Lesson 4:

COLOUR
Physical Background
• Visible light: a narrow band of
electromagnetic radiation →
380nm (blue) - 780nm (red)
• Wavelength: Each physically distinct
colour corresponds to at least one
wavelength in this band.
• Spectrum: Intensity as
a function of wavelength
• The colour of an object: is the product
of the spectrum of the incident light
with the light absorption and/or
reflection properties of the object.
 Human Colour perception
• The human eye does not perceive individual light wavelengths.
• It contains three types of colour receptor (cones) which integrate over
parts of the spectrum:

From http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/BlueSky/blue_sky.html
 Human Colour perception
• It is therefore possible to characterise a psycho-visual colour by specifying
the amounts of three primary colours: red, green and blue, mixed
together.
• This leads to the standard RGB space used in television, computer
monitors, etc.
• We specify the levels of R, G and B in the range [0, 1], but they can easily
be extended to other ranges (8-bit integers for example).

(1,1,1)

RGB

(0,0,0)
Intuitive Colour Concepts

• Colour mixing created by an artist

• Shades, tints and tones in scene can be produced by mixing
colour pigments (hues) with white and black pigments

• Shades
• Add black pigment to pure colour
• The more black pigment, the darker the shade
• Tints
• Add white pigment to the original colour
• Making it lighter as more white is added
• Tones
• Produced by adding both black and white pigments
Characteristics of Colour
• Dominant frequency (hue, colour)

• Brightness (area under the curve), total light energy

• Purity (saturation), how close a light appear to be a pure spectral colour,

such as red

• Chromaticity is used to refer collectively to the two properties describing

colour characteristics: purity and dominant frequency
 The CIE Chromaticity Diagram
• CIE: International Commission on Illumination (Comission Internationale
de l’Eclairage).
• Shows colour compositions as a function of x(red) and y(green)
• Luminance values are not available because of normalization
• Colors with different luminance but same chromaticity map to
the same point

• Usage of CIE chromaticity diagram

• Comparing colour gamuts for different set of primaries
• Identifying complementary colors
• Determining purity and dominant wavelength for a given colour
The CIE Chromaticity Diagram

• A tongue-shape curve formed by

plotting the normalized amounts x
and y for colours in the visible
spectrum Spectral
Colors
• Points along the curve are spectral
colour (pure colour)
• Purple line, the line joining the red
and violet spectral points
• Illuminant C, plotted for a white C

light source and used as a standard

approximation for average daylight

Illuminant Purple
Line
The CIE Chromaticity Diagram
 To determine the range of colors
that can be obtained from the 3
given colors in the Chromaticity
Diagram, we simply draw connecting
lines to each of the three colour
points.
 The result is a triangle and any
colour inside a triangle is produced
by various combinations of the three
initial colours.
 The triangle shows a typical range of
colours (called the colour gamut)
produced by RGB monitor
 Complementary Colours
subCR

• Additive
• Blue is one-third
• Subtractive
• Yellow (red+green) is two-thirds • Orange (between red and
yellow)<>cyan-blue
• When blue and yellow light are
added together, they produce white • green-cyan<>magenta-red colour
light
• Pair of complementary colours
• blue and yellow
• green and magenta
• red and cyan

subYM
addRG
The CIE Chromaticity Diagram

• Complementary colors
• Represented on the diagram as
two points on opposite sides of C
and collinear with C
• The distance of the two colors C1
and C2 to C determine the
amount of each needed to
produce white light
The CIE Chromaticity Diagram
• Dominant wavelength
• Draw a straight from C through colour
point to a spectral colour on the
curve, the spectral colour is the
dominant wavelength
• Special case: a point between C and a
point on the purple line Cp, take the
compliment Csp as dominant
• Purity
• For a point C1, the purity determined
as the relative distance of C1 from C
along the straight line joining C to Cs
• Purity ratio = dC1 / dCs
 Colour Models
• Method for explaining the properties or behavior of colour within some
particular context
• Combine the light from two or more sources with different
dominant frequencies and vary the intensity of light to
generate a range of additional colors
• Primary Colors
• 3 primaries are sufficient for most purposes
• Colour gamut is the set of all colors that we can produce from the
primary colors
• A Complementary colour is two primary colors that produce white
• Red and Cyan, Green and Magenta, Blue and Yellow
 Colour Models
• The purpose of a colour model (also called colour Space or colour
System) is to facilitate the specification of colors in some standard
way

• A colour model is a specification of a coordinate system and a

subspace within that system where each colour is represented by a
single point

• Colour Models

RGB (Red, Green, Blue) - used with color CRT monitors

CMY (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow)- used for colour printing
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) - colour printing
HSI (Hue, Saturation, Intensity)
YIQ (Luminance,In phase, Quadrature) - broadcast TV color system
The RGB Colour Model
• Basic theory of RGB colour model
• The tristimulus theory of vision: It states that human eyes perceive
colour through the stimulation of three visual pigment of the cones
of the retina
• Red, Green and Blue
• Model can be represented by the unit cube defined on R,G and B
axes
 The RGB Colour Model
• The primary colors are red, green, and blue.
• It is an additive model, in which colors are produced by adding
components, with white having all colors present and black being the
absence of any colour.
• Used for active displays such as television and computer screens.

