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Colors and color models
1. Colors and color models
What is a color?
Does everything have a color?
How many colors can be displayed by your smart phone? Or your LCD TV? Or your computer monitor?
2. Properties
A color is a property of something.
What is the color of a mirror?
What is the color of glass?
Can something be colorless?
Is nothing something?
There are many color models.
Color and how humans see color is very complex.
There are various models of color.
3. Goethe
The famous German author and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe first published the color wheel in 1810 (in German, English edition in 1840) called the Theory of Colors. In German, "
Zur Farbenlehre".
4. Color wheel
Many holidays have opposite colors on the Goethe color wheel.
Christmas: red and green
Easter: purple and yellow
Halloween: orange and green (not quite opposite)
Blue and orange (any takers)
5. Wittgenstein on color
Goethe's theory of the constitution of colours of the spectrum has not proved to be an unsatisfactory theory, rather it really isn't a theory at all. Nothing can be predicted with it. It is, rather a vague schematic outline of the sort we find in James's psychology. Nor is there any experimentum crucis which could decide for or against the theory. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Remarks on Colour, paragraphs 70 Wikipedia
6. RGB model
The
RGB (Red Green Blue) additive light color model (displays) has red, green, and blue.
The background is black (screen) and (projected) colors are added via light.
no color is black
all color is white
7. CMYK model
The
CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black) subtractive pigment color model (printers) has cyan, magenta, yellow, and, for practical printing purposes, black.
The background is white (paper) and (reflected) colors are subtracted via pigments (by painting).
no color is white
all color is black
8. Colors and color models
Two ways of looking at colors: (Note: there are other useful color models)
RGB additive model (light, added to black/screen)
(black) + red + green + blue = white
CMYK subtractive model (pigments, print, subtracted from white/paper)
(white) - cyan - magenta - yellow = black
Each model is correct. In many cases, one way may be easier to work with or use than the other model.
9. True color
A color model is called "
true color" if the human eye cannot distinguish between the smallest change of color in that model.
A
JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image has
24 bits for color, supporting more than
16,000,000 colors, and is called "
true color".
Colors are extremely complex. There are colors that cannot be expressed using standard color models, but approximations can get close.
10. Projection system
On a projection screen (or TV, or LCD monitor) etc., do you see black?
11. End of page
