Abstract
Color provides a powerful tool for the display designer, but, like any tool, it may also be counterproductive when not used with the necessary skill. Anybody with some experience in this field knows how the indiscriminate use of too many and too vivid colors may wreck an otherwise good display design. Often the mistakes that are made could easily have been avoided, by just common sense and looking critically at the display. For example, it does not take an expert’s eye to see that a colored symbol, say a white cursor, that looks fine on a blue background, may become hardly noticeable when viewed against a bright yellow. However, common sense is not enough when not combined with some basic knowledge of the physics, physiology, and perception of color. This is particularly true when colors appear different from what one would expect on the basis of their stimulus specifications. Best known in this respect is the effect of chromatic induction, the change in color that results when a color is surrounded by another color. But this is only one of a variety of perceptual artifacts that may be encountered on a color display (Walraven, 1985a, 1985b)—not to mention the problem of defective color vision, a handicap that applies to about 8% of the potential users of color-coded displays.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abney, W. (1910). On the changes in hue of spectrum colours by dilution with white light. Proceedings of the Royal Society (London), A 83, 120–124.
Baylor, D.A., Nunn, B.S., and Schnapf, J.L. (1987). Spectral sensitivity of cones of the monkey Macaca fascicularis. Journal of Physiology, 390, 145–160
Bodmann, H.W., Haubner, P., and Marsden, A.M. (1980). A unified relationship between brightness and luminance. In CIE Proceedings (pp. 99–102 ). Paris: Bureau Central de la CIE.
Bouman, M.A., and Walraven, P.L. (1957). Some color-naming experiments of red and green monochromatic lights. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 47, 834–839.
Boynton, R.M. (1978). Color in contour and object perception. In E.C. Carterette and M.P. Friedman (Eds.), Handbook of perception. New York, NY: Academic Press.
Boynton, R.M. (1979). Human color vision. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Brücke, E. (1878). Über einige Empfindungen im Gebiet der Sehnerven. Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien, 77, 39–71.
Burkhardt, D.A., Gottesman, J., Kersten, D., and Legge, G.E. (1984). Symmetry and constancy in the perception of negative and positive luminance contrast. Journal of the Optical Society of America, A 1, 309–316.
Burnham, R.W. (1953). Bezold’s color-mixture effect. American Journal of Psychology, 66, 377–385.
Burns, S.A., Elsner, A.E., Pokorny, J., and Smith, V.C. (1984). The Abney effect: Chromaticity coordinates of unique and other constant hues. Vision Research, 24, 479–489.
Burns, S.A., Smith, V.C., Pokorny, J., and Elsner, A.E. (1982). Brightness of equal-luminance lights. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 72, 1225–1231.
Campbell, F.W. (1957). The depth of field of the human eye. Optica Acta, 4, 157–164.
Campbell, F.W., and Durden, K. (1982). The visual display terminal issue; a consideration of its physiological, psychological and clinical background. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, 3, 175–192.
Carter, E.C., and Carter, R.C. (1982). High-contrast sets of colors. Applied Optics, 21, 2936–2939.
Carter, R.C., and Carter, E.C. (1983). CIE L*u*v* color-difference equations for self-luminous displays. Color Research and Application, 8, 252–253.
CIE (1931). CIE Proceedings. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press (1932). CIE (1970). International lighting vocabulary (CIE Publication No. 17 ). Paris: Bureau Central de la CIE.
CIE (1978). Light as a true visual quantity (CIE Publication No. 41 ). Paris: Bureau Central de la CIE.
CIE (1987). International lighting vocabulary (CIE Publication No. 17. 4 ). Geneva: Bureau Central de la Commission Electrotechnique International.
CIE (1988). Spectral luminous efficiency based upon brightness matching for monochromatic point sources 2° and 10° fields (CIE Publication No. 75 ). Vienna: Central Bureau of the CIE.
Connors, M.M. (1968). Luminance requirements for hue identification in small targets. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 58, 258–263.
Connors, M.M. (1970). Luminance requirements for hue perception and identification for a range of exposure durations. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 60, 958–965.
Coren, S., and Keith, B. (1970). Bezold-Brücke effect: Pigment or neural locus? Journal of the Optical Society of America, 60, 559–562.
DeMonasterio, F.M., McCrane, J.K., Newlander, J.K., and Schein, S.J. (1985). Density profile of blue-sensitive cones along the horizontal meridian of Macaque retina. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 26, 289–302.
Derefeldt, G., Hedin, C.E., and Sahlin, C. (1987). Transformation of NCS data into CIELUV color space. Displays, 8, 183–192.
