British females. While these results extend gender difference to Indian culture and support the universality of an underlying pattern they also reveal a culture‐specific contribution essentially observed in females. In British participants, color preference was correlated exclusively with BSRI scores in females and overwhelmingly with IPIP scores in males; this gender‐specific pattern of correlation was not replicated in the Indian sample. Results point to an archetypal pattern of gender difference in color preference with a remarkable cross‐cultural similarity in men and a subtle but significant cultural difference in women whose origin is yet to be explained.     

Experimental determination of the laws of color harmony. Part 4: Color preference and the color harmony content

In 1956, we decided at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics to start a large‐scale experiment on color harmony. The experiments and the processing of the experimental results have been completed in 2006. These experiments, described in this article, form a study of how much are people, participating in the experiment, influenced by their own personal color preference in judging the harmony content of a composition. These experiments have utilized the results of former (1958–1969) color preference experiments and the system of color preference indexes, which were developed by the generalization of those results. Within the framework of these experiments, conducted between 1998 and 2006 there were 24 compositions, shown to the participants, at first one by one, then in pairs and at last in groups of six. They had to assess the harmony content of the compositions and award a score on a scale between 0 and 10. Each composition possessed a specific amount of harmony content according to the rules of color space, based on the Coloroid harmony threshold and verified by former experiments. In these experiments the number of elementary observations were 135 568. The people participating in the experiment were approximately equal number of men and women, from the age group between 10 and 70 years. During processing, by using the color preference numerical indexing system, we compared the results of those experiments with the color preference of a similar age group, by using color compositions, identical to the ones used in the present experiment. We have found that the sensation of the color harmony and its intensity have a strong relation to how the observers relate to colors and also their color preferences. The sensation of color harmony is also influenced by the gender and the age of the observer. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 34, 210–224, 2009     

Effects of hue,saturation, and brightness on color preference in social networks: Gender‐based color preference on the social networking site Twitter

Account information for over 1 million Twitter users was downloaded and analyzed to determine color preference. Blues were found to be the most preferred color, whereas greens were least preferred. Distinct gender‐specific differences were found. Males preferred blues to a greater extent than females, whereas females preferred magentas to a much greater extent than males. Males preferred darker colors to a greater extent than women. Density plots within hue, saturation, and brightness space summarize the distribution of color choices and illustrate color preferences for both males and females. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 38, 196–202, 2013.     

An integrated spectral imaging system for producing color images of static and moving objects

An integrated spectral imaging system constructed by synchronizing a programmable light source, a high‐speed monochrome camera, and a display device is proposed to produce tristimulus images of static and moving objects effectively in real time onto the display. This system is called the CIE‐XYZ display. Active spectral illuminants, containing both the device characteristics of camera and display, are projected onto object surfaces as time sequence. The images are captured synchronously by the camera and quickly transmitted to the display device in the RGB signal form so that the accurate tristimulus images are displayed. First, we describe the principle of the CIE‐XYZ tristimulus display. The theoretically optimal illuminants contain negative parts in the spectral curves. Second, we design practical illuminants with all positive spectral curves. The color images in our system are composed of the time sequence of RGB component images. Then, the synthesized color images on the display contain color artifacts when objects move fast. An image processing algorithm for correcting the motion color artifact is proposed based on optical flow estimation using a graphics processing unit. The comprehensive performance of the proposed system and algorithms is examined using both static and moving objects. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 329–340, 2015     

The impact of color preference on adolescent children's choice of furniture

It is widely believed that children will choose furniture that has the same color as their preferred color. Furthermore, for different categories of furniture, the color they preferred for furniture is consistent. A study of 508 adolescent Chinese children between the ages of 12 and 16 has been carried out to explore whether color preference influences their choice of furniture when they are provided with various color options (16 chromatic and five achromatic colors). This work tested six items of furniture in two functional spaces (study and bedroom space). Findings indicate that adolescent children's color preferences did indeed affect their furniture choice, but the extent varies with the categories of furniture. Furthermore, this study reveals that children's preference for furniture in different functional spaces is slightly different. Some effects of gender and age were also explored. This work discusses the implications of adolescent color preference and color choice for children's furniture color design.     

The munsell color system in fundamental color space

The Munsell color system is investigated as a structure in fundamental color space. The entire collection of samples from the 1929 Munsell Book of Color is mapped into fundamental color space and surfaces of constant hue, value, and chroma are identified. An algorithm, based on these surfaces, is presented for estimating the Munsell specification of an arbitrary reflectance curve.     

A systematic approach of predicting color preference on the basis of gray relational grade

During the color design process, it is critical to create diversified color schemes for various consumer groups. It is also important to allow members in a design team to brainstorm for creative ideas. A theory of inspecting natural color elements was proposed in this study based on the CIE 1976 (L*,a*,b*) (CIE 1976) color space and the fuzzy c‐means clustering method. A calculation model was built to determine people's preference for colors based on a serialized system. To determine which factors affect the prediction of consumers' preference for a series of products, a gray relational color preference system was used in combination with gray relational grade so that a designer can obtain reasonable prediction results. The proposed system recommends not only the optimal colors for a product but also the optimal color scheme for a series of products.     