• The RGB model is usually represented by a unit cube with one corner
located at the origin of a three-dimensional colour coordinate system,
the axes being labeled R, G, B, and having a range of values [0, 1].
• The origin (0, 0, 0) is considered black and the diagonally opposite
corner (1, 1, 1) is called white. The line joining black to white represents
a gray scale and has equal components of R, G, B.
The CMY and CMYK Colour Models
• Colour models for hard-copy devices, such as printers
• Produce a colour picture by coating a paper with colour pigments
• Obtain colour patterns on the paper by reflected light, which is a subtractive
process
• The CMY parameters
• A subtractive colour model can be formed with the primary colors cyan, magenta
and yellow
• Unit cube representation for the CMY model with white at origin
 The CMY and CMYK Colour Models
• Most devices that deposit colour pigments on
paper (such as colour Printers and Copiers)
requires CMY data input or perform RGB to CMY
conversion internally

• Transformation between RGB and CMY colour

spaces
• Transformation matrix of conversion from RGB
to CMY  C  1  R 
 M  1   G
     
 Y  1  B 
 R  1  C 
 G  1   M 
• Transformation matrix of conversion from CMY      
to RGB  B  1  Y 
 CMY and CMYK Colour Model

• CMY is a Subtractive colour Model, where adding different pigments

causes various colors not to be reflected and thus not to be seen.
• Here, white is the absence of colors, and black is the sum of all of
them
• Equal amounts of Pigment primaries (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow)
should produce Black
• In practice combining these colors for printing produces a “Muddy-
Black” colour
• So in order to produce “True-Black” a fourth colour “Black” is added
giving rise to CMYK model
 HSI colour Model
• Hue (dominant colour seen)
• Wavelength of the pure colour observed in the signal.
• Distinguishes red, yellow, green, etc.
• More the 400 hues can be seen by the human eye.
• Saturation (degree of dilution)
• Inverse of the quantity of “white” present in the signal. A pure
colour has 100% saturation, the white and grey have 0% saturation.
• Distinguishes red from pink, marine blue from royal blue, etc.
• About 20 saturation levels are visible per hue.
• Intensity
• Distinguishes the gray levels.
• Two values (Hue & Saturation) encode chromaticity
• Intensity encode monochrome part.
The YIQ and Related colour Models
• A recoding of RGB for transmission efficiency and for downward
compatibility with black and white television.
• Here Y=luminance, the same as the CIE Y primary. Only the Y component
of a color TV signal is shown on black-and-white TVs.
• Chromaticity information (hue and purity) is incorporated into the I and Q
parameters
• I stands for in-phase, while Q stands for quadrature, referring to the
components used in quadrature amplitude modulation.
• Transmitted using NTSC (National Television System Committee) standard
• More bits of bandwidth are used to represent Y than to represent I and Q,
because our eye is more sensitive to changes in luminance
The HSV colour Model
• The HSV parameters
• Colour parameters are hue (H), saturation (S) and value (V)
• Derived by relating the HSV parameters to the direction in the
RGB cube
• Obtain a colour hexagon by viewing the RGB cube along the
diagonal from the white vertex to the origin
The HSV Colour Model
• The HSV hexcone
• Hue is represented as an angle about the vertical axis ranging from 0
degree at red to 360 degree
• Saturation parameter is used to designate the purity of a colour
• Value is measured along a vertical axis through center of hexcone
HSV Colour Model Hexcone

• Colour components:
• Hue (H) ∈ [0°, 360°]
• Saturation (S) ∈ [0, 1]
• Value (V) ∈ [0, 1]
 The HSV Colour Model

• Hue is the most obvious characteristic of a colour

• Chroma is the purity of a colour
• High chroma colors look rich and full
• Low chroma colors look dull and grayish
• Sometimes chroma is called saturation
• Value is the lightness or darkness of a colour
• Sometimes light colors are called tints, and
• Dark colors are called shades
Comparison

RGB CMY CMYK YIQ HSV HSL

 Colour Selection and Applications
• Graphical package provide colour capabilities in a way
that aid users in making colour selections
• For example, contain sliders and colour wheels for RGB components
instead of numerical values

• Colour applications guidelines

• Displaying blue pattern next to a red pattern can cause eye fatigue
• Prevent by separating these colour or by using colours from one-
half or less of the colour hexagon in the HSV model
• Smaller number of colors produces a better looking display
• Tints and shades tend to blend better than pure hues
• Gray or complement of one of the foreground colour is usually best
for background