Derefeldt, G., and Hedin, C.E. (1989). Visualization of VDU colors by means of the CIELUV color space. Displays, 10, 134–146.
Derefeldt, G., Hedin, C.E., and Sahlin, C. (1990). NCS colour space for VDU colours. Displays, 11, 8–29.
DeValois, R.L. (1973). Central mechanisms of color vision. In R. Jung (Ed.), Handbook of sensory physiology, Vol. 7/3. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Donohoo, D.T., and Snyder, L.M. (1985). Accommodation during color contrast. In SID
Digest (pp. 200–203). New York, NY: Palisades Institute for Research Services, Inc. Einthoven, W. (1885). Stereoskopie durch Farbdifferenzen. Graefes Archiv der Ophtalmologie, 31,211–238.
Eisner, A., and MacLeod, D.I.A. (1980). Blue cones do not contribute to luminance. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 70, 121–123.
Evans, R.M. (1948). An introduction to color. New York, NY: Wiley.
Fechner, G.T. (1860). Elemente der psychophysik. Leipzig: Breitel und Hartel.
Gilchrist, A.L. (1979). The perception of surface whites and blacks. Scientific American, 24, 88–97.
Gilchrist, A.L., Delman, S., and Jacobsen, A. (1983). The classification and integration of edges as critical to the perception of reflectance and illumination. Perception and Psychophysics, 33, 425–436.
Gordon, J., and Abramov, I. (1977). Color vision in the peripheral retina. II. Hue and saturation. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 67, 202–207.
Graham, C.M., and Brown, J.L. (1965). Color contrast and color appearance: brightness constancy and color constancy. In C.M. Graham (Ed.), Vision and visual perception New York, NY: Wiley.
Guth, S.L., Massof, R.W., and Benzschawel, T. (1980). Vector model for normal and dichromatic vision. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 70, 197–212.
Guth, S.L., and Lodge, H.R. (1973). Heterochromatic additivity, foveal spectral sensitivity, and a new color model. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 63, 450–462.
Hard, A., and Sivik, L. (1981). NCS-Natural Color System: a Swedish standard for color notation. Color Research and Application, 6, 129–138.
Harris, C.S., and Gibson, A.R. (1968). Is orientation-specific color adaptation in human vision due to edge detectors, afterimages, or “di-poles”? Science, 162, 1506–1507.
Musing, M. (1976). Color coding of information on electronic displays. In Proceedings of the Sixth Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (pp. 210–217 ). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.
Hepler, N. (1968). Color: a motion contingent after-effect. Science, 162, 376–377.
Hering, E. (1964). Outlines of a theory of the light sense (L. Hurvich and D. Jameson Trans.). Boston, MA: Harvard University Press. ( Original work published 1878 )
Hesselgren, S. (1984). Why color order systems? Color Research and Application, 9, 220–228.
Hudson, P.T.W. (1984). Encoding information in displays: color vs. non-coloured methods and their uses, or, what can you do extra with a colour display? In C.P. Gibson (Ed.), Proceedings of a NATO Workshop on Colour Coded vs Monochrome Electronic Displays (pp. 34.1–34. 13 ). Farnborough, England: Royal Aircraft Establishment.
Hunt, R.W.G. (1977). The specification of color appearance-I: Concept and terms. Color Research and Application, 2, 55–68.
Hunt, R.W.G. (1985). Perceptual factors affecting color order systems. Color Research and Application, 10, 12–19.
Hurvich, L.M., and Jameson, D. (1955). Some quantitative aspects of an opponent-colors theory-II: Brightness, saturation and hue in normal and dichromatic vision. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 45, 602–617.
ISO (1987). Ergonomics of office VDUs: Visual requirements (Draft DP 9241, Part 3 ). Geneva: International Organization for Standardization.
Jacobsen, A., and Gilchrist, A.L. (1988). The ratio principle holds over a million-to-one range of illumination. Perception and Psychophysics, 43, 1–6.
Jameson, D., and Hurvich, L.M. (1972). Color adaptation: sensitivity, contrast, after-images. In D. Jameson and L.M. Hurvich (Eds.), Handbook of sensory physiology, Vol. VII/4 (pp. 568–581 ). Berlin: Springier.
Judd, D.B. (1958). A new look at the measurement of light and color. Illuminating Engineering, 53, 61–71.
Judd, D.B., and Wyszecki, G. (1963). Color in business, science and industry ( 2nd ed. ). New York, NY: Wiley.
Kaiser, P.K. (1968). Color names of very small fields varying in duration and luminance. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 58, 849–852.
Khan, J.A., Fitz, J., Psaltis, P., and Ide, C.H. (1984). Prolonged complementary chromatopsia in users of video display terminals. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 98, 756–761.