The chevreul color system

Chevreul wished to represent in his color system every modification of color, including not only the modifications we observe from pigment mixtures but also those modifications in color that we observe in nature. The latter include the various gradations of light and shade on the surface color of objects which light enables us to perceive. A review and clarification of his color system reveals a logical correlation between these phenomena and the various scales in his color system. Studying these scales and understanding the concepts they represent can be very helpful to painters who wish to represent in their paintings objects in space and light in a naturalistic manner.     

The coloroid color system

Developed over two decades at the Technical University, Budapest, the Coloroid color system is an aesthetically uniform system, in which scales of hue, saturation, and lightness appear to change uniformly over their entire length, when viewed as a whole. This is not the same as perceptually uniform in the sense of even intervals of small color differences. This article discusses the concepts and derivation of the Coloroid system, relates it to the Munsell and Ostwald systems, and derives the relations of its coordinates to those of the CIE XYZ system.     

An interactive method for generating harmonious color schemes

We present an interactive visualization tool for generating color schemes that can be used by both professional artists and novice designers to improve their design efficiency. The method is developed on two color harmony principles of familial factors and rhythmic spans from conventional color theories. The interactive tool makes use of these principles for users to interactively generate colors palettes containing harmonious combinations in the hue, saturation, and lightness color space in as few steps as possible. A pilot study with 20 participants has shown that this tool provides efficient workflow, color‐scheme harmony, and intuitive interaction, demonstrating the usefulness of the method. This work contributes to an artistic‐theory driven harmonious color‐scheme generation and to interactive user interfaces visualizing color relationships. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 39, 70–78, 2014     

A multiprimary lighting system for customized color stimuli

In this article, a dual seven-primary lighting system is constructed for color research and education. The system offers sufficient spectral variability to approximate the spectral power distribution of a variety of standard illuminants. More importantly, the constructed multiprimary lighting system was verified to have crucial advantages over conventional displays/projectors to probe observer metamerism through the generation of individualized metameric color stimuli. An observer metamerism index to describe the potential for observer metamerism of any generated stimulus pairs with respect to the population variation of color-normal observers is formulated. The metric is further extended for use in quantifying the potential for observer metamerism of any lighting system or a system-primary combination. Moreover, 10 pairs of lighting stimuli, customized for exhibiting high degrees of observer variability, were produced using the system as a step toward creating a device for the color matching functions characterization of individual observers, a so-called observer calibrator.     

Euclidization of the first quadrant of the CIEDE2000 color difference system for the calculation of large color differences

The calculation of colour distances in the first quadrant of the CIEDE2000 space can be realized now after the author succeeded in working out such calculations in the CIE94 and CMC space in preceeding articles. The new system is presented and then the Euclidean line element is established, from which terms are derived for the new coordinates of lightness, hue, and hue angle. The calculations of colour distances are carried out with the new Euclidean coordinates according to a well‐known method and are demonstrated by examples guided by CIE94 and CMC distances from the preceeding articles. Finally, proposals are given for the eventual improvement of the CIEDE2000 formula. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 31, 5–12, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20168     

A comparative study on correlation between personal background and interior color preference

In this research, we identify and investigate some of the factors influencing residential color preference. We have taken social environment as a primary focus and the influence of a person's residential, regional, educational, and personal background have been examined. A questionnaire, two drawings (one of a bedroom and another of the exterior of a few houses) and 24 color pencils were prepared. In total, 319 data were gathered from Japanese students living in Japan, Foreign students living in Japan, and Iranian students living in Iran, with 301 applicable data. One of the questions was the respondent's favorite color. The results showed that more than 96.7% have used their favorite colors in the drawings. Blue hues were used most by people living in coastal areas (P < 0.05). Education had a strong correlation with number of color varieties (P < 0.01). Moreover, students who had parents with art backgrounds had used more colors in the drawings rather than the ones with parents with no art background (P < 0.05). Foreigners and Iranians have used more color varieties compared to Japanese (P < 0.05). Ultimately, it was observed that among the case studies (regional, residential, and educational), education had a strong positive correlation with number of color varieties (P < 0.01). © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 416–424, 2015     

Color space of the coloroid color system

The Coloroid color system is a Hungarian standard color order system. This article describes the color space of the Coloroid system and its relationship to the CIE colorimetric space and the spaces associated with the Munsell and DIN color order systems. The Coloroid system is presented as a compromise of principles of uniformity in regard to color difference and color harmony, as well as ease of mapping into the CIE colorimetric space.     

The story of the DIN color system

The DIN Color Chart rests on a development of more than 40 years. It belongs to a group of color order systems that attempt to show equal distances in defined color series. The choice of hue, saturation, and darkness degree as a function of relative luminance factor, and the extended use of colorimetry for interpolations and extrapolations are characteristic elements of this color system. As results of the nature of the colorimetric definitions, several compromises give rise to deviations of the color series from purely psychological ordering. The main aim is technical application in close connection with colorimetry.