The Science of Color

The Science of Color focuses on the principles and observations that are foundations of modern color science. Written for a general scientific audience, the book broadly covers essential topics in the interdisciplinary field of color, drawing from physics, physiology and psychology. This book comprises eight chapters and begins by tracing scientific thinking about color since the seventeenth century. This historical perspective provides an introduction to the fundamental questions in color science, by following advances as well as misconceptions over more than 300 years. The next chapters then discuss the relationship between light, the retinal image, and photoreceptors, followed by a focus on concepts such as color matching and color discrimination; color appearance and color difference specification; the physiology of color vision; the 15 mechanisms of the physics and chemistry of color; and digital color reproduction. Each chapter begins with a short outline that summarizes the organization and breadth of its material. The outlines are valuable guides to chapter structure, and worth scanning even by readers who may not care to go through a chapter from start to finish. This book will be of interest to scientists, artists, manufacturers, and students.