Katz, D. (1935). The world of colour. (P. Kegan Trans.). London: Trench, Trubner and Co. (Original work published 1911 )
Kelly, D.H. (1974). Spatio-temporal frequency characteristics of color vision mechanisms. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 64, 983–990.
Kinney, J.A.S. (1979). The use of color in wide-angle displays. Proceedings of the Society for Information Display, 20, 33–40.
Kinney, J.A.S. (1983). Brightness of colored self-luminous displays. Color Research and Application, 8, 82–89.
Kurtenbach, W., Stemheim, C.E., and Spillmann, L. (1984). Change in hue of spectral colors by dilution with light (Abney effect). Journal of the Optical Society of America, 74, 365–372.
Ladd, J.H., and Pinney, J.E. (1955). Empirical relationships with the Munsell value scale. Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 43, 1137–1140.
Land, E.H. (1964). The retinex. American Scientist, 52, 247–264.
Laycock, J., and Viveash, J.P. (1982). Calculating the perceptibility of monochrome and color displays viewed under various illumination conditions. Displays, 3, 88–99.
Lippert, T.M. (1986). Color-difference prediction of legibility performance for CRT raster imagery. In SID Digest (pp. 86–89 ). New York, NY: Palisades Institute for Research Services, Inc.
Lippert, T.M., Farley, W.W., Post, D.L., and Snyder, H.L. (1983). Color contrast effects on visual performance. In SID Digest (pp. 170–171 ). New York, NY: Palisades Institute for Research Services, Inc.
Livingstone, M.S., and Hubel, D. (1988). Segregation of form, color, movement and depth: anatomy, physiology and perception. Science, 240, 740–750.
MacAdam, D.L. (1950). Loci of constant hue and brightness determined with various surrounding colors. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 40, 589–595.
Maxwell, J.C. (1872). On colour vision. Proceedings of the Royal Institute of Great Britain, 6, 260.
MacAdam, D.L. (Ed.), Sources of color science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970 ).
Mayhew, J.E.W., and Anstis, S.M. (1972). Movement after-effects contingent on color, intensity and pattern. Perception and Psychophysics, 12, 77–85.
McCollough, C. (1965). Color adaptation of edge-detectors in the human visual system. Science, 149, 1115–1116.
Mollon, J.D. (1977). The oddity of blue. Nature, 268, 587–588.
Murch, G.M. (1983). Visual accommodation to multichromatic visual-display terminals. Proceedings of the Society for Information Display, 24, 67–71.
Murch, G.M., Crawford, M., and McManus, P.A. (1984). Perceived brightness and color contrast of color displays. In C.P. Gibson (Ed.), Proceedings of a NATO Workshop on Colour Coded vs Monochrome Electronic Displays (pp. 37.1–37.6 ). Farnborough, England: Royal Aircraft Establishment.
Newhall, S.M., Nickerson, D., and Judd, D.B. (1943). Final report of the OSA subcommittee on the spacing of the Munsell colors. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 33, 385–418.
Phillips, P.L. (1986). Minimum color differences required to recognize small objects on a color CRT. Journal of the Institution of Electronic and Radio Engineers, 56, 123–129.
Pitt, F.H.G. (1935). Characteristics of dichromatic vision (Medical Research Council of Great Britain Special Report Series, No. 200 ). London: HMSO.
Pokorny, J., Smith, V.C., Yerriest, G., and Pinckers, A.J.L.G. (1979). Congenital and acquired color vision defects. New York, NY: Grune and Stratton.
Post, D.L. (1983). Color contrast metrics for complex images. Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA.
Post, D.L. (1984). CIELUV/CIELAB and self-luminous displays: another perspective. Color Research and Application, 9, 244–245.
Post, D.L., and Sheibenberger, D. (1984). Angular subtense requirements for colored CRT symbology. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 28th Annual Meeting (pp. 937–941 ). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.
Purdy, D. McL. (1931). Spectral hue as a function of intensity. American Journal of Psychology, 43, 541–559.
Purdy, D. McL. (1937). The Bezold-Brücke phenomenon and contours for constant hue. American Journal of Psychology, 49, 313–315.
Rennilson, J.J. (1983). Problems in the perception of colored self-luminous displays. In Proceedings of the 20th session of the CIE (Amsterdam), D106/1. Paris: Bureau Central de la CIE.
Richter, M. (1953). Das System der DIN-Farbenkarte. Farbe, 1, 85–89.
Robertson, A.R. (1977). The CIE 1976 color difference formulae. Color Research and Application, 2, 7–11.
Sayer, J.R., Sebok, A.L., and Snyder, H.L. (1990). Color-difference metrics: task performance prediction for multichromatic CRT applications as determined by color legibility. In SID Digest (pp. 265–268 ). New York, NY: Palisades Institute for Research Services, Inc.
Schiller, P.H., Logothetis, N.K., and Charles, E.R. (1990). Functions of the color-opponent and broad-band channels of the visual system. Nature, 343, 68–70.
Schuchard, R.A. (1990). Evaluation of uniform CRT display scales with visual threshold data. Applied Optics, 29, 570–578.
Snyder, H.L. (1984). Effect of color contrast on legibility on airborne displays. In C.P. Gibson (Ed.), Proceedings of a NATO Workshop on Colour Coded vs Monochrome Electronic Displays (pp. 27.1–27. 19 ). Farnborough, England: Royal Aircraft Establishment.
Spiker, V.A, Rogers, S.P., and Cicinelli, J. (1983). Identification of colored stimuli on a computer-generated raster display as a function of luminance, foreground color, background color, and stimulus size. Technical Report 459–6. Santa Barbara, CA: Anacapa Sciences, Inc.
Sproson, W.N. (1983). Colour science in television and display systems. Bristol, England: Adam Hilger.
Stevens, S.S. (1957). On the psychological law. Psychological Review, 64, 153–181.
Stiles, W.S., and Crawford, B.H. (1933). The luminous efficiency of rays entering the eye at different points. Proceedings of the Royal Society, 112B, 428–450.
Stromeyer, C.F. (1969). Further studies of the McCollough effect. Perception and Psychophysics, 6, 105–110.
Taylor, S.P. (1983). A time induced tritan defect. Vision Research, 23, 745–748.
Taylor, J.M., Murch, G.M., and McManus, P. (1989). TekHVC: A uniform perceptual color system for display users. Proceedings of the Society for Information Display, 30, 15–21.
Trezona, P.W. (1973). The tetrachromatic colour match as a colorimetric technique. Vision Research, 13, 9–25
Trezona, P.W. (1976). Aspects of peripheral colour vision. In E.B. Streif (Ed.), Modern problems in ophthalmology, Vol. 27 (pp. 52–70 ). Basel: S. Karger.
Van Der Wildt, G.J., and Bouman, M.A. (1968). The dependence of the Bezold-Brücke hue shift on spatial intensity distribution. Vision Research, 8, 308–313.
Van Norren, D., and Went, L.N. (1981). New test for the detection of tritan defects evaluated in two surveys. Vision Research, 21, 1303–1306.
Verriest, G. (1971). Les courbes spectrales photopiques d’éfficacité dans les déficiences congénitales de la vision des couleurs. Vision Research, 11, 1407–1434.
Verriest, G., Andrews, I., and Uvijls, A. (1985). Visual performance on a multicolor visual display unit of color-defective and normal trichromatic subjects (Technical Report TR 12. 241 ). Hursley, England: IBM.
Viveash, J.P., and Laycock, J. (1983). Computation of the resultant chromaticity coordinates and luminance of combined and filtered sources in display design. Displays, 4, 17–23.
Von Bezold, W. (1874). Die Farbenlehre. Braunschweig: Westerman.
Von Grünau, M.W. (1975a). The “fluttering heart” and spatio-temporal characteristics of color processing-I: Reversibility and the influence of luminance. Vision Research, 15, 431–436.
Von Grünau, M.W. (1975b). The “fluttering heart” and spatio-temporal characteristics of color processing-II: Lateral interactions across the chromatic border. Vision Research, 15, 437–440.
Von Helmholtz, H. (1911). Handbuch der physiologischen Optik ( 3rd ed. ). Hamburg and Leipzig: Voss.
Vos, J.J. (1960). Some new aspects of colour stereoscopy. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 50, 785–790.
Vos, J.J. (1978). Colorimetric and photometric properties of a 2° fundamental observer. Color Research and Application, 3, 125–128.
Vos, J.J. (1986). Are unique and invariant hues coupled? Vision Research, 26, 337.
Vos, J.J., and Walraven, P.L. (1971). On the derivation of the foveal receptor primaries. Vision Research, 11, 799–818.
Vos, J.J., Walraven, J., and Van Meeteren, A. (1976). Light profiles of the foveal image of a point source. Vision Research, 16, 215–219.
Wagenaar, W.A. (1975). Stevens vs. Fechner: A plea for dismissal of the case. Acta Psychologica, 39, 225–235.
Wagner, D.W. (1984). The effect of colored symbol aspect ratio on operator performance In C.P. Gibson (Ed.), Proceedings of a NATO Workshop on Colour Coded vs Monochrome Electronic Displays (pp. 30.1–30. 8 ). Farnborough, England: Royal Aircraft Establishment.
Walraven, J. (1973). Spatial characteristics of chromatic induction; the segregation of lateral effects from straylight artifacts. Vision Research, 11, 1739–1753.
Walraven, J. (1976). Discounting the background, the missing link in the explanation of chromatic induction. Vision Research, 16, 289–295.
Walraven, J. (1977). Colour signals from incremental and decremental light stimuli. Vision Research, 17, 71–76.
Walraven, J. (1981). Perceived colour under conditions of chromatic adaptation; evidence for gain control by it-mechanisms. Vision Research, 21, 611–620.
Walraven, J. (1984). Color in displays-I: The psychophysical and physiological aspects. Report IZF 1985–11 (in Dutch). Soesterberg, The Netherlands: Institute for Perception TNO.
Walraven, J. (1985a). The colours are not in the display: a survey of non-veridical perceptions that may turn up on a colour display. Displays, 6, 35–42.
Walraven, J. (1985b). Perceptual problems in display imagery. In SID Digest (pp. 192–196 ). New York, NY: Palisades Institute for Research Services, Inc.
Walraven, J. (1985c). Prolonged complementary chromatopsia in users of video display terminals. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 100, 350–352.
Walraven, J. (1987a). Color coding for ATC display (EEC Report No. 212 ). Brussels, Belgium: Euro Control.
Walraven, J. (1987b). Color coding of precipitation distribution on electronic weather maps Memo IZF 1987-M8 (in Dutch). Soesterberg, The Netherlands: Institute for Perception TNO.
Walraven, J. (1990). Color specifications for electronic chart display systems (ECDIS) Report IZF 1990 A-19. Soesterberg, The Netherlands: Institute for Perception TNO.
Walraven, J., Benzschawel, T., and Rogowitz, B.R. (1987). Color constancy interpretation of chromatic induction. In M. Richter (Ed., 1989), AIC Proceedings “StilesWyszecki Memorial Symposium on Color Vision Models” (pp. 269–273 ). Göttingen: Muster-Schmidt Verlag.
Walraven, J., Benzschawel, T., and Rogowitz, B.R. (1989). Color constancy interpretation of chromatic induction. In M. Richter (Ed.), AIC Proceedings “Stiles-Wyszecki Memorial Symposium on Color Vision Models” (pp. 269–273 ). Göttingen: Muster-Schmidt Verlag.
Walraven, J., Enroth-Cugell, C.H., Hood, D.C., MacLeod, D.I.A., and Schnapf, J.L. (1990). The control of visual sensitivity: Receptoral and post-receptoral processes. In L. Spillmann and J.S. Werner (Eds), Visual perception: the neurophysiological foundations (pp. 53–101 ). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Walraven, J., and Lucassen, M.P. (1990). Color constancy in an RGB world. In Proceedings Eurodisplay ‘80 (pp. 112–115 ). Berlin: VDE Verlag.
Walraven, J., and Werner, J.S. (1986). The invariance of unique white and its implications for normalizing cone action spectra. Perception, 15, A 27.
Walraven, J., and Werner, J.S. (1991). The invariance of unique white: possible implications for normalizing cone action spectra. Vision Research (in press).
Walraven, P.L. (1961a). On the mechanism of colour vision. Thesis, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Walraven, P.L. (1961b). On the Bezold-Brücke phenomenon. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 561, 1113–1116.
Walraven, P.L., and Leebeek, H.J. (1964). Phase shift of sinusoidally alternating colored stimuli. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 54, 78–82.
Werner, J.S., and Walraven, J. (1982). Effect of chromatic adaptation on the achromatic locus, the role of contrast, luminance and background color. Vision Research, 22, 929–943.
Werner, J.S., and Wooten, B.R. (1979). Opponent chromatic mechanisms: Relation to photopigments and hue naming. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 69, 422–434.
Wiesel, T.N., and Hubel, D.H. (1966). Spatial and chromatic integrations in the lateral geniculate body of the rhesus monkey. Journal of Neurophysiology, 29, 1115–1116.
Willmer, E.N., and Wright, W.D. (1945). Colour sensitivity of the fovea centralis. Nature, 156, 119–121.
Wright, W.D. (1952). The characteristics of tritanopia. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 42, 509–521.
Wyszecki, G., and Stiles, W.S. (1982). Color science ( 2nd ed. ). New York, NY: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Walraven, J. (1992). Color Basics for the Display Designer. In: Widdel, H., Post, D.L. (eds) Color in Electronic Displays. Defense Research Series, vol 3. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9754-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9754-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9756-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9754-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive