tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18409857382359024822024-03-18T05:48:19.450-04:00John the Math GuyApplied math and color science with a liberal sprinkling of goofy humor.John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.comBlogger198125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-61192946525064184292020-07-22T20:42:00.014-04:002020-07-27T11:20:54.026-04:00Orange chestnutsI stumbled upon a YouTube video the other day that caught my attention: <i>Color Theory for Noobs</i>. Cute title. 1.8 million views. The intro graphics look cool. Maybe I can learn something about color theory from this video?<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AvgCkHrcj90" width="320" youtube-src-id="AvgCkHrcj90"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>Ten seconds in we have the quote: "Hue is is essentially what color the color is." There is a plant growing out of my face. Is this a tautology, or just a circular definition? I am just a bit disappointed. Just to be clear, I watched a bit more of the video, and liked it, but that sentence got stuck in my craw.</div><div><br /></div><div>I feel obliged here to mention the launch of the <a href="https://colourliteracy.org/">ISCC/AIC Colour Literacy Project</a>. I quote one of the objectives of the project:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>To identify and address the most basic, current misconceptions and misinformation about colour, while building a bridge between art and science for 21st century colour education.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The quote from the video is problematic because it uses the word <i>color </i>twice, but with two different meanings. I will get into what those two meanings are in a bit. But first I want to pontificate a bit on how we think about color and how we communicate it.</div><div><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">What is the most salient attribute of color?</h1><div>Many who teach about color start with the notion of hue. The above video from Flow Graphics starts by talking about <i>hue</i>. First example of color teachers leading with <i>hue</i>. That's Exhibit A.</div><div><br /></div><div>Munsell's three attributes are hue, value, and chroma -- not chroma, value, and hue. That's Exhibit B. The primacy of hue was carried through in the Munsell corporation beyond Munsell's death. F. G Cooper, in <i>Munsell Manual of Color</i> (Munsell Company, 1929) starts out talking about hue. Exhibit C.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2sYn02YgMv5yPJpdGZgvrPTj-YqBE0pol0wC97CWM5BFO_gdgXZoiniVFNvATKCwZiauxN7Y3BiTzYYC2fol5XYdX8xAi_7sBMkhs2seFG8z5EHxEDYB35rqkXUpdzkG_RXo4j-YEc1o/s579/Munsell+start.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="579" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2sYn02YgMv5yPJpdGZgvrPTj-YqBE0pol0wC97CWM5BFO_gdgXZoiniVFNvATKCwZiauxN7Y3BiTzYYC2fol5XYdX8xAi_7sBMkhs2seFG8z5EHxEDYB35rqkXUpdzkG_RXo4j-YEc1o/w400-h293/Munsell+start.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>M. Luckiesh wrote a book on color about the same time, <i>Color and Its Applications</i>, Van Nostrand, 1927. Here is a quote from his chapter on terminology. Once again, hue is at the start of the list of attributes. Exhibit D.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnYe4kB2Uy-orOOkkiEbjuj_m1eNZ15S7xpaPAKIBViVG47_rblU3iMkc63kVmV8UW5Rm-N6U26ju4ANmTbm8MAWudw75DJVIgPTwyLCi1pmyf84VKkfkTnzYPbZlnytp_UcHNbTZwIk/s531/Lukiesch%252C+Color+and+its+Applications%252C+1927.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="531" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnYe4kB2Uy-orOOkkiEbjuj_m1eNZ15S7xpaPAKIBViVG47_rblU3iMkc63kVmV8UW5Rm-N6U26ju4ANmTbm8MAWudw75DJVIgPTwyLCi1pmyf84VKkfkTnzYPbZlnytp_UcHNbTZwIk/w400-h143/Lukiesch%252C+Color+and+its+Applications%252C+1927.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>How about modern educators on color? David Briggs has a great site with real color science stuff. Here is his webpage on the <a href="http://www.huevaluechroma.com/011.php">Dimensions of Colour</a>. Note that he lists <i>hue </i>first in the URL, and that <i>hue </i>gets described first. (I should also point out that he is from Australia, so he can spell color with a <i>u </i>without sounding pretentious. When I spell colour with a <i>u</i>, it is because I intend to sound pretentious.) That was exhibit E.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, I come to Exhibit F, which says pretty much what I am trying to say. Stephen Westland has a series of wonderful short videos about real color science. As with David, he is allowed to spell color with a <i>u</i> because he is British. Below is a screen shot from a video he has about how we describe color, which is aptly named <a href="https://colourware.org/2018/06/24/3-how-we-describe-colour/">How We Describe Colour</a>. His quote which echoes my sentiment that the most prominent attribute of color is hue is this: "the most prominent attribute of colour is hue".</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihLOp_75jjy3vbYntB9EXWg429YHKeIazCzMZGtyjMz2SFViioSg_KFaAQ-2OzWCrwF8d02GS0d80NDPiPnID9jPg8sEo2chr6YhMEAyOODU80Rfhgdg5Tq3MsgcxusrdGF0CmRMmAHY8/s653/Westland.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="653" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihLOp_75jjy3vbYntB9EXWg429YHKeIazCzMZGtyjMz2SFViioSg_KFaAQ-2OzWCrwF8d02GS0d80NDPiPnID9jPg8sEo2chr6YhMEAyOODU80Rfhgdg5Tq3MsgcxusrdGF0CmRMmAHY8/w400-h341/Westland.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Disclaimer: I have no financial ties to either David Briggs or Stephen Westland. If, however, I happen to wander into a pub that they are in, I would likely accept if either bought me a beer. I expect that after the third or fourth beer, I might be persuaded to reciprocate.</div><div><br /></div><div>From this, I conclude that hue is of critical importance in the description of color. Well, duh.</div><div><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">How do we define <i>hue</i>? </h1><div>Simple words are the hardest to define. It's like what Satchmo said when asked to define jazz: “If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.” Let's have a look at some definitions of hue.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is from the Wikipedia entry on hue:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow</i></div><div>Attributed to Mark Fairchild, "Color Appearance Models: CIECAM02 and Beyond". Tutorial slides for IS&T/SID 12th Color Imaging Conference.</div><div><br /></div><div>Stephen Westland has a similar definition of hue: <i>The hue of a color is whether it is red, yellow, blue, green, etc.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Hmmm... same list of four colors. From the first one, I'm not sure if orange is one of the hues. From the second definition, it might be. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here is David Briggs' definition: <i>Hue refers to the circular scale of "pure" or "saturated" colours formed by the colours seen in the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and violet), together with the non-spectral colours like magenta, seen when the two ends of the spectrum are mixed. </i></div><div><br /></div><div>That clears things up a bit. But it still seems that there are a small discrete number of hues. In Briggs' case, there are eight.</div><div><br /></div><div>But then we have Munsell's hue circle. He listed the pigments and combinations of pigments required to make ten different hues, and further subdivided them into 100 steps of hue. Here is a depiction of 20 steps of hues, based on Munsell. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQuGQ4sGySdLJWmUvLsDvf87UEc7W5fZ58rBZzSbgwy8I_A-Dumhd-3xNwZ7AzyaRB_RgRgEbHb66XPxuB12yRC7pS0_-wIO40Abdv9UEP_nABvGQCyUoJULjiMzyjjQwRrSwdD-IBCg/s800/800px-MunsellColorWheel.svg.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQuGQ4sGySdLJWmUvLsDvf87UEc7W5fZ58rBZzSbgwy8I_A-Dumhd-3xNwZ7AzyaRB_RgRgEbHb66XPxuB12yRC7pS0_-wIO40Abdv9UEP_nABvGQCyUoJULjiMzyjjQwRrSwdD-IBCg/s320/800px-MunsellColorWheel.svg.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>By <a href=" https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5216531">Thenoizz</a></i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I think it would be safe to say that eight distinctions of hue fits with the everyday usage of the word, but that my wife would cringe if I described the color of a blouse as "three-tenths of the way from red to red-purple". So, Munsell's 100 steps of hue are a bit beyond what we normally think. BTW, Madelaine's credentials in this subject matter are unrivalled. She is the world's leading expert in the field of my John the Math Guy's flaws. A very broad field, I might add.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the Munsell system of 100 hues, we have crossed the line between everyday and scientific usage of the word.</div><div><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">My definition of hue</h1><div>Before I define hue, I need to define <i>color</i>. I define the word <i>color </i>to be a sensation in the brain which is usually (but not always) initiated by light striking the retina in the back of the eye. Colors can be subdivided into two broad categories: <i>achromatic </i>and <i>chromatic</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Achromatic colors are those where the brain perceives a balance between the signals from the three types of cones. Achromatic colors include black, gray, white, and all colors in between. Yes, white, and black are colors, and more specifically, achromatic colors. I don't care what your art teacher said about black being the absence of color.</div><div><br /></div><div>Chromatic colors are all the rest. Chromatic colors can be systematically subdivided into groupings according to <i>hue</i>. Various hue groups and methods for determining the group of a color have been developed. In one of the simpler cases, there are eight hue groups: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet, and magenta. All chromatic colors belong in one of these eight groups. The boundaries of these hue groupings are not precisely defined, and the method of assigning a color such as peach or mauve or olive to it's appropriate hue group is by eye.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a system of color developed by Albert Munsell, there are ten hue groupings: R, YR, Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P, and RP. Each of these ten groupings is subdivided into ten divisions. For example, the hue group for red includes 1R (which is on the purplish side), 5R (which is pure red), and 10R (which is on the orange side). Assigning a color to a hue group is still done by eye, but this is facilitated by having a color atlas with a few thousand colors to match against. Each of these colors has a hue identifier.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then there's CIELAB. CIELAB values of a color are determined by measuring the light reflected from a surface (or emitted by a light source) and using math to translate these into various quantities, including hue angle. Hue angle is in degrees, specifying a location on the hue wheel. For most practical purposes, the resolution of hue angle could be taken to be one degree, although finer divisions are certainly measurable. A benefit to this hue system is that it can be measured, thus eliminating the subjective judgment of a person.</div><div><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">A quirk</h1><div>Summarizing, we have identified hue as the most salient characteristic of a color (at least, of a chromatic color), and we have seen that this concept is baked into both Munsell color space and CIELAB.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now we come to a quirk in the road.</div><div><br /></div><div>I recall looking at a particularly colorful sunset when I was perhaps 5 years old. I looked at the gradations of color and I said to my sister (who would have been about 8) that pink is just light purple. She quickly corrected me by saying that pink is light red. I reckon that, had my sister not chastised me too harshly, and at such a young age, I would have likely become a world-renowned color scientist by third or maybe fourth grade. As it is, I didn't even think about color again until I was in my mid 30s. Let that be a warning to all older sisters who criticize their younger brothers.</div><div><br /></div><div>I checked a few dictionaries to see how they define <i>pink</i>. There is a consensus that pink is somewhere between red and white, just like my sister told me. But, I have a quick test. The blocks in the image below are various hues that might be considered pink. Which one do you think is closest to pink? </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjJrvi-C0-hR5xAlE1di6ISMKuC_NnMkCfxYWnW8BuHTvP9FAq7h7QMyfbTn7sBNl-VKF6MFm5W1D0QeqnZblFA9bPVJob-GnzHfMNn6z-0Z1Juvj6S2D-iJ_MifcXlJ9WASUgGPScJw/s2000/in+the+pink.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="2000" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjJrvi-C0-hR5xAlE1di6ISMKuC_NnMkCfxYWnW8BuHTvP9FAq7h7QMyfbTn7sBNl-VKF6MFm5W1D0QeqnZblFA9bPVJob-GnzHfMNn6z-0Z1Juvj6S2D-iJ_MifcXlJ9WASUgGPScJw/w400-h123/in+the+pink.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Will the real pink please stand up?</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>My vote goes for D. If you pick something else, then it could be that your computer screen is different from mine. Or maybe the software on your computer is doing something different in rendering the colors. Or it could be that your eyes are different from mine. Or then again, maybe I'm just dumb? Ask my wife. She's the authority.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now for the surprise. Block B is the one that is actually between red and white, at least according to RGB values. That really doesn't look like pink to me! I am going to guess that my wife would call it <i>dusty rose</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>[Comment from my wife: "It doesn't look dusty rose. It looks more like light red, but not pink." I appreciate her corrections.]</div><div><br /></div><div>At the end of 2016, I posted <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2016/12/unambiguous-regions-in-color-space-for.html">a blog that delineated regions of various colors in CIELAB space</a>. The plot below is from that blog post. The hue angle for red lies between a hue angle of 27 and 37 degrees. Pink straddles a hue of 0 degrees, -23 to +21 degrees. Pink does not have the same hue as red.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1Q6TXYzeO7yzQIMoz_xQZFa14R__a95O1X6tTVDRN8KNdyXVfUAmdEETMJFcHkZzslYYAaXAdHcozFvP0xgvqJtzzRXnQk5PJVHwwOcHSyaYevUr_SaN1IrJe1BadvXRyJmrk2nmzsY/s1144/Color+name+mapping.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1015" data-original-width="1144" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1Q6TXYzeO7yzQIMoz_xQZFa14R__a95O1X6tTVDRN8KNdyXVfUAmdEETMJFcHkZzslYYAaXAdHcozFvP0xgvqJtzzRXnQk5PJVHwwOcHSyaYevUr_SaN1IrJe1BadvXRyJmrk2nmzsY/w400-h355/Color+name+mapping.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Mauveless chart of color names</i></div><div><br /></div><div>These two things suggest that my sister and the common dictionary definition were wrong. Pink is not somewhere between white and red, but rather, is shifted in hue more toward purple. If I had the vocabulary when I was 5, I would have correctly said that pink is light magenta. But alas, the color name magenta was yet been invented when I was 5. <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2019/04/what-city-in-italy-is-color-magenta.html">The word <i>magenta</i> as a color name wasn't coined until around 1860</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a bit of a dichotomy. From the standpoint of language, pink belongs in the red hue group. On the other hand, my RGB display and CIELAB both suggest that pink and magenta belong in the same hue group.</div><div><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">A second quirk</h1><div>Brown is a second quirk in the road. </div><div><br /></div><div>I just asked my wife if she would be comfortable if I said that a chestnut is orange in hue. I won't share her answer exactly, but suffice it to say that once you remove her copious sarcastic jabs at me, the answer boils down to "no". Chestnuts are not orange. Since she is the authority, I'm gonna say that linguistically speaking, chestnuts are not orange, although I could conceive of a nice orange-chestnut glaze on seared scallops. Conceptually, brown is just not a shade of orange.</div><div><br /></div><div>But Munsell would beg to differ, as shown in the complicated but very clever image below. At the right, we have a page from the <a href="http://docs-hoffmann.de/munsell15052009.pdf">The Digital Munsell</a>, thanks to Gernot Hoffman. (And I mean that. Thanks, Gernot!) The page shown is the 5YR page, which is Munsell's quintessential yellow-red, i.e. orange. At the right we have pictures from my shopping cart with little squares showing matches to four of the the Munsell 5YR colors.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-35SQNBP0h4tXxc_A6WWhqdu3ukVSChuGE-wiP8MHWtY_0jTEZYU8Gb98nw5VzuSSzGUAg1jX-xXQ6VOap1Xan7J_FCNUv-JKFosGTu6tyYec1eXql-UfhkiWfADtlgUiQzA708NiHA/s1882/Orange+chestnuts.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1882" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-35SQNBP0h4tXxc_A6WWhqdu3ukVSChuGE-wiP8MHWtY_0jTEZYU8Gb98nw5VzuSSzGUAg1jX-xXQ6VOap1Xan7J_FCNUv-JKFosGTu6tyYec1eXql-UfhkiWfADtlgUiQzA708NiHA/w500-h291/Orange+chestnuts.png" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Demonstration that chestnuts are orange in hue</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>(Once again, thanks to Gernot Hoffman for making this possible)</i></div><div><br /></div><div><div>This isn't just some silly notion that Munsell had during a psychedelic acid trip. According to my mauveless chart (above) showing the locations of color names in CIELAB, brown and orange occupy the same hue angle. According to that blog post, orange occupies the region between 57 and 67 degrees, while brown straddles that, going from 55 to 76 degrees. Brown is darker than orange, and less saturated, but, at least according to CIELAB and Munsell, they have basically the same hue angle.</div><div><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">A third quirk</h1></div><div>I have a third quirkiness to share about how we classify the colors light blue versus dark blue. I think we can all agree that light blue and dark blue are the same hue? Linguistically, it makes sense, right? But I have a hunch and a little evidence that this might not be the case.</div><div><br /></div><div>When I look at the rainbow below, I see <i>dark blue</i> to the left of <i>light blue</i>. If you buy into that perception, and you buy into the idea that hue is kinda equated to a position in the rainbow, then the conclusion is that light blue has a slightly greener hue than dark blue.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_AXyuKf5fk-99RIXRLdugRa-kX6paoisHBBwmGh4B_qZ-pHOiNoEkGh5JNAjiQc4VYIf9OGOvNLZjk-QTIBzj76j_Fdsy3gy9J09hNCcXpZh9L2OgSMItd3jBdMGGIyplz8SInCUCRX8/s1577/Rainbow.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="1577" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_AXyuKf5fk-99RIXRLdugRa-kX6paoisHBBwmGh4B_qZ-pHOiNoEkGh5JNAjiQc4VYIf9OGOvNLZjk-QTIBzj76j_Fdsy3gy9J09hNCcXpZh9L2OgSMItd3jBdMGGIyplz8SInCUCRX8/w500-h151/Rainbow.png" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Linguistically, that's just silly talk. Both light blue and dark blue should have a hue of <i>blue</i>. But my logic says different. On the off chance that there is something wrong with my logic, I will test the hypothesis by means of the most sophisticated psychophysical method available today. I asked a few hundred of my closest friends for their judgment using SurveyMonkey.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Respondents were asked to pick the best example of <i>light blue</i> from this image:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpl6LykRKlbjvrMb0iuIPs4N9-ec0oRg4uopjYKhOp48xQm2DkbNd-tPB3ZlHbBLD0EntYCvbZJuElltP_8iImggHL2dWU0ngiR-QNlsIL-mR3cLSdz45mVoVcvQr27sYwtLUYccOu18/s1622/Light+blue+collection.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="1622" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpl6LykRKlbjvrMb0iuIPs4N9-ec0oRg4uopjYKhOp48xQm2DkbNd-tPB3ZlHbBLD0EntYCvbZJuElltP_8iImggHL2dWU0ngiR-QNlsIL-mR3cLSdz45mVoVcvQr27sYwtLUYccOu18/w400-h134/Light+blue+collection.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And then they were asked to pick the best example of <i>dark blue</i> from this image:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYlrTwuwhMEmsF5vfDDX1g1Qk_JbT1CSPXui1kQexAuhU5vrEZ74Kys9x9ztDxNF50RqhUfH5eER7Sgo2Yipw-dq6591aRjsfQ8wLd3KAmpMucPZ4kE00DlPPvLyuO8sb7LmdKt4V4fM/s1622/Dark+blue+collection.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="1622" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYlrTwuwhMEmsF5vfDDX1g1Qk_JbT1CSPXui1kQexAuhU5vrEZ74Kys9x9ztDxNF50RqhUfH5eER7Sgo2Yipw-dq6591aRjsfQ8wLd3KAmpMucPZ4kE00DlPPvLyuO8sb7LmdKt4V4fM/w400-h134/Dark+blue+collection.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My survey didn't show the number below each color patch. These are the HSL numbers for that color. HSL stands for hue, sauration, and lightness. These values are computed directly from the RGB values, and roughly correlate to CIELAB hue angle, chroma, and L*. The number in the first row is the hue. You can see that the colors are arranged in hue order in steps of 5.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I got 40 people to respond to the survey before SurveyMonkey told me that I needed to pay them money to get more responses. Luckily, there were enough responses for me to make a meaningful statistical judgment. Statistics tells me that the HSL hue values for light blue and dark blue are different, and are different in the direction that I predicted. The average for light blue is #5, which has a hue of 40. The average response for dark blue was #E with a hue of 155. The average of the differences between respondents answers was 16. This corresponds to about 23 degrees of CIELAB hue angle, which is <i>practically </i>significant. The <i>z </i>score of the difference was +8.12, which is very <i>statistically </i>significant.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I see several possibilities here:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. The test was biased toward the middle, so naturally the answers gravitated that way. Essentially I was forcing the middle card. Poor choice on my part.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. HSL doesn't accurately reflect the way the cones in our eyes work in terms of hue.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3. Light blue and dark blue have a different hue in terms of our perception, which happens at a higher level, that is, somewhere in that tangled mess of neurons.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I honestly think that any of these could be the explanation for my very scientific SurveyMonkey experiment. It's likely that all of them come into play, but I don't know which effect is the largest. On the other hand, these results do not disprove my thesis.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">[Subtle point: There are multiple weak points in this survey, not the least of which are the facts that the computer monitors that people used were likely not calibrated, and that the response of people's eyes are somewhat different. But these two factors are mitigated by the fact that I looked at the difference of the two hue values. If a given monitor displays light blue a little funky, then (maybe) it will display dark blue in a similar funky manner.] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">What gives?</h1><div>I discussed three quirks in our perception of hue. </div><div><br /></div><div>1. Pink and red do not have the same hue. Pink and magenta do.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. Brown and orange have the same hue. Brown is dark orange.</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Light blue and dark blue perhaps have a different hue.</div><div><br /></div><div>It took me a while to puzzle this through, but I think I got it. Here are the basic colors: white, black, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and brown. </div><div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBgztqRwIvqVO8SXyg4_uNvr1907wsWa2Se7qN1eVL55A3LHKg_u4c6eCzbm8AsjxoUwmaIeLNEti1opPj_Ibl-T6ax6oT7o2eaMGqw0KsQXruiL7YxHSZOeS4iifFPHmJ_vJE4gxZLCU/s1669/Eleven+basics.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="169" data-original-width="1669" height="50" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBgztqRwIvqVO8SXyg4_uNvr1907wsWa2Se7qN1eVL55A3LHKg_u4c6eCzbm8AsjxoUwmaIeLNEti1opPj_Ibl-T6ax6oT7o2eaMGqw0KsQXruiL7YxHSZOeS4iifFPHmJ_vJE4gxZLCU/w500-h50/Eleven+basics.png" width="500" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>There are two other colors that are eager to join the list of basic colors. Quoting a previous post of mine: "Some languages (namely Japanese, Russian, and Italian) have further broken the blue category into <i>sky blue</i> and <i>navy blue.</i>"</div></div><div><br /></div><div>When presented with a chromatic color, we subconsciously categorize it. What buckets does the subconscious have for this categorization? The eleven basic colors. Hence the confusion. While we would like to think that the brain has this neat and tidy scheme for classifying colors according to the scientific notion of hue angle, the brain actually uses the basic colors as the buckets. When my eye sees a color close to brown, the brain classifies it as brown, rather than "a color with the same hue as orange".</div><div><br /></div><div>The fact that most of the chromatic basic colors are also rainbow colors just confuses those of us who try to tease out how the brain works.</div><div><br /></div>John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-38249724758197122882020-05-19T10:00:00.000-04:002020-05-19T10:50:19.937-04:00Is metamerism a big issue in print? (Part 2)This is part 2 in a series of blog posts that recap my presentation on metamerism at Color 20. If you were actually looking for the first part, the part where I set up the characters and give the back story, then you should go <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-metamerism-big-issue-in-print-part-1.html">to the first part</a>.<br />
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Ahhh... so you decided to tough this blog post out? Well, good on ya, mate!<br />
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Today's post is about the intersection of expanded gamut, spot color replacement, and metamerism. I suspect that this might result in another standing-room-only blog post.<br />
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<i>Is metamerism a big deal when you are doing spot color replacement?</i><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Expanded gamut</span></b><br />
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In kindergarten, I was taught the lie that red, yellow, and blue were the primary colors. I will never forgive my kindergarten teacher for that. That really messed me up when I found out that the real primaries for ink were cyan, magenta, and yellow. There is a big long story about that, but for now, I will just pass the explanation along to <a href="https://colourware.org/2018/07/05/10-optimal-subtractive-primaries/">Stephen Westland</a> and <a href="https://colourware.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/ryb-primaries/">Stephen Westland</a> and <a href="http://www.huevaluechroma.com/052.php">David Briggs</a> and <a href="http://www.huevaluechroma.com/061.php">David Briggs</a>. Good articles, all of them.<br />
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And then I got even more confused when people kept talking about black ink. Why do you need black ink, if you can get all the color with just CMY? (I mean, I thought the whole idea of primaries is to give you all possible colors?) Well, there are many reasons for using black, but one of them is that you can't get all the colors with just CMY. One notable color that you can't get is black.<br />
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And guess what? Even with CMY <i>and </i>K, you can't get all the colors. If you want more colors, you need to add more primaries. <i>Expanded gamut </i>printing uses color beyond CMYK, typically orange, green, and violet, to get more of the entire range of visible colors.<br />
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(Interesting fact: Generally we would call this CMYKOGV printing, but that's a really silly order for the letters. Maybe it should be CVMOYGK?)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Spot color replacement</span></b><br />
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I know that some of you are thinking that spot color replacement is what you do to get your Dalmatian ready for St. Pat's Day. Nope. Good guess though. (To get your Dalmatian ready for St. Pat's Day, I would recommend giving him a long reddish-brown, silky coat.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_fQs8tMkzQExkXZu9w0m0_DqULoh4UAgt70R3Zqh-s4frgxf9XVQ7Nk6Z_pZ69QzNp3lY9kG2UB9PjrLcLiFrtBnrORmd1yP42ThsnQPja-TEalH5bRjbO4DWaibIDLUepBKJlmD8Vg/s1600/Green+dalmatian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="564" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_fQs8tMkzQExkXZu9w0m0_DqULoh4UAgt70R3Zqh-s4frgxf9XVQ7Nk6Z_pZ69QzNp3lY9kG2UB9PjrLcLiFrtBnrORmd1yP42ThsnQPja-TEalH5bRjbO4DWaibIDLUepBKJlmD8Vg/s320/Green+dalmatian.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>My dog Spot is not looking excited about the St. Patty's Day festivities</i></div>
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Historically, there has been a distinction made between process colors and spot colors. Process colors are CMYK and are used in packaging for image content. Each pixel of the printed image gets some build of those four inks. Spot colors are specialty inks that are mixed to the desired color and are printed in, well, certain spots of the printed package. The spot color inks don't usually get overprinted with other inks, and are generally not used in imagery.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dbyD91qjWAxISmgMSKHavOqBzTCO78ztIQZItmyhXwgsqaD9UUX_jD7YrXUqf3mCXw8EdmJLxUVOFuiW08hIG5xMjkdKzZQ4dPVKFfvnVOZkz-p-SEWstrj-ZtxpEUYWRAdBhxUOncA/s1600/Pretzel+Crisps.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1127" data-original-width="1347" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dbyD91qjWAxISmgMSKHavOqBzTCO78ztIQZItmyhXwgsqaD9UUX_jD7YrXUqf3mCXw8EdmJLxUVOFuiW08hIG5xMjkdKzZQ4dPVKFfvnVOZkz-p-SEWstrj-ZtxpEUYWRAdBhxUOncA/s400/Pretzel+Crisps.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>This is not an endorsement. They do go well with a wasabi mustard, though.</i></div>
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The package above uses (maybe) a total of eight inks -- cyan, magenta, yellow, and black for the image and spot colors of dark blue, light blue, black, and green. (And there is probably a white to cover the metallic (mylar) surface. White is not referred to as a spot color, but rather a flood coat. I think this is an egregious abuse of the English language.) Each of these inks gets its own print unit.<br />
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The next print run will likely require a different set of spot colors. This leads to an expense, since the old spot color inks needs to be cleaned out between print runs. There would be <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-heyday-of-expanded-gamut-printing.html">an economic advantage to printing those spot color with an equivalent combination of process color inks</a>. But if we augment those process inks with a few extra colors of inks, typically orange or red, green, and violet or blue, then nearly all spot colors can be emulated with this augmented set of inks. No need to clean up after each print run!<br />
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So, there is an economic advantage, but it comes with a hidden cost: metamerism. If one package printed with CMYK+spots should land on the shelf next to one printed with CMYKOGV, then the best we can hope for is a metameric match. Perhaps there is an excellent match under D50, but can you find a store that has good D50 lighting?<br />
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That leads us to the question of the day....<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Is the degree of metamerism enough to worry about?</b></span><br />
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Disclaimer #1: I suspect that many of the people who have implemented spot color replacement have gone through the exercise of evaluating the degree of metamerism for the spot colors that are important to them. I don't intend to minimize this or necessarily replace this worthwhile test. My goal here is to help set expectations in general.<br />
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Disclaimer #2: If you are bringing a new design into production, metamerism probably isn't an issue for you, beyond perhaps needing to explain to the brand owner why the color of the package didn't match the Pantone book in the designer's living room. If you are switching production of an existing pretzel pouch to spot color replacement, and expect a short period of co-mingling on the store shelves, I leave it to you to decide on the importance of the transition period and weigh the cost of that against savings.<br />
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Those who read the <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-metamerism-big-issue-in-print-part-1.html">previous blog</a> will recall this image of a set of metameric sextuplets, all of which are perfect matches to my version of Pantone 147C under D50/2.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ESmKlc4NfvhxDNNvL-rCVHcI5lQkWpaevvn7RdzEsrLzTVU2xxrVF8nhYLXQ91ZQWxq9edn426_y1Pu8KHnqUI_EJfC6BcWeqrcSraLYBUwt4O8wFU7NzWpYaZnK_jUi3Ck9kVK_dfQ/s1600/Metameric+sextuplets.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1207" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ESmKlc4NfvhxDNNvL-rCVHcI5lQkWpaevvn7RdzEsrLzTVU2xxrVF8nhYLXQ91ZQWxq9edn426_y1Pu8KHnqUI_EJfC6BcWeqrcSraLYBUwt4O8wFU7NzWpYaZnK_jUi3Ck9kVK_dfQ/s400/Metameric+sextuplets.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>In the delivery room, with D50 lighting, these appeared to be identical sextuplets</i></div>
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The spectra look quite different, but when it comes down to it, is there a large metameric difference?<br />
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The following table is stolen from my Color 20 presentation. It shows the CIEDE2000 color difference between Pantone 147C and the emulated version under D65/10. This should give an appreciation for the magnitude of metamerism. The spectra look a lot different, but they still match under one illuminant, and are not a bad match under another.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHRKB6UnBu2Ioyg1qe5q_qpFGxO0obIupqpgskDIN3YGXPPnd55ma-v1ZRgHyyi5HfQvf3xQnJiG1aSmb9uFMD8lKHbZK8icUUHIVkV-BEFAZkKuV0k9XOK3C_8YWyHt3coaaqEYzv8TA/s1600/PMS+147C+metamerism.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="1339" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHRKB6UnBu2Ioyg1qe5q_qpFGxO0obIupqpgskDIN3YGXPPnd55ma-v1ZRgHyyi5HfQvf3xQnJiG1aSmb9uFMD8lKHbZK8icUUHIVkV-BEFAZkKuV0k9XOK3C_8YWyHt3coaaqEYzv8TA/s400/PMS+147C+metamerism.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Not so bad? John shrugs his shoulders. I would be cautious about trying to read much into this table. There are many combinations of CMYKOGV that could yield a given color. The software that I wrote to create the matches did not put a whole lot of thought into which one of those combinations to use. I don't claim that it yielded builds similar to any commercial spot color replacement software, Mileage may vary. This package sold by weight, not volume. Contents may have settled during shipping. Blah blah blah.<br />
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Here is another set of metameric sextuplets from my database. In this one, for whatever reason, the spectra are all a reasonably good match. We see some larger disparities around 400 nm, but these are less significant to the eye.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVcIcNtdvrKadzPvnTEBEJIpGWZK4Hq4x7lOAgQiPTtxr4M6Yfo_G7WWwUv0xCiacqhLfpQBldFc4vpTAJ_D8P6OdKvJzQnpsqi1ccmuKZSkGDW6XazV2LBFUlKmFOQ1jT0sW_8Kk_TNo/s1600/Metameric+sextuplets+5787.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="1205" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVcIcNtdvrKadzPvnTEBEJIpGWZK4Hq4x7lOAgQiPTtxr4M6Yfo_G7WWwUv0xCiacqhLfpQBldFc4vpTAJ_D8P6OdKvJzQnpsqi1ccmuKZSkGDW6XazV2LBFUlKmFOQ1jT0sW_8Kk_TNo/s400/Metameric+sextuplets+5787.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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And another set that appear to vary about as much as the first one.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8btBCM5tDvR4ZkpkVXzDvCckiMPeUVY-n7P2aDhOGhZQ0xvnRQjhTe1_VTmUflv2tVmgkFAe9fbFJ96C9ics0Wt1FifFpRFy_d_MErTxt8-xoi_aODuMW0x7UJ_UQu0JW9xtkyZT6P9o/s1600/Metameric+sextuplets+7411.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="1207" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8btBCM5tDvR4ZkpkVXzDvCckiMPeUVY-n7P2aDhOGhZQ0xvnRQjhTe1_VTmUflv2tVmgkFAe9fbFJ96C9ics0Wt1FifFpRFy_d_MErTxt8-xoi_aODuMW0x7UJ_UQu0JW9xtkyZT6P9o/s400/Metameric+sextuplets+7411.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here are the color differences.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4S7h50KBTh5XrA2u9fRWP0WewaRlN332loXTWpm38LL3zcYCzWRqUpfhOh8Ut51rgQFwis2YDVn4qCbHFFOgu7YSyW7DU9qoOFWaKbrb7i-ZAKgANztK_QFePRPYW2GG982aUWavrfmw/s1600/PMS+metamerism%252C+various+PMS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="1339" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4S7h50KBTh5XrA2u9fRWP0WewaRlN332loXTWpm38LL3zcYCzWRqUpfhOh8Ut51rgQFwis2YDVn4qCbHFFOgu7YSyW7DU9qoOFWaKbrb7i-ZAKgANztK_QFePRPYW2GG982aUWavrfmw/s400/PMS+metamerism%252C+various+PMS.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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What to make of this table? Once again John shrugs. There are bigger numbers and smaller numbers. The intent here is not to focus on one specific case, but rather to look at the data in aggregate. The database has plenty of aggregate to offer, with 3,604 metameric spectra. Here is the big picture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP7yd2aFjCvfmVHBMMsGV5kTjtCJG5VfhskxFQ4MJWncne5lkH58j_D90r9d1CIOv1DqkKgPIdftOshe5YQrqDA1nqA4VSgVO2Y_N6ac_Wlp0DsluuziiTCmFhuS5xdAZCWXBjTqLMBvE/s1600/CRF+of+EG+color+diff.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1212" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP7yd2aFjCvfmVHBMMsGV5kTjtCJG5VfhskxFQ4MJWncne5lkH58j_D90r9d1CIOv1DqkKgPIdftOshe5YQrqDA1nqA4VSgVO2Y_N6ac_Wlp0DsluuziiTCmFhuS5xdAZCWXBjTqLMBvE/s400/CRF+of+EG+color+diff.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>I love cumulative probability density functions of color difference data</i></div>
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How to interpret this? John shrugs his shoulders and makes woogly eyes. I have blogged before about this sort of <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2012/11/assessing-color-difference-data.html">Cumulative Probability Density Function plot</a>, and <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2017/09/interpreting-color-difference-data.html">again here</a>. I show below one very reasonable way to look at this data. The plot can be used to determine the percentage of color differences that are below a certain point.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim0dH_oC50sCNJw7TCV1DO5qLoLmVJvQTMkPYG0vc5VODb3m5Q3_MbfvslAp4tNF5t-F7-mq3a_UXb2XhpY9_DCs5EdkaJnmAmaIeQGPytpNDsR5CNGYlPvBQR1VKQinaQu_hV9oHPxIs/s1600/CRF+of+EG+color+diff%252C+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="1204" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim0dH_oC50sCNJw7TCV1DO5qLoLmVJvQTMkPYG0vc5VODb3m5Q3_MbfvslAp4tNF5t-F7-mq3a_UXb2XhpY9_DCs5EdkaJnmAmaIeQGPytpNDsR5CNGYlPvBQR1VKQinaQu_hV9oHPxIs/s400/CRF+of+EG+color+diff%252C+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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I arbitrarily set 2.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00 </sub></span>as a tolerance. This is a typical tolerance for print under D50/2. From that alone, it seems like a reasonable starting point. But, one may argue that this is a secondary requirement in the eyes of the print buyer. (I want it to match under D50/2, and could you also make sure the match isn't horrible under D65/10?) So maybe this is too wide?</div>
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Arguing the other side, there are two contributors that we want to consider. The first is the normal process variation, for which we may set a tolerance of 2.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00</sub></span>. The second contributor is the color difference due to metamerism. These two contributors combine in the final analysis. If we allow for 2.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00</sub></span>tolerance of normal process variation under D50/2, and we allow for a 2.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00 </sub></span>color relative change due to metamerism, then we could see something like 4.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00 </sub></span>color change when they happen together.</div>
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Now for the math stuff. They two sources of variation could cancel each other out. IT could be that by fluke, the sample is 2.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00 </sub></span>off from the target under D50/2, but matches perfectly under D65/10. Generally speaking us folks in the stats world use "sum in quadrature" to describe how tolerances stack up on each other. A 2.0 DE00 variation and a 2.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00 </sub></span>variation (statistically speaking) add up to sqrt ((2.0)^2 + (2.0)^2) = about 2.8 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00</sub></span>.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>So, is this a big issue for spot color replacement?</b></span></div>
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Based on this analysis, I can say this: </div>
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<i>If you replace a traditional spot color with another set of pigments,</i></div>
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<i>and you get a perfect match under D50/2,</i></div>
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<i>then you have an 8 in 9 chance of having an acceptable match under D65/10.</i></div>
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I make the assumption here that the normal process variation is less than 2.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00</sub></span>, and that a 3.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00 </sub></span>variation under D65/10 is considered acceptable. In the next blog post in this series, I will look at other illuminants. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Tolerance for metameric index</span></b></div>
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I had a question from Rachel after my previous post regarding reasonable tolerances for the metameric index. I pause to define metameric index in this context. The graph and table I show above fit one definition of metameric index: the color difference that you see between two perfect metamers under one illuminant when you view under a second illuminant.</div>
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From my graph, I can say that 2.0 <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ΔE<sub>00 </sub></span>is a reasonable tolerance for metameric index for D65/10. Eight of nine times you can hit that. If you pay a bit of attention to metamerism when you decide on how to render an EG color, you can do better, In the next blog post in this series, I will look at other illuminants. Hint: the change from D50/2 to D65/10 is not huge...</div>
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I hope that this leads to some good argument among the folks who like to argue about standards.</div>
John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-76980234226032259942020-05-13T11:08:00.000-04:002020-05-19T11:21:08.157-04:00Is metamerism a big issue in print? (Part 1)In January 2020, I spoke that the Printing Industry of America Color Conference. This colorful event is sponsored every year by the PIA in gorgeous San Diego where the weather is always gorgeous. Next year, I understand that the colorful event that is always in San Diego will occur in gorgeous La Jolla, and it will be hosted by the as-yet unnamed organization that is the combination of PIA and SGIA.<br />
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The talk I delivered to a standing-room-only crowd was on metamerism. Based on the fact that one or two of them looked up from the cell phones a few times, I would say that the talk went over quite well. This series of blog posts will recap those exciting moments.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsIVl6B93zH1qnY_epJdUKAyXxW49vpl3gEpZRjQQ9uyXSkJ42UBTE3OWYOgh__BHF14yI2clYH2UuKCxcZcBkuHEYc7heT3cHBm9sgEkd1CKCixco4TY6qXmSyYjdidR864bYqQp5GCY/s1600/Metamers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="1328" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsIVl6B93zH1qnY_epJdUKAyXxW49vpl3gEpZRjQQ9uyXSkJ42UBTE3OWYOgh__BHF14yI2clYH2UuKCxcZcBkuHEYc7heT3cHBm9sgEkd1CKCixco4TY6qXmSyYjdidR864bYqQp5GCY/s400/Metamers.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Metamerism - when objects are the same color under one light, <br />but differ under another </i></div>
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Now, at the conference I didn't just state my position on whether I was <i>fer </i>metamerism or <i>agin </i>it... I went right up to it and measured it. I considered several practical issues and sought to determine just how big an issue metamerism really is. And since you are part of the elite group that is reading this blog post, you have the opportunity to read a summary of my presentation.<br />
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In Part 1 of this series of blog posts, I describe the metameric database that I used to quantify metamerism. The blog post you are currently reading, by the way, is Part 1. So, when I finally get done with this introduction, I will talk about the metameric database.<br />
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In <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-metamerism-big-issue-in-print-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, I use this database to answer one practical question: If I switch from printing spot colors with pre-formulated inks to printing them with expanded gamut builds of CMYKOGV, will metamerism deliver a sucker punch to me in the gut?<br />
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In Part 3, I look at the magnitude of metamerism that I see when I go from D50 to a variety of popular illuminants that were standardized in CIE 15.2, and have been used for years. This leads us to a surprising conclusion about how well the Color Rendering Index works. Stay tuned!<br />
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After Part 3, I move on to Part 4. In this section I swap out the standard illuminants for a plethora of white LED illuminants. (Or is it a <i>plethorum</i>? I dunno.) I measured a whole pile of white LEDs and answered a pressing question: do white LEDs pose a big problem for us when it comes to metamerism?<br />
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Finally, and rather unexpectedly, I present Part 5 of these series of blog posts. In this blog post I find out how serious a problem viewing booth metamerism is. What is viewing booth metamerism? Get this: the D50 in your viewing booth is merely an approximation to the D50 in your spectro. As a result, your spectro may disagree with your eye as to whether a proof and press sheet match. Should you lie awake at night worrying about this?!?!?<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Metameric Encyclopedia for the Graphic Arts</span></b><br />
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I decided that I would need a database of metameric pairs in order answer the questions that I posed. Now, John the Busy Guy Who Doesn't Have Time for Frivolous Tasks would probably have been too busy to take the time for a frivolous task like creating more than a handful of metameric pairs. But, the presentation at Color 20 was given by John <i>the Math Guy</i>, and I am never too busy for any sort of frivolity. I heard a rumor that there might be a world record waiting to be broken, so I took it upon myself to make a collection of metameric spectra that would make an acid trip with Jim Morrison seem like a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TQuvfTE8Ro">Whiter Shade of Pale.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQKVNiD8m8L5zwwR1ceVSJTS85RR-xfsCuMJW5RRt2y5xrJH8UaE5HdMFJ2t9txCBo8vvf_D9QKR8ZwtAd4J3DmAFrgnxz-l7ApZnrIjhkgZWlyADEDzXPzlyiA5SE6v3RyaAxpmTML7A/s1600/Doors%252C+Procol+Harum.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="1600" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQKVNiD8m8L5zwwR1ceVSJTS85RR-xfsCuMJW5RRt2y5xrJH8UaE5HdMFJ2t9txCBo8vvf_D9QKR8ZwtAd4J3DmAFrgnxz-l7ApZnrIjhkgZWlyADEDzXPzlyiA5SE6v3RyaAxpmTML7A/s400/Doors%252C+Procol+Harum.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>My metameric database (on the left) compared with the competitor's (on the right)</i></div>
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I started with spectral measurements of a Pantone book. These are real spectral from ink formulated as they might be formulated in any printing plant in the world. Then I brought in a characterization data set from flexographic printing. For each of the Pantone colors, I searched through the flexo data to find a close CIELAB match. If I found a flexo color that was reasonably close, I mathematically adjusted it so that it was a perfect match under D50/2.<br />
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(For the non-printing-geeks out there... Characterization data is a set of measurements of printing with a zillion or so combinations of the inks in a press. On a four-color press, the characterization data typically includes about 1,600 patches. For expanded gamut printing, it might be several times that many.)<br />
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(For the geeks out there... the mathematical adjustment was done through principal components. I determined the singular value decomposition of the full flexo data set and used the first three vectors as a basis. I then found the linear combination of the basis vectors to add to the actual spectrum so that the adjusted flexo spectrum was a perfect metameric match. I discarded any spectra with values outside the range of real printing. You know, simple obvious stuff.)<br />
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(For the those concerned about social justice and stuff out there... No spectra were hurt in the filming of this blog post or the presentation. The spectra that I arrived at were realistic and perfect metameric matches.)<br />
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I mentioned flexo. A bit more detail there. This is data that I received from Liam O'Hara, who has been a friend for many years is now a colleague of mine at Clemson. The data was an expanded gamut characterization data set. So I was investigating spot color replacement with expanded gamut. But I saw the opportunity to have even more fun with the data. I broke it into two subsets; one subset had only CMYK, and the other subset had at least one of the extraquaternary inks (that is, orange, green, or violet).<br />
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Thus, for each (or I should say, most) of the Pantone colors, I had<br />
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1) The spectrum of how a flexo press with a particular CMYK inkset might render a perfect colorimetric match to that Pantone color, and<br />
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2) The spectrum of how a flexo press with a particular CMYKOGV inkset might render a perfect colorimetric match to that Pantone color, with the caveat that the build must include at least one of O, G, and V. <br />
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Some Pantone color were out of gamut, so they did not make it into MEGA. Some were in gamut for the expanded gamut printing, so a metameric pair was added to the database. And for some of the Pantone colors, I had not just a pair of metamers, but a set of metameric triplets! How awesome is that!?!?!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Enter the Indigo 7900</span></b><br />
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Did I stop there? Of course not. I was going for the world record!<br />
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I just happened to have data from another friend, one who happens to not be a colleague of mine at Clemson, since he doesn't teach at Clemson. He actually teaches at Ryerson, so we work at different schools together. Abhay Sharma recently pitted one piece of expanded gamut software against another in a study of <a href="http://whattheythink.com/articles/97152-new-ryerson-university-study-evaluates-expanded-color-gamut-printing/">the capabilities of expanded gamut software</a>. When Abhay wasn't looking, I grabbed a copy of the expanded gamut characterization data for an Indigo 7900. Please don't tell him I have that data.<br />
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And I went through the same procedure with this data so that I potentially had two additional metameric matches for each Pantone color. We're talking the birth of metameric quintuplets! (I hope everyone is as excited as I am.)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">And one more!</span></b><br />
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No. I didn't stop there! I had <i>one </i>more database up my sleeve. But first a little background.<br />
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Let's face it. The Pantone Formulation Guide has a few problems. The first problem, which is obvious to anyone who has casually looked through the book is the haphazard ordering and numbering. Below, I show seven pages from the swatchbook. The first and the fourth start with 256 and 263 at the top. The pages with 2563 and 2567 have been shoehorned in between. These four pages are consecutive. Much later in the book, we find consecutive pages 511, 5115, and 518, which are in more or less the same color family. In between, we have a bunch of blues and greens and yellows and grays. Just for convenience, the colors in the latter set are upside-down. The darkest, richest colors are at the top instead of the bottom.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6Fp8uYrxrstHK1hNQH_-3xtuxg-9ByzV424m_Zro57V3es7YaazoPqLyo5qkLn6_vBST2xB1LcXJY7NIrIYziTcpDgmZ2sFvom-JRLfW7c4pjnGOTLWYj5uH_bwkdob1VUPcMZuUNEk/s1600/20200512_105844.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6Fp8uYrxrstHK1hNQH_-3xtuxg-9ByzV424m_Zro57V3es7YaazoPqLyo5qkLn6_vBST2xB1LcXJY7NIrIYziTcpDgmZ2sFvom-JRLfW7c4pjnGOTLWYj5uH_bwkdob1VUPcMZuUNEk/s640/20200512_105844.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Just to be clear, I'm not blaming Pantone for this. The hodge-podge numbering system was inevitable. The books have grown through the ages and there has been an understandable unwillingness to change the numbers on existing colors. </div>
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Another issue with the swatch book is that the pages, when fanned out, don't have a nice, smooth flow. That is aesthetically unnerving, but from a practical sense it means that the colors are not equally spaced perceptually. And it makes you wonder whether there are holes -- colors that have been missed entirely.</div>
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I have blogged previously about how a swatch book could be ordered more uniformly. <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2013/04/organizing-your-crayons.html">Albert Munsell created such a book</a> in the early 1900's. Much more recently, Phil Kenyon wrote <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/04/arranging-paint-and-once-again.html">some software that organizes paint company swatch books</a>. So it can be done. (Well... you have to somehow map 3D color space into two dimensions...)</div>
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Yet another problem with the Pantone book is that the recipes in the book don't work. Paula Gurney (recently retired from Ink Systems) explained to me that this is because the formulators of the book didn't impose a standard ink film thickness for all the recipes.</div>
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And then there's the base ink reflex blue. Printers don't like reflex blue. It takes longer to dry than the other inks, and it has this property called bronzing. It takes on a coppery tone viewed at a shallow angle. It would be good to not use that as one of the base inks.</div>
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Much to their credit, Pantone tackled all these problems and introduced a very good solution in 2007. It was called the GOE System. It was beautiful. You may have noticed the use of the past-tense in both the previous sentences? Yeah. It was a great idea, so naturally it didn't take off in the market. It was discontinued in 2013.</div>
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But I managed to find a GOE book at a garage sale and chased my spectrophotometer after it. So, I have a file on my computer with spectral measurements of a GOE book. I applied the same technique to this data. This added another set of plausible metameric matches to my database.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MEGA database</b></span></div>
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I show below a set of metameric sextuplets from the database. These six spectra have exactly the same CIELAB values under D50/2. Since the spectra are all different, one could expect that the CIELAB values would not match under a different illuminant.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8HCTDMFPKLYm9ZIdwh7nnzCQoWILldmSpyoa5kQ0ncCU1TD1RvzaC0g5BPacJaW0YucTyJAhVXho06h55JyVg7YVSwDheBc7grCVRxNCMxFTORl-MZ1Cb-slO3RPV1WPfrpaEmLJKAA/s1600/Metameric+sextuplets.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1207" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8HCTDMFPKLYm9ZIdwh7nnzCQoWILldmSpyoa5kQ0ncCU1TD1RvzaC0g5BPacJaW0YucTyJAhVXho06h55JyVg7YVSwDheBc7grCVRxNCMxFTORl-MZ1Cb-slO3RPV1WPfrpaEmLJKAA/s400/Metameric+sextuplets.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Identical sextuplets, under D50/2</i></div>
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I don't know how many of you have spent an evening with a set of metameric twins, but I gotta tell you, a night on the town with metameric sextuplets is a bucket list event!</div>
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As an aside, some of you may have been wondering if Pantone 147 (in the diagram above) is the ugliest color in the world. It's close, but not quite. That honor goes to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantone_448_C">Pantone 448</a>. There was actual research into this. The idea was to find a color that would best "unsell" a product. The product in mind? Cigarettes, in Australia.</div>
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And speaking of world records, how many metamers are in my database? An awesome 3,604. Are you listening Guinness? The old record might have been a few dozen, so that's a record that will stand for a while. At least until I announce Metameric Encyclopedia for the Graphic Arts II.</div>
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Stay tuned for Part 2, where I look at <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-metamerism-big-issue-in-print-part-2.html">the magnitude of metamers caused by this whole spot color replacement thing</a>.</div>
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This is an ongoing effort of mine. Over the next few blogs, I will describe some of the uses that I have put this database to. Any other ideas? Contact me!</div>
John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-43995281853848572402020-05-06T11:30:00.001-04:002020-05-06T16:29:28.378-04:00An Easter egg in the film "Die Another Day"Ok... so let me make this clear from the start. I am not a film buff, nor do I claim any more than superficial expertise in film. If you want the honest truth (as opposed to my usual dishonest truth), I will likely need to look up the title of this movie again before I finish blogging about it.<br />
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Another thing to clear up at the start -- this is not my usual blog post subject matter. Normally I go on ad nauseum about color and math and physics and other boring stuff. Not today. Prepare to not learn any science.<br />
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For those who are unfamiliar with the term "Easter egg" when applied to film, this is something innocuous put in a film just as a joke. If you would like an example, I would suggest having a look at the scene in the movie <i>Airplane </i>that starts at 0:00:00, and ends at 1:25:00 in the sequel <i>Airplane 2</i>.<br />
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The topic of this blog post is an Easter egg in the James Bond movie "Die Another Day".<br />
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To set the time stamp on the movie, the Easter egg occurs between when a) Bond uses the secret code word <i>delectados</i> to elicit the help of some guy, and when b) Halle Barry makes a breathtaking exit from the ocean.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkRyI5pee_WHooMNKov7lNPDt6vkECpEBzdg9MA-FcEFQr3Yt8oISb5UJa1Ox5Vd9qLB7CT-7DNzObJiFov09HDb1DtJZJx4saDGOqao9rQIM9kE9ENWqQ8nI0bieqCmJuzaU7JsS-yo/s1600/20200504_111822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkRyI5pee_WHooMNKov7lNPDt6vkECpEBzdg9MA-FcEFQr3Yt8oISb5UJa1Ox5Vd9qLB7CT-7DNzObJiFov09HDb1DtJZJx4saDGOqao9rQIM9kE9ENWqQ8nI0bieqCmJuzaU7JsS-yo/s400/20200504_111822.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>An egregious image of Halle Barry being viewed through Bond's binoculars</i></div>
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If I were a true film aficionado, I would point out the similarity of the outfit worn by Barry to that worn by Ursula Andress in her coming out of the water scene from an earlier Bond flick, <i>Dr. No</i>. I might also take this time to comment on the cinematography in those two scenes, comparing it to Bo Derek running on the beach in the movie <i>10</i>. Blah blah blah ... Daryl Hannah in <i>Splash </i>... Phoebe Cates' pool scene... blah blah <i>A Fish Called Wanda</i> ... blah blah ... the primeval attraction ... subliminal reference back to one million years of evolution at the water side ... <i>Descent of Woman</i>...<br />
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But I can't even recall the scene from <i>A Fish</i> where Jamie Lee Curtis came out of a pool wearing a bikini. So I will skip all that.<br />
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Getting back to the Easter egg in <i>Die Another Day</i>... In the unforgettable scene just before Halle Barry emerges from the water, James borrows a pair of binoculars so he can pose as a bird watcher and get a look at the island. At this point, I had to pause the film to clean up the martini that I snorted out my nose and to explain to my wife what tickled my funny bone. I'll explain it to you as well, but first I rewind the film a bit.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiimn3piLHKlSNth8Jyb2gge6fLvm2dv90TaTz-ipP5yH1_1ejokr3EAtbPu79LOEpAaOOxP7NnA9dVTwSlc-7cwE-OC3z0FZ9JKn7YtEHS2PkRTpXM441t84sa3aGi9G74sAOvgE_C7Jc/s1600/Bond+picks+up+a+bird+guide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiimn3piLHKlSNth8Jyb2gge6fLvm2dv90TaTz-ipP5yH1_1ejokr3EAtbPu79LOEpAaOOxP7NnA9dVTwSlc-7cwE-OC3z0FZ9JKn7YtEHS2PkRTpXM441t84sa3aGi9G74sAOvgE_C7Jc/s400/Bond+picks+up+a+bird+guide.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I remembered that while he was in the delectado guy's office, Bond had idly picked up a book to look at, just before he picked up the pair of binoculars. I went back to see what the book was. As I suspected, it was a bird guide. I had a hunch about the author of this book. I was hoping to see the name of the author of the book, but I couldn't make it out. I think they did that on purpose to hide the Easter egg for all but the most diligent of Easter egg hunters.<br />
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But since I had already guessed who the author was, I knew what to google for. Here is a better shot of the book <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_the_West_Indies">Birds of the West Indies</a></i>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbuV3QZxJo4ZwxYBTZP2LDbiSYAi2B03cieyCkgQhW5ej3kheEBuCaHOWtIVcUUJOTQTxsjFwETUmH5FNefYAHG3KY-2w3ZFInBfqqyIf0tY_FX8KwhShvI88UeWW1MsKsl_D8p2BMUUg/s1600/Bonds+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="279" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbuV3QZxJo4ZwxYBTZP2LDbiSYAi2B03cieyCkgQhW5ej3kheEBuCaHOWtIVcUUJOTQTxsjFwETUmH5FNefYAHG3KY-2w3ZFInBfqqyIf0tY_FX8KwhShvI88UeWW1MsKsl_D8p2BMUUg/s400/Bonds+book.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
You can probably just make out the author's name: James Bond! Yes. James Bond picked up a book by James Bond.<br />
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Now for the reveal. The <i>real </i>James Bond was an ornithologist. Ian Fleming (who wrote the books about James Bond the spy) was an avid bird-watcher who lived in Jamaica, so he knew of the bird book. Fleming was looking for a name for his character and felt that the name <i>James Bond</i> had just the right sound. Short and masculine. That's why I laughed when James Bond introduced himself to Halle Barry's character as an ornithologist. And since I knew where Fleming got the name from, I knew to look back to see if the book was an inside joke hidden in the previous scene.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMjlIgSvEEPAIUv2cxiJobjaSn3cNb9H3ovbSywrOcCfLgyd6JXFrBUD7xyCzJ8XbEnh_g0FRtOvNbN5zP-yNr_9qMQafvLc1qPvcXbi241hRcJ-etn8Tw82FxXpNJwwNFEDKg38wtZA0/s1600/James_Bond_1974.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="606" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMjlIgSvEEPAIUv2cxiJobjaSn3cNb9H3ovbSywrOcCfLgyd6JXFrBUD7xyCzJ8XbEnh_g0FRtOvNbN5zP-yNr_9qMQafvLc1qPvcXbi241hRcJ-etn8Tw82FxXpNJwwNFEDKg38wtZA0/s320/James_Bond_1974.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The real James Bond</i></div>
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By Jerry Freilich - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9724104</div>
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When Ian Fleming was contacted by the wife of the ornithologist about the theft of her husband's name, <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/60775/meet-real-james-bond">Fleming gave permission for the real James Bond to use the name Ian Fleming</a>. "Perhaps one day he will discover some particularly horrible species of bird which he would like to christen in an insulting fashion."<br />
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Thanks to my buddy Mike for recommending the movie.John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-75524552292250297902019-12-24T15:18:00.000-05:002020-03-15T16:41:53.068-04:00What is the most accurate color wheel?I received a question the other day. This happens to me all the time. Just a thought here... Maybe I would get fewer questions if I pretended to be ignorant rather than all this pretending to be an expert? I will have to talk with an image consultant about that.<br />
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Here is the latest example of things that people want to know.<br />
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<i>I have a question for you. I understand that there are different color wheels for different subjects. ... I haven't noticed before...there seems to be two "main" color wheels, but which one is the most accurate?</i><br />
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<i>With the wheels that have 12 colors there seems to be two that come up - one with a red-orange and no magenta, or one with a magenta and no red-orange.</i><br />
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<i>Which one is more accurate? Or are they both accurate but for different reasons?</i><br />
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<i>Thoughts?</i><br />
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<i>Ashley</i><br />
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I have a lot to say on this topic -- enough that I will break it up into two blog posts. In this blog post, I will look at various color wheels, with a eye toward the underlying theory. In the subsequent blog post, I will look at the more general question of the utility of color wheels in general.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Red, blue, and yellow primaries</b></span><br />
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Here is a color wheel that does not have magenta. This beautiful little color wheel with 72 spokes dates back to a book by Michel Eugene Chevreul in 1839. He was a chemist involved in the dyeing of carpet. His work on color perception came out of trying to understand why dyeing did not always turn out as one expected. This color wheel was his first step in understanding color.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVMcxQsjV3aF_WN0MeJIM7zI1YObDlaFBWfXKQTsI9TIpkWl0Ld4VABTzmS96rMP7wYA4XsWvSqR2Mh60GgdcKPccV8NTXUVAIa8zLA9ZHjBYjJT6pm5Lp-hz4worDjBAP0Subo4tsAs/s1600/chevreul-color-wheel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="650" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVMcxQsjV3aF_WN0MeJIM7zI1YObDlaFBWfXKQTsI9TIpkWl0Ld4VABTzmS96rMP7wYA4XsWvSqR2Mh60GgdcKPccV8NTXUVAIa8zLA9ZHjBYjJT6pm5Lp-hz4worDjBAP0Subo4tsAs/s400/chevreul-color-wheel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://knowwithoutborders.org/monet-light-creativity/chevreul-color-wheel/">https://knowwithoutborders.org/monet-light-creativity/chevreul-color-wheel/</a></div>
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This is kinda pretty, but the left-hand side of this color wheel is a bit dark for my taste. It could be that the colors faded -- after all, this book was made in 1839 afterall. Or it could be that the creation of the color plates suffered from the fact that <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2019/04/what-city-in-italy-is-color-magenta.html">a good magenta pigment wasn't invented until 1858.</a><br />
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The image below (on the left) is a black and white version of Chevreul's color wheel, with color words for each of the 12 basic colors. Each of these 12 colors are subdivided into 6 steps to make a total of 72 colors in the wheel. At the right, I show my colorized interpretation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwHPT1m6hdqS3tBEdfSakytlM6oBhM4uMk6rXnhv39SE2gSQdrlRkfG3MpcLffR81V9PZUJctKFXI11FsQku_Isi0s_MNspfm6zvPdWViyab8TCy5vl0_5tAECuxw7Tw3jT1YmEr6-1FQ/s1600/Chevreul%2527s+color+wheel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1571" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwHPT1m6hdqS3tBEdfSakytlM6oBhM4uMk6rXnhv39SE2gSQdrlRkfG3MpcLffR81V9PZUJctKFXI11FsQku_Isi0s_MNspfm6zvPdWViyab8TCy5vl0_5tAECuxw7Tw3jT1YmEr6-1FQ/s640/Chevreul%2527s+color+wheel.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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I drew a little triangle inside my rendition to make a point. The colors red, blue, and yellow are all explicitly called out, and are conspicuously 120 degrees apart. The Chevreul color circle is based on the artists' primaries, red, blue, and yellow.<br />
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This color wheel satisfies Ashley's first criteria: "<i>one with a red-orange and no magenta</i>". RO is red-orange, and VR (violet-red) appears maybe somewhere around where magenta might be. Perhaps if the color name magenta existed at this time, it may have been incorporated into the color wheel, but I haven't had the opportunity to query M. Chevreul on the topic.<br />
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Red, green, blue primaries</b><br />
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My computer monitor doesn't use the artist's primaries. For some silly reason, it uses red, green, and blue. (Note to self: I need to contact those people who design computer monitors and televisions and screens for cell phones and tablets. They need to learn about the artist's primaries, because clearly that would be a much better way for them to encode color.)<br />
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I did a little playing in PowerPoint (my graphics design program of choice) and came up with my own twelve step program... err, twelve step color wheel. I hope that everyone reading this takes a moment to step back and say "ohhhhhhh...." in appreciation of my epic artistic skills.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg25OoAJxD7kyqMsrBVO89bOhnUltsxuhdA9qDNuWHJEnjRyl4PJ6Nfdn7h0yxEFUDL_eQJUjupULJZ_4ImFkFVhMaT9anjUyj8Rqo_Awx1TGtxsMCam3mZjOPU3KeZa77hVxSY-ybBneU/s1600/RGB+color+wheel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1133" data-original-width="1194" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg25OoAJxD7kyqMsrBVO89bOhnUltsxuhdA9qDNuWHJEnjRyl4PJ6Nfdn7h0yxEFUDL_eQJUjupULJZ_4ImFkFVhMaT9anjUyj8Rqo_Awx1TGtxsMCam3mZjOPU3KeZa77hVxSY-ybBneU/s400/RGB+color+wheel.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The Seymourian twelve-step RGB color wheel</i></div>
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For those interested in the details, the red, green, and blue anchor points are (255, 0, 0), (0, 255, 0), and (0, 0, 255). The halfway points between them are yellow (255, 255, 0), cyan (0, 255, 255), and magenta (255, 0, 255). I filled in the points between using HSL coordinates. The hue of HSL goes through steps of 21.3333 from 0 to 235.<br />
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This color wheel fits Ashley's second criteria: "<i>one with a magenta and no red-orange</i>". The magenta is at the very bottom, and there is red, and there is orange, but no steps in between.<br />
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Cyan, magenta, and yellow primaries</b><br />
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I have a little bonus for those involved in my twelve step program: a color wheel that is specially designed for anyone involved in printing. Here we see that the basic colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow. Please note carefully that the cyan-magenta-yellow color wheel bears no resemblance at all to the red-green-blue color wheel. None whatsoever. Completely different.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaSzDb30a3U6MCBttSwciqlVv0H1dXJTp231ePFKBy4cgHfx2LNb1arvnovcvH1TsSMfJsOaLQuPHfTpErnrBXrFzF_wV2PfS4nUECp0qbljqwDyHo1ITATGkjvdWwuiNE98dG8d0n4M/s1600/CMY+color+wheel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1133" data-original-width="1194" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaSzDb30a3U6MCBttSwciqlVv0H1dXJTp231ePFKBy4cgHfx2LNb1arvnovcvH1TsSMfJsOaLQuPHfTpErnrBXrFzF_wV2PfS4nUECp0qbljqwDyHo1ITATGkjvdWwuiNE98dG8d0n4M/s320/CMY+color+wheel.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The Seymourian twelve-step RGB color wheel</i></div>
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That last line was just a tiny bit of sarcasm. I said that as a way to highlight the fact that these really are the same color wheel. Both are based on RGB color theory, which is a simplification of scientific color theory. This is a fascinating and illuminating topic, and one which is worth a whole blog post to itself.<br />
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Oh... I should mention one thing here. Cyan, magenta, and yellow don't do so well at getting all colors. Early printers found it was a good idea to add black. Oh yeah, one more thing... When you print magenta over cyan, you don't really get blue. It's usually more of a purple. And when you print yellow over magenta, it's not a good red. It's a little too orange.<br />
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As a result... lately there has been a lot of kerfuffle about <i>expanded gamut</i> printing, where you print with CMYK, but then add in orange, green, and violet inks to extend the range of colors that you can get. Or sometimes you use red instead of orange, or blue instead of violet.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The artists' primaries</span></b><br />
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Allow me for the moment to revisit the concept of artists' primaries on which the Chevreul color wheel is based. I was taught in kindergarten that:<br />
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1) Red, blue, and yellow are the primary colors.<br />
2) You can make all the colors by mixing appropriate amounts of these three primaries.<br />
3) Red plus blue is purple. Red plus yellow is orange. Blue plus yellow is green.<br />
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The first is more of a definition than anything that you can test. But the second and third are testable. The second is hard to test, but I tested the third one during lab period in kindergarten. An actual image of the results of my experiments has not survived, but a rough approximation is shown below.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6OcMa6m5h-uj7_G7OTODmds6ixJl_Znvme1ZdjhPDGO58vyOW6WMA9ZrthZY3seNSo-MtIFIE6vqXv8-LUj8LU1mSLTkXh7I2nyS1GNS9MAiohqapfUCT5j2Hcy9UQnDC_fo-8-PB3XQ/s1600/Real+artists+color+wheel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1133" data-original-width="1194" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6OcMa6m5h-uj7_G7OTODmds6ixJl_Znvme1ZdjhPDGO58vyOW6WMA9ZrthZY3seNSo-MtIFIE6vqXv8-LUj8LU1mSLTkXh7I2nyS1GNS9MAiohqapfUCT5j2Hcy9UQnDC_fo-8-PB3XQ/s320/Real+artists+color+wheel.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Artists conception of the artists' color wheel</i></div>
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I recall presenting my disappointing results to Mrs. Reidhouse, who was the main lecturer in my kindergarten class. I also vividly recall trying to explain to her that the lack of saturation in the pairwise mixtures was predictable using the Kubelka-Munk equation. But I don't recall her offering a cogent counter argument in support of the artists' primaries theory of color. I do recall being told that it was nap time, though. </div>
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I was trying to articulate to her a basic postulate of paint mixing: Mixing pigments will usually lead to a loss in richness (chroma) of color. In other words, you can't get a rich, vivid green by mixing yellow and blue. You can't get a rich purple by mixing red and blue.<br />
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If you find yourself disagreeing with this, then I suggest you visit an art supply store. If Rule 2 were correct, then you would generally see beginner paint sets with five different paints: red, blue, yellow, white, and black paints. Maybe you would see sets with more colors premixed, but if you look at the ingredients, you would only see those five basic pigments. There would be no need for any others.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDt6fB4NB_BqgHYqFJ2r_ON7zBpI4ekzVpWne2jqf7j7whMp471tFe0ekkGFYk7tUAQMnw486xROBVtT9iDZvtHq1XWVv72dsBzLP0ZqT56PCFfU8xSWPr-yEa2rQoDm1cozDSOHkrQ6Y/s1600/Blick+set+of+12+paints.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="315" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDt6fB4NB_BqgHYqFJ2r_ON7zBpI4ekzVpWne2jqf7j7whMp471tFe0ekkGFYk7tUAQMnw486xROBVtT9iDZvtHq1XWVv72dsBzLP0ZqT56PCFfU8xSWPr-yEa2rQoDm1cozDSOHkrQ6Y/s400/Blick+set+of+12+paints.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.dickblick.com/items/00624-1009/">This set contains 12</a> of the most popular colors in 2 oz (59 ml) tubes, including Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Yellow Oxide, Naphthol Crimson, Cadmium Orange, Phthalo Green, Yellow Medium Azo, Cadmium Red Light, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, and Mars Black.</i></div>
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Still not convinced? Then take a trip to the hardware store and ask to see their paint mixing equipment. Count the canisters... do they mix all the colors of paint with five pigments, or are the dispensing devices "Available as either 12, 14, or 16 canister turntables"?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHTWpMjb7zrioPxeoj-b4obUwLQuBzgfJ87y9LKsTGoVR33RgDtFVMGZ0U1rrtbS6nXIiaAmVmXVc4jX4WNm5WUU53jebHfV2ce8IXlvv2e693W2rSvX-961WdDF7Lh2UAE4CApfn0wY/s1600/Paint+tint+dispenser.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="276" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHTWpMjb7zrioPxeoj-b4obUwLQuBzgfJ87y9LKsTGoVR33RgDtFVMGZ0U1rrtbS6nXIiaAmVmXVc4jX4WNm5WUU53jebHfV2ce8IXlvv2e693W2rSvX-961WdDF7Lh2UAE4CApfn0wY/s320/Paint+tint+dispenser.png" width="176" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://santintusa.com/paint-tint-dispensers/m3-manual-paint-tint-dispenser/">A manual paint tint dispenser with up to 16 canisters</a></i></div>
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Here's another suggestion for those not yet convinced. I put together a little a <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/08/diy-with-ryb-printing-with-artists.html">do-it-yourself guide to printing with the artists' primaries instead of CMY</a>. Visit my blog post, print out the supplied images, and see what kind of results you would get if HP supplied you with red, blue, and yellow ink cartridges.</div>
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In order to get a full range of colors, you need to start with a variety of pure pigments that cover the full range of colors. The theory of the artists' primaries is just plain wrong. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Red, yellow, green, blue, and purple</b></span><b><span style="font-size: large;"> primaries</span></b><br />
<br />
Albert Munsell was a smart guy when it came to color. As proof, there was once an upstart wannabe color guru who was so bold as to refer to Munsell as the <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/02/munsell-father-of-color-science-part-1.html">Father of Color Science</a>. Munsell devised a color wheel that he actually manufactured with paints. (Before I go on, I need to say that his color wheel, was just part of the <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2013/04/organizing-your-crayons.html">Munsell color space</a>.)<br />
<br />
Munsell started with five primatries. There were an additional five secondaries squished between those five primaries, and each of those ten hues had ten levels in between. Munsell's color wheel thus had a total of 100 different hues.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpxJeGW3tkglrH8v3oiq7VbqLkyj0oj7bxqrseQUxb9NQPlttn4XVd42XqEOm_PBJWV3RMNmgkqdPZ_YRJfPMKYcynEGmSjcbWxd4Y-xqf7tXwxb99U8OgLgVR4ikzzZd-BXNJdkOBK6A/s1600/Munsell+color+wheel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1011" data-original-width="1101" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpxJeGW3tkglrH8v3oiq7VbqLkyj0oj7bxqrseQUxb9NQPlttn4XVd42XqEOm_PBJWV3RMNmgkqdPZ_YRJfPMKYcynEGmSjcbWxd4Y-xqf7tXwxb99U8OgLgVR4ikzzZd-BXNJdkOBK6A/s320/Munsell+color+wheel.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>My rendition of the Munsell color wheel</i></div>
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I want to share a bit about how he created his physical actualization of the color wheel. I share because this is interesting and not well known. Part of this is reverse engineering and presumption on my part. If I have errors in this, I would be happy to recant.<br />
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Munsell started with five primaries: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. With the exception of purple, he had pigments for each of these that he felt truly exemplified the colors. He had to mix two pigments together to get purple, but I mean, how could he avoid purple?<br />
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Next he used a creature known as a <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/02/munsell-father-of-color-science-part-3.html">Maxwell disk</a> to find complements to each of his first five primaries. This spinning disk would have a portion colored with one of his primaries, like red, and another portion colored with a potential shade for the compliment. The complement of red he called "BG" or "peacock blue". He would adjust the pigments mixed for the second pigment until he attained a gray color when the disk was spun.<br />
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The ten basic colors in the Munsell color space are listed below. The primaries are in bold type, which coincidentally all have single letter Munsell hue names. Note that Munsell made these with 8 different pigments.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Munsell
hue<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Color
name<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Pigment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>5R<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Red<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Venetian red<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.25pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
5YR<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Orange<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Orange cadmium<o:p></o:p></div>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.25pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>5Y<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Yellow<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Raw sienna<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.25pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
5GY<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Grass green<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Emerald green and raw sienna<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>5G<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Green<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Emerald green<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.25pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
5BG<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Peacock blue<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Viridian and cobalt<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>5B<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Blue<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Cobalt<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
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5PB<o:p></o:p></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Purple-blue<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Ultramarine<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.25pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>5P<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Purple<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Purple madder and cobalt<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.25pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
5RP<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" valign="top" width="114"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Plum<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 179.85pt;" valign="top" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Purple madder<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
(From Albert Munsell, <i>A Color Notation</i>, 1919. Pigments are from paragraph 104, pps. 66 – 67; common color names are from paragraph 58, page 35. I received an email from Robin Myers which recounted the formulations for the ten basic colors that were used in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th editions. The only change over that time was that in the first two editions, 5BG was made with viridian as the only pigment, and later editions mixed this with cobalt. I appreciate having the help of experts like Robin to make sure that my blog posts are precise!)<br />
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<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Red, yellow, green, and blue primaries</b></span></div>
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A quick review...</div>
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<div>
The Chevreul color wheel and its derivatives is based on the dubious assumption that red, blue, and yellow paints can be mixed to make all colors. The RGB color wheel is based on the primaries RGB that work well for computer monitors and televisions and cell phones and tablets, and have always worked well in coordinating my underwear. The CMY color wheel is based on the colors of inks that seem to work well, but you almost always want to at least add black. Then you have the color wheel based on Munsell's color space, which in turn was based on a set of paint pigments that Albert Munsell decided upon back in the early 1900's.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
These color wheels are all based on the color capabilities of physical stuff. Which is a bit odd, since "color" is largely a function of the spectral response of the cones in the eye, and the brain's processing of the signals from the cone. It would seem that a color wheel would best be based on what goes on inside the human head, doncha think?</div>
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Ewald Hering proposed the idea of color opponents in 1892. His theory was that we sense an object as being reddish or greenish, but never both. There is a continuum of red to green where every color falls. Similarly, there is a continuum from blue to yellow. All color are perceived as somewhere on this continuum. Finally, there is a third such continuum between white and black. This general idea has been borne out with what we have learned about how the cones in the eye and the neurons leading to the brain work together to create color perception.</div>
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This idea was incorporated into the color wheel of the Natural Color System (NCS) shown below. This system was developed by Anders Hard and first described in 1966. The rendition below shows 40 steps. The NCS color system is perhaps not as well known as the Munsell color system, but both companies are in existence today, both selling books of colors.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju7hjRM988RP3Jt0NooDwB0wIGuyW_Flb5X_UwanDfIUlzxoVxWXGRUkMWOHNuPB0y7Lb5R9yWoJmCehp_jFw8Gsd7S2zQvWcurQbvaNAFcnE8bF9KaiOO6Rd3b2fFiZB_tAdAyfYxpRw/s1600/NCS+color+circle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="767" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju7hjRM988RP3Jt0NooDwB0wIGuyW_Flb5X_UwanDfIUlzxoVxWXGRUkMWOHNuPB0y7Lb5R9yWoJmCehp_jFw8Gsd7S2zQvWcurQbvaNAFcnE8bF9KaiOO6Rd3b2fFiZB_tAdAyfYxpRw/s400/NCS+color+circle.jpg" width="398" /></a></div>
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This idea of color opponents (red vs green, blue vs yellow, and white vs black) can also be seen in the design of CIELAB, shown below.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sIL1rQaR_Fmve04UJY9il6jlCIGM7gy4frC-8bJ-IzzLhbTOaEz_TtArAWBKWaW1mGUdVaKQ5y9ol1jAqlcGH-Q-RQX2fiOFLot2ybVJ_EBvcsPXJrExCYmFRAtyJy3toP-NhjGbFpE/s1600/CIELAB+color+space.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sIL1rQaR_Fmve04UJY9il6jlCIGM7gy4frC-8bJ-IzzLhbTOaEz_TtArAWBKWaW1mGUdVaKQ5y9ol1jAqlcGH-Q-RQX2fiOFLot2ybVJ_EBvcsPXJrExCYmFRAtyJy3toP-NhjGbFpE/s400/CIELAB+color+space.png" width="385" /></a></div>
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<i>Image from <a href="https://www.xrite.com/blog/lab-color-space">XRite website</a></i></div>
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I won't say much about CIELAB in this blog post, partly because I am getting tired of typing and suspect that most everyone is getting tired of reading. But, I think I can get away with not talking about the CIELAB color wheel, since I don't recall ever seeing a color wheel that was explicitly built on CIELAB. I say this not to diminish anything about CIELAB.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">So, what's the answer?</span></b><br />
<br />
<i>Which one is more accurate?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The color wheel based on the artists' primaries is not bad, but it is based on a flawed proposition about the primaries.<br />
<br />
The RGB color wheel works well for colors on a computer screen. The CMY color wheel works marginally well for printed colors. The two together are compatible, which makes them a very good conceptual model.<br />
<br />
The color wheels based on the Munsell and the NCS color systems both have a great deal of research built into them, and accurate physical renditions of each can be purchased. They are both a bit of money, but they exist. And I would call either of these accurate.<br />
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I will leave this discussion for the time being. But beware, I will have more to say..John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-22586931832467195742019-09-17T10:00:00.000-04:002019-09-17T10:00:04.837-04:00Music soothes the savage Lactobacillus helveticusI'm sure you saw the news item. The one about how exposing cheese to different types of music during its formative years can give cheese distinctive flavors? It was determined that hip hop music is best, that is, if you like a cheese with a fruity flavor.<br />
<br />
It's a compelling thought. On the one hand, it's silly and ridiculous since bacteria don't have ears (like corn does). And even if the bacteria did have ears, does a wheel of cheese have enough sentience to distinguish between <i>The Magic Flute</i> and <i>Stairway to Heaven</i>? I mean, if I have a good hangover going on, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference!<br />
<br />
On the other hand, sound is energy. Pick the right range of frequencies, and it can be translated into heat, which (I assume) could change the flavor of the cheese. Sound is also mechanical energy. If you hit the right frequencies, you presumably could set up standing waves that encourage some sort of structure to the cheese. Or maybe there are polymers in cheese that are long enough to have resonant frequencies in the audible range?<br />
<br />
I dunno. Maybe cheese is just smarter than we give it credit for. After all, just look at how intelligent Wisconsinites look with cheesehead hats! (Due to the family friendly nature of this blog, I have decided not to include pictures of fans wearing the classy cheesehead bra. Google it if you are interested. It really is a thing.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPdK8Zp3I4czR7G47MH99V84DQvWeuWts7bXoRXP8N4OtyZ6f4WEAuJ08qxiBtvb6lUnWw9cLuh1JiE5INIAEzaL1ekx_KgY9Sn4ZPvKl8tf0iAumT83V3A07OAgSJ0QTtMiqf0yEoOc/s1600/Green-Bay-Fans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="800" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPdK8Zp3I4czR7G47MH99V84DQvWeuWts7bXoRXP8N4OtyZ6f4WEAuJ08qxiBtvb6lUnWw9cLuh1JiE5INIAEzaL1ekx_KgY9Sn4ZPvKl8tf0iAumT83V3A07OAgSJ0QTtMiqf0yEoOc/s400/Green-Bay-Fans.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The general idea of the experiment</span></b><br />
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The cheese maker Käsehaus K3 in Burgdorf, Switzerland placed nine wheels of Emmental cheese in nine separate crates for aging. The wheels were exposed to various sounds over the next six and a half months. One wheel got 24/7 of Led Zeppelin. Another got Mozart. Still others got hip-hop, ambient, and techno. Three cheeses had to suffer with a rather constant tone. Finally, one cheese got peace and quiet. This was called the control group.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWX2SE92ZCGhaCnFPUiViqbp7siSgsk0XMmDEptiButoMvc3NENhtZk3sJb16G_eRYNabZgR5ruIjoZPdU5cnzgV-blB7wUsCgMbVkcrlXWmEdzqTmlqEwASvbb9i5pLFBO15CChLLxPw/s1600/The+nine+cheese+wheels.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="753" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWX2SE92ZCGhaCnFPUiViqbp7siSgsk0XMmDEptiButoMvc3NENhtZk3sJb16G_eRYNabZgR5ruIjoZPdU5cnzgV-blB7wUsCgMbVkcrlXWmEdzqTmlqEwASvbb9i5pLFBO15CChLLxPw/s400/The+nine+cheese+wheels.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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After six months in these boxes, judges did a random blind assessment of the cheeses to assess whatever it is that official cheese assessors assess. From the images below, it would appear that olfaction is 80% of it. The assessments were repeated, and the results were consistent. Here is a quote from the Reuters article: "<i>Beat Wampfler, the cheesemaker behind the project, said the cheeses were tested twice by the jury and both times the results were more or less the same."</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW5ND2EGLqlH1oalRNsOCycvz6fMp_opR7-eBoohdSTiyuIQ3DqTD7vE45pFO2GgSAXMawouksk2fERCWNjp9yRvrTTrIaA2IMz5q6h5KbeQzzUjcEMgDQIlHfMolu7QR63JhKl003O1k/s1600/Cheese+judging.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1583" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW5ND2EGLqlH1oalRNsOCycvz6fMp_opR7-eBoohdSTiyuIQ3DqTD7vE45pFO2GgSAXMawouksk2fERCWNjp9yRvrTTrIaA2IMz5q6h5KbeQzzUjcEMgDQIlHfMolu7QR63JhKl003O1k/s400/Cheese+judging.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Photos of the judging from the <a href="https://www.kaesehaus-k3.ch/medien/fotos/">Käsehaus K3 website</a></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">What the media has to say</span></b><br />
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Many news outlets have covered this groundbreaking experiment. Here is a sampling of the reports of the findings.<br />
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<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/03/24/706344902/need-a-cant-miss-wheel-of-cheese-try-playing-it-some-hip-hop">From NPR</a>: "[The professional food technologists] <i>concluded the cheese wheels exposed to music had a milder flavor compared with the control cheese. The group also determined the cheese that was played hip-hop had "a discernibly stronger smell and stronger, fruitier taste than the other test samples</i>"<br />
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<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hip-hop-and-mozart-improve-flavor-swiss-cheese-180971721/">From Smithsonian</a>: "<i>The experts said A Tribe Called Quest’s [hip-hop] cheese was “remarkably fruity, both in smell and taste, and significantly different from the other samples.</i>”<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cxN4nKk2cfk/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cxN4nKk2cfk?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<i>The best music to age cheese by</i></div>
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<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-cheese/hip-hop-best-bet-for-a-cheese-that-will-please-swiss-study-idUSKCN1QV2NY">From Reuters</a>: "“<i>The differences were very clear, in term of texture, taste, the appearance, there was really something very different.</i>”"<br />
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Well. That certainly sounds conclusive.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Digging a bit deeper</span></b><br />
<br />
Before I continue, let me say this. I love this work. It's offbeat (no pun intended) and innovative. It opens the way for a better understanding of how things work. It rests in the cracks between science and craft.<br />
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On the other hand, I hate to be a spoilsport, but I am skeptical. Hip-hop?!?!?! Really? I'm not so much a fan of hip-hop, and I like cheese. A good cheese should have the same taste in music as I do. This all creates cognitive dissonance in my little brain.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhntgfMHBa0ib7GSKnDPkI3gepSFwrlLeSRsFtVXMDpHbVNpMn94Pv7rgGGCKPgTQXJkHFFv05Ztqzuu-saMg7OEQgpOiK2le_G18ZBZBF4US0DeRedWFJWZWfk4Frny4fcstAwxDCdSwo/s1600/Hmmmm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="784" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhntgfMHBa0ib7GSKnDPkI3gepSFwrlLeSRsFtVXMDpHbVNpMn94Pv7rgGGCKPgTQXJkHFFv05Ztqzuu-saMg7OEQgpOiK2le_G18ZBZBF4US0DeRedWFJWZWfk4Frny4fcstAwxDCdSwo/s320/Hmmmm.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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So, I swam upstream to read a more first-hand-ish version of the results. Here is <a href="http://cheeseinsound.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/KaeseBeschallen_mediarelease_English.pdf">the original press release</a>, and here is <a href="http://cheeseinsound.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/KaeseBeschallen_mediarelease_English.pdf">a website version of the experiment</a>.<br />
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They did some good things, by which I mean, they used some Science. Here is one thing: "<i>The milk was produced by the same farmer and was processed in the same kettle on the same day of production.</i>"<br />
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I have already mentioned another thing that they did right. They repeated the assessments and concluded that they were in agreement, that is, the differences weren't just because of the variability in the humans smelling the cheeses. I couldn't find the actual assessment data, but I will assume that they applied the right stats on the assessments to verify that the judges agreed. (That might not be a good assumption, of course. Statistics is a slippery subject.)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">But...</span></b><br />
<br />
All that said, here is a quote from the original press release.<br />
<br />
<i>In general, it can be confirmed that the discernible sensory differences detected during the</i><br />
<i>screening process were minimal. The conclusion that these differences did indeed confirm the</i><br />
<i>hypothesis, namely that they can clearly be traced back to the influence of music, is conceivable,</i><br />
<i>but not compelling.</i><br />
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This is common statistics-speak. I will translate for the non-statistician. They started with the hypothesis that music can affect the maturation of cheese and set out to either prove or disprove it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcz1j7t0TOFMIqenjv-nddafhnwmV64GTiLjpnSIRmoYO6TbYNtnTbkWMY7qF3sEIrhOaCIrbnVAmQOOSGUpLwBXQmoXBKuj2ERQCCcLLifMN8LUTbeSGQiOnPnDTeJ77BH3-7MJP_mOY/s1600/Double+negatives.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1127" data-original-width="1481" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcz1j7t0TOFMIqenjv-nddafhnwmV64GTiLjpnSIRmoYO6TbYNtnTbkWMY7qF3sEIrhOaCIrbnVAmQOOSGUpLwBXQmoXBKuj2ERQCCcLLifMN8LUTbeSGQiOnPnDTeJ77BH3-7MJP_mOY/s400/Double+negatives.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>My professor for Stats 101 +/- 2.7</i></div>
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One possible outcome would be that the judges all said the cheeses smelled and tasted the same. The conclusion would be that, at least for this particular combination of cheese type, music selection, and means for delivering the music, the music has no effect on the cheeses.<br />
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Another possible outcome would be that the judges may have agreed that there is a difference between at least some of the cheeses. Upon hearing this, the conclusion from a typical layperson might be "Aha! Music causes cheese to age differently!!" The comments in the articles from NPR, Smithsonian, and Reuters all promote this conclusion. It makes for good headlines.<br />
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But a statistician is more careful with the analysis of the results. The faithful statistician is open minded to other possible interpretations of the data. A statistician concludes that the experiment <i>does not disprove</i> the hypothesis that music influences cheese flavor. While English majors abhor this double negative construct, but it is key to critical thinking to see the difference between "does not disprove" and "proves".<br />
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The statistician recognizes that "music affects the aging cheese" is one possible explanation for the outcome, but there could be other explanations. Here are some alternate explanations, some more plausible than others.<br />
<br />
1) There are several pictures where the wheel of cheese has a placard that identifies the type of music that it listened to. Did the judges see the placard? (This is unlikely. The website says that they followed <a href="https://www.sis.se/api/document/preview/920295">ISO 13299</a>, which precludes any presentation of the samples that might identify individual cheeses.)<br />
<br />
2) I noticed from the pictures that all the judges appear to be together in the same room. Is there a possibility that one judge picked up non-verbal cues from another judge?<br />
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3) Quoting from the original press release: "<i>the discernible sensory differences ...</i><i> were minimal</i>". Hmmm... Maybe the differences were due to subtle differences in the way each cheese was processed? One of the cheeses was probably poured into a mold first, and another was poured last. Some of the cheeses were aged closer to the ceiling, and some closer to the floor -- there is likely a small difference in temperature. Some were closer to the door, which might open the door to more airborne bacteria. Perhaps one cheese received a little more personal attention (and/or bacteria) when workers did their routine inspection?<br />
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I don't claim to understand the potential causes of variability in the manufacture of cheese, and I am certainly not casting aspersions on the folks at Käsehaus K3. I just know that there are causes of variability in all manufacturing, however small or large.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOW9iL0vt5SROmSAJbOVL7tlpFo0ojf3ArKit5Cf9ISgrHHeX7r8AVrIBfmqBzsEYsYlqrFxtHfaJP_sKzIbJWe-Lg4CIPQf-lybsCDam7iH43Ecm2vt8u4pgxmkwhbyQ0aj5u3PpS0Xc/s1600/Wampfler+and+Harenberg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="800" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOW9iL0vt5SROmSAJbOVL7tlpFo0ojf3ArKit5Cf9ISgrHHeX7r8AVrIBfmqBzsEYsYlqrFxtHfaJP_sKzIbJWe-Lg4CIPQf-lybsCDam7iH43Ecm2vt8u4pgxmkwhbyQ0aj5u3PpS0Xc/s400/Wampfler+and+Harenberg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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4) Were the results analyzed for statistical significance? I say this because <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2012/08/people-do-not-make-good-statisticians.html">people are not good with statistics</a>. Without rigorous statistics, we almost invariably jump to conclusions. Statistics is a tool that forces us to make sure those conclusions are valid. I did not see any detailed description of the statistics that the researchers applied to the assessments, so either the analysis of consensus was minimal or they recognized that the audience would be bored with it, since <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2012/08/people-do-not-make-good-statisticians.html">people are not good with statistics</a>.<br />
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5) Were the results analyzed for statistical significance? I say this because the website lists only eight judges. Don't get me wrong. I commend them for putting this level of effort into the experiment. But, consider the fact that a rigorous poll or pharmaceutical test will survey thousands of people in order to provide statistically valid conclusions. But, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying "those darn cheesemakers really should have hired a thousand cheese testers." I <i>am </i>saying that we need to review the data in light of the statistical significance due to the limited number of judges.<br />
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6) Were the results analyzed for statistical significance? I say this because they have included a control cheese which didn't listen to any music. If you are testing whether music affects the flavor of cheese, the "obvious" statistical test would be to determine the variation of the eight cheeses that listened to music, and then test for whether the control cheese is within this variation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuY-ocb_o-LYPbYK7dL3u5ZzVTJuameMsuKyyoO_v4fFAHfDoKIalNfECjDnuUVRRpfug5uB3cJKFpb-5KWwSzPUPwgMXlZOdSLGUBbnarbkcj56IdhAPoiEONPPGip31czn0bBRIhRNU/s1600/Standard+deviation.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="128" data-original-width="332" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuY-ocb_o-LYPbYK7dL3u5ZzVTJuameMsuKyyoO_v4fFAHfDoKIalNfECjDnuUVRRpfug5uB3cJKFpb-5KWwSzPUPwgMXlZOdSLGUBbnarbkcj56IdhAPoiEONPPGip31czn0bBRIhRNU/s320/Standard+deviation.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Who understands this tripe, anyway!?!?!?</i></div>
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But, quoting from the website: "Thus, the reference sample was comparatively most pronounced in odor, as well as in taste, whereby here also the sample sinus 2 (medium frequency) was perceived as intensively." The control for this experiment was within the natural variation of the rest of the cheeses, so the hypothesis "sound has an effect on cheese" seems to be not supported by this experiment.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">My favorite alternate explanation</span></b><br />
<br />
There is normal variation in all manufacturing processes. The experimenters were careful to make sure that the milk came from the same farm and that the milk was all processed the same way. I am sure that K3 has a standardized practice for making cheese. Good on them. But even in the tightest of manufacturing facilities, there is variation.<br />
<br />
That means that some of the cheeses will naturally taste spicier than others, while some will be fruitier -- even if the music was completely feckless. One of the cheeses will be the fruitiest. It could have been the cheese that listened to ambient music, or it could have been the Mozarted cheese. If by random chance the cheese that listened to techno music was the fruitiest, then the articles would all be talking about the effect of techno, rather than the effect of hip-hop.<br />
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My favorite alternate explanation is that through normal and random variation, one cheese will be chosen as the fruitiest, regardless of whether there is any effect of music on cheese aging.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Followup</span></b><br />
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Every good research paper ends with a statement like "clearly further research is required to keep the researchers employed". I say that with tongue-in-cheek, but refinement and replication are at the very core of Science.<br />
<br />
I was heartened to read this from the original press release: "<i>More extensive testing is required in order to determine whether there is a link between exposing cheese wheels to music as they mature and discernible sensory differences</i>."<br />
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The press release goes on to say that tighter controls and more sampling are required. From my previous comments, you could gather that I agree. I would add that rigorous statistics is always a good thing.<br />
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I would suggest another experiment: put all the mp3 players on pause, and repeat the 9 cheese experiment. Use this data to better understand the natural process variation.John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-26051648096812867212019-09-10T10:00:00.000-04:002019-09-10T12:32:37.466-04:00Why are Bermuda onions called "red" onions?<br />
Quora often provides me with suggestions for blog posts. I read a question today that filled me with such indignation that I had to answer it, and had to post this to my blog as well.<br />
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<b>Question: <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-are-red-onions-called-so-when-theyre-clearly-purple-in-color/answer/John-Seymour-19">Why are 'red onions' called so when they're clearly purple in color?</a></b><o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDVcvcB1hGkuBx9jZd7L4qb09OjYEcmSlasFVYgveZFEkZwcJ00IGc_RYlQ0PGOqiVwgPI2m_qF0UdU06sDm_6bLloDZUIVw3cZSkrLPGIytIqwmk4nu8sdm_zRY8DTpb1FqFMs74rito/s1600/Bermuda+and+Spain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDVcvcB1hGkuBx9jZd7L4qb09OjYEcmSlasFVYgveZFEkZwcJ00IGc_RYlQ0PGOqiVwgPI2m_qF0UdU06sDm_6bLloDZUIVw3cZSkrLPGIytIqwmk4nu8sdm_zRY8DTpb1FqFMs74rito/s320/Bermuda+and+Spain.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Bermuda and Spain</i></div>
<b><br /></b>
Oh! The injustice!! I get angry with misplaced apostrophes, and livid when someone gets all floofy in the spelling of there/their/thay're/thare. But this is more than just word injustice -- this is about color. Anyone who knows me knows that color and beer are the most sacred things in my life.which is as close to being sacred to me as beer is.<br />
<br />
But I digress. There is actually a very reasonable answer to this question, and oddly enough, it's one that doesn't require me to call anyone stupid.<br />
<br />
In 1969, two linguistic researchers [1] asked a whole lot of people from around
the world to name colors in their native language. Altogether, they surveyed a
few thousand people, speaking 110 different languages. Based on an analysis of their data, they proposed the theory that languages follow a distinct pattern
in the development of color names. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Primitive languages start with analogs of white and black with everything
that is a light color being called white (or their word for white), and everything
that is a dark color being called their word for black. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Red is the next color that is added, with a single word standing for
red, yellow, orange, pink, etc. The next step after red is either to create a new word to separate yellow from red, or to distinguish a collection of greens and blues from white and black.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Ultimately, the language evolves to 11 basic color names: white, black,
gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet/purple, pink, and brown. Some
languages (namely Japanese, Russian, and Italian) have further broken the blue
category into <i>sky blue</i> and <i>navy blue.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFwUVIuS2LpiMjyppzdNcENM07lTftCzDgpHTy2m7Xku6oRW4A-k28vXWtkUXP3U_vj-DrStR5awpIQtdKs4s_fHibIdZZzXI64WZv2p3BeXPBC3j2VvB_lVfOVaoiaarj4hGsjtqbghI/s1600/Eleven+colors+everyone+can+think+of.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="99" data-original-width="291" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFwUVIuS2LpiMjyppzdNcENM07lTftCzDgpHTy2m7Xku6oRW4A-k28vXWtkUXP3U_vj-DrStR5awpIQtdKs4s_fHibIdZZzXI64WZv2p3BeXPBC3j2VvB_lVfOVaoiaarj4hGsjtqbghI/s320/Eleven+colors+everyone+can+think+of.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Yes, I understand that my rendition of orange is not so good</i></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Hang on, John. In English, we have sky blue and navy blue. Why aren't these considered basic color names? </i><br />
<br />
That's a fair question. In English, we distinguish between
the two versions of blue by adding the modifiers <i>sky </i>and <i>navy.</i> But, we have a lot of other modifiers that could be applied to blue to arrive at the colors cadet blue, cobalt blue, greenish blue, midnight blue, Pacific blue, pale blue, purplish blue, robin's egg blue, steel blue, and turquoise blue. None of these are <i>basic</i> color names because they are just modifiers of the basic name blue. Chromolinguists also have a requirement that basic color names must also be monolexic, meaning they must be one word.<br />
<br />
Getting back to the theory of Berlin and Kay, here is the original sequence, taken from a subsequent paper by one of the same authors [2]:<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1D35WKdsTAjLhVghsmj1Rtt_5046idjgrmZIxDtOG7jeP-TRDDAfOXdAc-oSwXONrwj6-zyhBroHluLUkH_kS3k2ZXlXq37cA3h9_CqcYhitJP9oEwHciJJ_6by8sMmMi81HwIxr3-Cg/s1600/Kay+and+Berlin+progression+of+color+names.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="842" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1D35WKdsTAjLhVghsmj1Rtt_5046idjgrmZIxDtOG7jeP-TRDDAfOXdAc-oSwXONrwj6-zyhBroHluLUkH_kS3k2ZXlXq37cA3h9_CqcYhitJP9oEwHciJJ_6by8sMmMi81HwIxr3-Cg/s400/Kay+and+Berlin+progression+of+color+names.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Original B&K evolutionary sequence of color term development</i></div>
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<br /></div>
If this is all true, then it explains the use of <i>red </i>applied to
Bermuda onions and also to cabbage which happens to have lots of anthocyanin, both of which are actually purple. At the
time when it became necessary to distinguish between Spanish onions and
Bermuda onions, the word <i>purple </i>was not commonly used in the language. In the diagram above, the language was in Stage VI. Red was the common term that signified either purple or red, so red was the name given.<br />
<br />
The terms <i>red onion</i> and <i>red cabbage</i> stuck, in much the same way as the anachronistic phrases "hit return", "dial your phone number" and "tape a TV show".<br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Here
are some more examples of vestigial chomo-misnomers: <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-color-are-your-blue-jeans.html">What color are your blue jeans?</a></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
[1] Berlin, B., Kay, P.: <i>Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and
Evolution</i>. University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles (1969)<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br />
[2] Kay, Paul, and Richard S. Cook, <i>World Color Survey</i>, Encyclopedia
of Color Science and Technology, Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-37919820601192362972019-08-27T10:00:00.000-04:002019-09-13T09:13:05.396-04:00Where did my indigo (part 2)I answered <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-true-color-of-indigo/answer/John-Seymour-19">a question on Quora</a> recently. <i>What is the true color of indigo?</i> There are many answers to this question. In my last post, I gave one of them: <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2019/08/where-did-my-indigo-part-1.html">indigo is a dye</a>. This blog post expounds on Isaac Newton's answer.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">ROYGBIV</span></b><br />
We all know the seven colors of the rainbow: ROYGBIV. For those who missed that day in kindergarten, this is an acronym for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.<br />
<br />
But, what slice from the rainbow does indigo get? I consulted my high school optics book, Hardy and Perrin. It told me that indigo is the slice from 446 to 464 nm.<br />
<br />
Question answered! Indigo is a very specific slice from the rainbow, which has been scienterrifically defined. 👍<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">But there is more to the story</span></b><br />
But, as you might expect from my blog posts, there is more to the story. I didn't mention that this reference book, Hardy and Perrin, was from 1932. I also didn't mention that I had to dig deep to find this definition in any physics textbook. Perhaps I am being just a tiny bit disingenuous by implying that the definition "446 to 464 nm" is today's scientific consensus, when practically every science textbook I could find neglects to define indigo?<br />
<br />
I dug my handy monochromator out of the closet and dialed in 455 nm. This is the location smack dab in the middle of the range that Hardy and Perrin gave for indigo, so that should give me the truest indication of what indigo is.<br />
<br />
I looked at it and said, "Oh. It's blue." I asked my wife (who claims to be the most color-literate person who I know) what the color was. She said "blue", and then modified it to "cobalt blue", and then pointed at a lovely flower vase of hers. "Did you notice that there aren't any flowers in my cobalt blue vase?" She smiled and batted her eyes. I'm not sure what she meant by that.<br />
<br />
I took a picture of the monochromator output with my cellphone camera. There are lots of caveats here, like <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/07/rgb-into-lab.html">RGB cameras don't do a good job at measuring color</a>, and computer monitors don't always produce reliable color, but it kinda looks like my camera is identifying 455 nm light as blue.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCQbCZFkVIns6s2-FntxRWG44t54WoO41-Tgg106p_uukgcvTv3BKkDVqkKIgL_geoNmvn1KVJxc5QCC4BBSjZk2AcnUr5uIIUF70s9ElyLhFyv5earrgPC6T4pC75YQRTtQP1gpa47I/s1600/Monochromator+at+455+nm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="1504" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCQbCZFkVIns6s2-FntxRWG44t54WoO41-Tgg106p_uukgcvTv3BKkDVqkKIgL_geoNmvn1KVJxc5QCC4BBSjZk2AcnUr5uIIUF70s9ElyLhFyv5earrgPC6T4pC75YQRTtQP1gpa47I/s400/Monochromator+at+455+nm.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Hmmmm... Who had the crazy idea of naming that part of the rainbow <i>indigo</i>? Why not just call it blue?<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Newton's rainbow</span></b><br />
To answer my rhetorical question, Isaac Newton was the person who had the crazy idea of naming part of the rainbow <i>indigo</i>. In 1665, Isaac Newton took leave from his schooling in Cambridge in order to escape the Great Plague. His work over the next two years proved to be one of the most productive in the history of science. Beyond <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-apple-doesnt-fall-far-from-newton.html">the whole bit about the inverse square law of gravity</a>, and inventing calculus to do that, Newton made some fundamental observations about light during his sojourn.<br />
<br />
He passed sunlight through a prism and demonstrated that, among other things,<br />
<br />
white light is comprised of a whole lot of different flavors of light,<br />
<br />
a prism doesn't impart color to the white light that passes through (as was thought at the time), but rather bends light by different amounts depending on the flavor, and<br />
<br />
these individual flavors could be recombined to make white, or to make a host of other colors if some of the flavors are left out.<br />
<br />
This remarkable time period is when he labelled the parts of the rainbow, or rather, the parts of a spectrum projectected on a wall through a prism. The results of his experiments were published by the Royal Society in 1672. These results challenged some long-held notions about light and color... but that's a good topic for another blog post.<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Blue vs. blue</span></b><br />
This may sound like a change of topic, but bear with me here. In English, there are eleven basic color terms (BCT): white, black, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, brown, and purple. I have written about these before when <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2016/12/unambiguous-regions-in-color-space-for.html">I tried to identify unambiguous color names</a>. These basic color terms have been the subject of much research since the work of Kay and Berlin.<br />
<br />
I offer a quote from a brilliant scholar, one who I respect immensely. I just can't say enough about the guy. Here is the quote from the esteemed John Seymour in his blog post <i><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/05/">How well do we remember color?</a></i><br />
<br />
"<i>In some languages, such as Russian, Japanese, and Italian, there is a separate word for light blue which stands on its own as a distinct color.</i>"<br />
<br />
I have another quote, this one from a guy who is actually a real chromolinguist. Again, I respect him immensely. This is from Dimitris Mylonas<br />
<br />
"[Two studies] <i> found that Russian and Greek languages both have 12 BCTs, differentiating ‘light blue’ from ‘dark blue’.</i>"<br />
<br />
In Russian, we have two monolexic (single word) names for blue: <i>синий </i>and <i>голубой</i>, which mean "blue" and "sky-blue", respectively. In Japanese, the same concepts are in the words <i>kon </i>and <i>mizu</i>.In Italian, there is <i>blu </i>and <i>azzuro</i>. In Greek, <i>kyaneos </i>refers to dark blue, but it could also mean dark green, violet, black or brown. The ancient Greek word for a light blue is <i>glaukos</i>.<br />
<br />
Consider the plight of Isaac Newton when he was trying to assign names to the colors of the rainbow. He looked at this wide expanse of colors which slowly pass from violet to green. If he had been conditioned by being a native speaker of Russian, Japanese, Italian, or Greek, then it may have been obvious to him to call the colors violet, dark blue, light blue, green, and so on.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdwJE1xLhzREa7uicWgrwSygxQXQYX1XFJqZr_Y52mP8OA4jJJd7P7550aBHn7LtiUvUd7g3eq1SyyW4RfksRjz3FYfuCi28tKuzI8b1_1YFzdLU6qCe6z6HLQYKvSC4xlel0BzhSFzQQ/s1600/Rainbow.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="1577" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdwJE1xLhzREa7uicWgrwSygxQXQYX1XFJqZr_Y52mP8OA4jJJd7P7550aBHn7LtiUvUd7g3eq1SyyW4RfksRjz3FYfuCi28tKuzI8b1_1YFzdLU6qCe6z6HLQYKvSC4xlel0BzhSFzQQ/s400/Rainbow.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
But Newton spoke English. He did not have basic color terms for the two different types of blue. He had three choices.<br />
<br />
1. He could use the terms dark blue and light blue. He probably felt this was kinda dorky. Or at least awkward. Or maybe he just wanted all the color names to be monolexic.<br />
<br />
2. He could have chosen <i>blue </i>for the dark blue and found another name for light blue. I don't know what color names were in vogue at the time, but today, he might have used: aqua, aquamarine, azure, baby blue, cerulean, cyan, robin's egg blue, sky blue, teal, or turquoise. But these all strike me as being somewhat ambiguous.<br />
<br />
3. He could have instead chosen blue for the light blue, and then found another color name for dark blue.<br />
<br />
Newton went with option #3, and chose indigo as the name of dark blue. Here is a quote from Newton:<br />
<br />
"<i>So there are two sorts of colours: original and simple colours and colours made by compounding these. The original or primary colours are red, yellow, green, blue, and a violet-purple, together with orange, indigo, and an indefinite variety of intermediate shades.</i>"<br />
<br />
Why did he pick the word indigo? I have a suggestion that I am dyeing to share. If I may be so bold as to quote the blogger who wrote <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2019/08/where-did-my-indigo-part-1.html">the first post in this series</a>: "Dutch ships carted nearly 170 tons of the [indigo] dye from India to Europe in 1631." Newton did his work with prisms in 1665. Indigo dye was quite popular in Europe at this time. So (my contention) is that the word indigo was at the time associated with a dark blue dye and that it was a common word at the time.<br />
<br />
So, indigo is just another name for blue, only bluer than blue can be.<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jaq9Gx9GT5E/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jaq9Gx9GT5E?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
But, why didn't Newton just call them both blue? Why not just six colors for the rainbow? That is the thrilling question I will answer in my next blog post on this subject!<br />
<br />
Errata:<br />
<i>An earlier version of this post omitted green from the list of basic color terms. I apologize to any verdiphiles who were offended. Robin Myers is to be thanked for his ever-vigilant corrections to my blog posts.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Bibliography</span></b><br />
Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, <i>Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution</i>, CSLI Publications, Stanford, California (1999)<br />
<br />
Arthur C. Hardy, Arthur C. and Fred H. Perrin, <i>The Principles of Optics, </i>McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York. 1932, p. 16<br />
<a href="https://archive.org/details/ThePrinciplesOfOptics/page/n29">https://archive.org/details/ThePrinciplesOfOptics/page/n29</a><br />
<br />
Dimitris Mylonas and Lindsay MacDonald, <i>Augmenting Basic Colour Terms in English, Color Research and Application</i>, Volume 41, Issue 1, February 2016<br />
<br />
Isaac Newton, <i>A New Theory of Light and Colours</i>, Transactions of the Royal Society, 1672<br />
<br />
John Seymour, <i>How well do we remember color?</i>, John the Math Guy blog, May 30, 2018<br />
<a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-well-do-we-remember-color.html">https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-well-do-we-remember-color.html</a><br />
<br />John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-21906694632139004932019-08-22T15:34:00.001-04:002019-08-24T12:23:13.047-04:00Creating a circle that goes through three points on your lawnI get some off-the-wall questions once in a while. Today, I got an off-the-porch question and decided the answer might make a good blog post. I'm probably wrong about that, but here goes.<br />
<br />
My friend Dark Laser (I have changed his name to protect his identity) is putting a flower garden in his backyard. He wants the edge of the flower bed to be a circular arc that goes through three points . Those three points have been defined by a higher power. Maybe the higher power is his wife, or maybe it's just cuz of where the house is. I dunno. Below is the drawing that he sent me. I hope you appreciate his obvious artistic skills.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgu425CS4mrkdMYLvqckj60qacKcfgRjqFgTemTE6g28-Xu_RZeXdDcuuoxUsivAF0zNwi_voH3Hi7z1tUnjjuBhAX2fstbegpN9Z2QoG7X465R-AZI2uzFaHAUDiugKx6XtBUsAnXEE/s1600/Porch.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="1120" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgu425CS4mrkdMYLvqckj60qacKcfgRjqFgTemTE6g28-Xu_RZeXdDcuuoxUsivAF0zNwi_voH3Hi7z1tUnjjuBhAX2fstbegpN9Z2QoG7X465R-AZI2uzFaHAUDiugKx6XtBUsAnXEE/s400/Porch.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Before he sent the email, Dark did a little googling and YouTubing. He came up with one answer in a YouTube video, which I show below.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4yCyWCGKiYY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4yCyWCGKiYY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
I'm not sure how to interpret an email that asks me a question, and also sends me the answer. I'm not sure what he meant by this juxtaposition of Q & A, but due to my insecurity, I took the email as a challenge. "See if you are as smart as this guy, John!!" I am certainly not going to allow any dufus on YouTube to out-answer me on any dumb old math question!<br />
<br />
The MathTuber who answered this question used analytical geometry, which lies between geometry (which is all lemmas and compasses) and algebra (which is all factor this polynomial and take the square root of both sides). But mostly the video is algebra.<br />
<br />
Here's my opportunity to show off my brilliance. The abracadabra algebra video is all well and good, but it doesn't completely answer the original Dark question. I mean, how does Dark use this equation? Does he need to go out and buy a huge piece of graph paper to lay on his lawn?!?!?<br />
<br />
I chose to forego the algebraic approach and go for a solution that is more along the lines of Euclid and his book <i>Elements</i>. A lot of this ancient text has to do with making constructions of various figures with a pencil, a compass, and a straight edge. But I don't think Dark has these tools, especially not in the size required to lay this out on his lawn. So, I improvised with more appropriate tools: rope and stakes.<br />
<br />
(While I am at it, let me take a moment for more self-congratulations. Pure mathematicians are perfectly content with theoretical answers. But I am an <i>applied </i>mathematician, which means that my math isn't happy until it answers a real world problem. You can't get any more practical than building an aesthetically pleasing flower bed!)<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Step 1</span></b><br />
<br />
Put stakes at Points 1 and at Point 2. Make two equal lengths of rope, and tie them together at one end. You don't need the ropes to be red and blue, as in my diagram, but it may help.<br />
<br />
Tie the other ends of the ropes to the stakes at Point 1 and to Point 2. Grab the ropes where they join and pull them taut. Place a third stake at that point. This third stake is shown as a blue circle in the drawing below.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmkxQw8UdNhxQhCika2dyG4NHW1bHhWzeuwrDG9YBcbtWgGbIslOb3qpUQcpj3HprjzCOFEQ_7MEulbYdOhyphenhyphenAf6PDLmzGhXAx7FtoJaJmSVDJCXfhdIRS1zijP31JGNBCup_ZDmTAf3H4/s1600/Step+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1120" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmkxQw8UdNhxQhCika2dyG4NHW1bHhWzeuwrDG9YBcbtWgGbIslOb3qpUQcpj3HprjzCOFEQ_7MEulbYdOhyphenhyphenAf6PDLmzGhXAx7FtoJaJmSVDJCXfhdIRS1zijP31JGNBCup_ZDmTAf3H4/s400/Step+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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To avoid any confusion, I use the word <i>stake </i>in a general sense. If any of the stake positions should happen to be on lawn then a tent stake could meet the purpose. If the point is on a wood porch, then a hefty nail or a bolt could work. If the point is on a cement slab of a porch, then maybe a can of spray paint could be used to mark the point. Or a bathroom plunger? </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Step 2</span></b><br />
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Shorten the two ropes and repeat the process to locate a position for a fourth stake, as shown below as a second blue circle.</div>
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Now the aha! part, which I mention in order to create a sense of making progress. All circles which go through both Point 1 and Point 2 will have a center someplace on the blue dotted line! I hope you are as excited as I am.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYSEe2bO810zVWyspp6Y4YhyphenhyphenCJtb3_qe6DxWljJQ0uy_6LgtErnjvL231yP_wHN6YYMwC9B3Wq5pQbUutbkuq7Eu-_m0dKzfUNauxCUTKlhX22y1MbijtVmcF2R4RvhKwR4fXh1KqRys/s1600/Step+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1130" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYSEe2bO810zVWyspp6Y4YhyphenhyphenCJtb3_qe6DxWljJQ0uy_6LgtErnjvL231yP_wHN6YYMwC9B3Wq5pQbUutbkuq7Eu-_m0dKzfUNauxCUTKlhX22y1MbijtVmcF2R4RvhKwR4fXh1KqRys/s400/Step+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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A practical comment -- If the lengths of the ropes in Steps 1 and 2 are very close to the same, then the two stakes will be pretty darn close together. This is not such a good thing. This will lead to uncertainty in the angle of the blue dotted line, which will lead to inaccuracy in the position of the final circle.</div>
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An even more practical comment -- As I wrote that last comment (the so-called <i>practical comment</i>), it occured to me that in Step 2, you could have kept the rope the same length, and merely pulled it to a position above Points 1 and 2. Too bad you already went through the process of shortening the ropes. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Step 3</span></b><br />
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If you want to get technical on me, Step 3, is really two steps. It's a repeat of Steps 1 and Steps 2, only with different points. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 with Points 2 and 3. You probably will need to stretch the ropes out if you already cut them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik3D-eC9LPBOItg25URBvC_9I9RvztD-97yhmJo5XyZICf_3waymxsLcsBLVq2BmHPOnQ-W05SN_YX2Oe5egoSYB7FHlziqa8DdNzPTB3tzhHgg3_GZxp4dEC65b34xhtyG9R4lKmYFWA/s1600/Step+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1115" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik3D-eC9LPBOItg25URBvC_9I9RvztD-97yhmJo5XyZICf_3waymxsLcsBLVq2BmHPOnQ-W05SN_YX2Oe5egoSYB7FHlziqa8DdNzPTB3tzhHgg3_GZxp4dEC65b34xhtyG9R4lKmYFWA/s400/Step+3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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The green dotted line in the drawing below is analogous to the blue dotted line. All circles which go through both Point 2 and Point 3 will have a center someplace on the green dotted line! </div>
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I know some of you may have jumped right ahead to the big climax, but I will state it here for anyone who might not have quote caught the significance: All circles which go through Point 1, Point 2 <i>and </i>Point 3 will have a center at the intersection between the blue dotted line and the green dotted line. Assuming the two dotted lines intersect, and assuming the two dotted lines are not along the same line, we have uniquely defined the center of the circle.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Step 4</span></b></div>
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A pure mathematician would stop at Step 3, since the point has been theoretically defined. But an applied mathematician, being of a superior breed, would realize that we still need a way to mark that physical intersection point on the porch.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1jjMHWPxcgWWb3rjrbzhgny80u8skhyOC51j4ELpxCYnJDQARc9PpzH-KQEdv_Ucj_j9n7V8yqoUVwL5wrzbtx7U3QIlrxSX7QGtHWspjm3SFCRs-3ZfBi2RVhLPhfKbhwlenWt2bnkU/s1600/Step+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1130" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1jjMHWPxcgWWb3rjrbzhgny80u8skhyOC51j4ELpxCYnJDQARc9PpzH-KQEdv_Ucj_j9n7V8yqoUVwL5wrzbtx7U3QIlrxSX7QGtHWspjm3SFCRs-3ZfBi2RVhLPhfKbhwlenWt2bnkU/s400/Step+4.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here is my suggestion. Place a skinny pole at a possible location for the circle center. Move the skinny pole around until it lines up with both of the blue stakes. Then turn your head and line the skinny pole up with the two green stakes. Then go back to the blue stakes to make sure they still line up. This may take several iterations. (My own experience suggests that copious quantities of beer can reduce the number of iterations necessary, not because beer increases your skill level, but because it gives you a more realistic view of just how important the position of the center of the circle is in the grand scheme of things.) Put a nail or a stake or a plunger at the point of intersection. </div>
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If neither nail nor stake nor plunger will work on the porch, then buy another 12 pack and set it next to the intersection point. When a neighbor stops by to see what you're doing, hand him a beer and ask him to sit at the intersection point. The extra beers will keep him from moving.</div>
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A comment for those who remembered taking geometry... The task of finding the intersection would have been done with a straight edge. If Dark happens to have a 2 X 4 that is long enough, he could certainly use that to mark the dotted lines. A can of spray paint could serve to make that line indelibly, so the next owners of the house can appreciate the mathematics that went into constructing the flower bed. I haven't looked in Dark's garage lately, but I am guessing that finding a 2 X 4 that is long enough is a tall order. Or a long order. So, we must resort to an iterative procedure which would have been scorned by Euclid. But being scorned by Euclid is not a big deal. We are using non-Euclidean geometry.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Step 5</span></b></div>
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We're now ready to finish the project. Attach a rope to the nail/stake/plunger/neighbor at the center, and stretch the rope out until it reaches Point 1, Point 2, or Point 3.</div>
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Tie a spike to the rope at that point. Holding the rope taut, move the spike from Point 1 to Point 2 and then on to Point 3, scratching the lawn to indicate the edge of the circle. If you are not skilled in the art of lawn scratching, feel free to tie a can of spray paint to the rope. I suggest a color of paint which is different from that of the grass. Although I show purple in the drawing below, green paint would provide a real good contrast to the color of my lawn.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFL-KSltwp0Xsw98JulUUnKefofindkoemYYGEXFtp5M5LYo-2hK7Ll3Q8HOIJoM1FKvPGICIl0h-EuTcLVEOZ9IyKoMkKztzWNEPDfOV6HF1Ep6OpImTihE5ESddiCyT6eZMIknO1YeU/s1600/Step+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="1119" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFL-KSltwp0Xsw98JulUUnKefofindkoemYYGEXFtp5M5LYo-2hK7Ll3Q8HOIJoM1FKvPGICIl0h-EuTcLVEOZ9IyKoMkKztzWNEPDfOV6HF1Ep6OpImTihE5ESddiCyT6eZMIknO1YeU/s400/Step+5.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Step 6</span></b><br />
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Pull up a lawn chair and finish the beer, content in having accomplished a good day's work.John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-58620149825817937942019-08-18T15:51:00.001-04:002019-08-18T15:59:27.117-04:00The allure of tweeny colorsI recently saw <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-are-those-color-hues-so-intriguing-that-linger-right-between-two-known-colors-between-blue-and-gray-between-pink-and-purple-etc-They-keep-me-captivated-with-the-visual-tease?__nsrc__=4">an interesting question on Quora</a> about colors that are positioned between the basic colors. Here is the question, and the answer I gave.<br />
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Question: “<b>Why are those color hues so intriguing that linger right between two known colors: between blue and gray, between pink and purple, etc.? They keep me captivated with the visual ‘tease’.</b>”<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-gyrqA2v8Hz1icpPbr2ivfFY6KgFFXhRJkxRQRqn4kpPcGzNjOcsZM3oCH6X4rJcmcBBbFHk2lb81ht-AF1dLHadMJ2iBnBcgq1ua-5_friH0ELJU53gF7lAAsiKbiVb6RsV8hk-ENX8/s1600/Blue+car+and+blue-gray+car.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1117" data-original-width="846" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-gyrqA2v8Hz1icpPbr2ivfFY6KgFFXhRJkxRQRqn4kpPcGzNjOcsZM3oCH6X4rJcmcBBbFHk2lb81ht-AF1dLHadMJ2iBnBcgq1ua-5_friH0ELJU53gF7lAAsiKbiVb6RsV8hk-ENX8/s320/Blue+car+and+blue-gray+car.png" width="242" /></a></div>
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Interesting question! I have seen this before, and my own observations are that these tweeny colors are interesting and either beautiful or ugly because of this. I don’t know if I have <i>the </i>answer to why, but I have one plausible explanation.<br />
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Basic fact #1: There is much information compression and loss of information as an image makes its way from the retina to the upper parts of the brain. If I look out on the room before me, and then close my eyes to attempt to remember what is there, I come up sadly short. I won’t remember anywhere near all the objects, or remember much in the way of details about them. I certainly wouldn’t be able to paint a picture from memory (even if I could paint).<br />
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Basic fact #2: There is evidence that colors work the same way. When the lower brain tells the upper brain that a car is <i>red</i>, it doesn’t report the exact color coordinates of the color either an an RGB value or a number from a color matching book. According to the theory, it will generally put the color of the car into one of a small number of buckets. There might be eleven buckets, or maybe there are just a few more. <br />
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I suspect you may be inclined to disagree with such a small number. Surely there are hundreds or maybe thousands of nameable colors? The small number in the last paragraph comes from an experiment where people were shown a color and moments later asked to pick that color out of a lineup. This experiment showed that our remembrance of a color skews toward a quintessential version of that color family, and there are not hundreds or thousands of color families. A somewhat desaturated blue is remembered as blue. A slightly orange version of yellow is remembered as yellow.<br />
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Here is my blog post on the experiment: <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-well-do-we-remember-color.html">How well do we remember color?</a><br />
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This explanation is consistent with the way we perceive the world. I look at a car and say that it is red, completely ignoring the fact that one part of the hood is lighter because of the position of the Sun, and the lower door panel is darker because it is partially shaded. In some areas of the car, there is a strong delineation in color, and I can easily choose to be conscious of that. In other places, the change in shade is gradual enough that it is difficult to be consciously aware of it.<br />
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Let’s apply this knowledge to your question. Consider looking at a car that is somewhere between blue and gray. I may glance at it once, and my lower brain will decide that the color is in the gray family. I look again, and my lower brain may change its mind and put the color in the blue family when it reports to the higher brain.<br />
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If this happens, we have a cognitive dissonance - the upper brain has to deal with two conflicting thoughts: “the car <i>was </i>gray” and “the car <i>is now </i>blue”. This conflict draws our attention to the color, hence it is interesting.John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-53925623172072361302019-08-05T12:38:00.001-04:002021-06-27T20:11:02.649-04:00Where did my indigo? (part 1)I answered <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-true-color-of-indigo/answer/John-Seymour-19">a question on Quora</a> recently. I am so proud of my astute answer that I decided to expound on it to make it into a blog post.<br />
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The question: <i>What is the true color of indigo?</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKyLZpZtDT2FiM7MCGmj3SCNgpHS1yvg4j-RqvWmrGkpkowLJ0ULetbe5Gw-YCnjqOqrelTqd7RozkeuDh0Vt0x_yFueYLFetkb3Vywud_k_nQlNmzgbnmRJqIMvJUqz1J-srft6WATjg/s1600/Indigo+Montoya.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="1201" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKyLZpZtDT2FiM7MCGmj3SCNgpHS1yvg4j-RqvWmrGkpkowLJ0ULetbe5Gw-YCnjqOqrelTqd7RozkeuDh0Vt0x_yFueYLFetkb3Vywud_k_nQlNmzgbnmRJqIMvJUqz1J-srft6WATjg/s400/Indigo+Montoya.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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In today's blog post, I provide the <i>first </i>answer to that question.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Dyeing is a pigment of my imagination</b></span><br />
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The words dye and pigment are often used interchangeably. Just don't try that in the presence of any colorist. At best, they will roll their eyes and/or laugh at you.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNEYyBBNNHZxF1gZhFK2RvjUSmzvkTnHf7aj8RqvjWzc9P1w4fXMQKRq59W_4hmKPCkGAhyTTqSclB1ylkjTMHYT8KhHwE7HC072dRoyyUHqVZQYCsTJA1NEcwae-FgJtBx8eglDI04s/s1600/Dyes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="546" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfNEYyBBNNHZxF1gZhFK2RvjUSmzvkTnHf7aj8RqvjWzc9P1w4fXMQKRq59W_4hmKPCkGAhyTTqSclB1ylkjTMHYT8KhHwE7HC072dRoyyUHqVZQYCsTJA1NEcwae-FgJtBx8eglDI04s/s400/Dyes.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Cool pic of dyes from <a href="http://www.dyespigments.net/product-listing.html">Alliance Industries</a></i></div>
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The general term is <i>colorants</i>, something that is used to impart color. Dyes and pigments are two types of colorants.<br />
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Dyes are molecules (often organic) that are incorporated into fibers. As a rule of thumb, they are soluble, and we work with them typically in solution, so they are individual molecules. Also generally they require a binder molecule to attach them to whatever we are dyeing. Dyes are most commonly used for dyeing fabric. Dyes need to penetrate into the substrate (e.g. the cloth fibers) in order to become permanent.<br />
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Pigments are made from grinding stuff up -- usually non-organic compounds. Since they are ground up, they come in the form of solid particles with lots of molecules clumped together. when used, they are generally suspended in a <i>vehicle </i>that is evaporated when the paint or ink dries. The vehicle might be water (as in latex paints and inkjet inks) or oil (oil-based paints and lithographic ink) or a solvent such as alcohol or toluene (sometimes used in gravure printing ink). Pigments generally coat the substrate rather than becoming incorporated into the substrate.<br />
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I expect everyone to use these terms correctly from now on. This will be on the final exam.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mordant or less?</b></span><br />
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When I was young, I remember my sister showing me a neat trick. She showed me how to crush the flower buds of a certain flower between my fingers. The flower excreted a gorgeous rich blue fluid. My sister told me that this was a dye used by Native Americans.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_5_SeEdVHC9p_zEuIOXGa3F13uuxK1gKiT7Uz-JK-Ekb6ztGdTzzcIhkMoxthv7mYuNAWFt6KsE-KBdG5AWbKrdSXLBVzIOO3_tMIjkA0inuj1b_PPTLj1FOScSZNvqlCOTEWRxtWds/s1600/Iris.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="638" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_5_SeEdVHC9p_zEuIOXGa3F13uuxK1gKiT7Uz-JK-Ekb6ztGdTzzcIhkMoxthv7mYuNAWFt6KsE-KBdG5AWbKrdSXLBVzIOO3_tMIjkA0inuj1b_PPTLj1FOScSZNvqlCOTEWRxtWds/s400/Iris.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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Naturally, I was scolded. Maybe my mother was angry because the fluid stained my hands. More likely, she was angry that I stained my clothes. Then again, maybe she scolded me because I was destroying her irises. But, my memory is hazy. Maybe it was a wildflower. And maybe the Native American dye that my sister told me about was beets. I dunno which version is true, but one fact is perfectly clear. It was Nancy's fault. She forced me to get into trouble. This last part will be on the final exam.<br />
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This all left me with the impression that dyeing was pretty easy. You find some natural color in the woods or in a field. You crush the plant, dissolve it in water, and then soak your cloth in it.<br />
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Indigo dye is almost that easy to use. You just soak the cloth in a solution of the dye, rinse it, and then dry the fabric. Well, maybe that's a simplification, but I think I have the basics of it.<br />
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But making the dye is a bit more involved. The indigo plant has pretty pink flowers, but that's not where the dye comes from. Oddly enough, the dye is made from the leaves. These leaves are mashed and then fermented. The gunk left over is then dried and beaten to aerate it, since the process needs oxygen. Then it is left to dry into cakes.<br />
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When I first heard this, I was surprised. Who'da ever thunk to ferment <i>leaves</i>? Who'da ever thunk to ferment something and then <b>not drink it</b>? That part boggled my mind. (I'll get back to that in just a bit.)<br />
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Getting back to the dye, indigo is odd in the world of dyes. Indigo is called a <i>non-mordant </i>dye, because it does not require a <i>mordant</i>.<br />
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Ok, so what's a mordant?<br />
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Most dyes do not have a natural affinity for cloth. That is, they don't stick. Cloth is treated with mordants (like alum or tannic acid) so that the dye molecules will stick. The mordant molecules have an affinity for both the cloth and the dye, so they bind dye molecule to cloth by linking the left arm to one and the right arm to the other.<br />
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Here is the lesson that will appear on the final exam: Indigo was one of the earliest dyes because of two properties. First, the dye is created naturally in a way that humans could readily see and imitate. Second, the dye did not require pretreatment of the cloth to fix the dye.<br />
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Who invented indigo?</b><br />
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Indigo comes from the the indigo plant, specifically from the species of the indigo plants named <i>indigofera tinctoria</i> and <i>indigofera suffruticosa</i>. I called up the ancient Roman historian, Vitruvius, to help answer the question of who invented indigo dye. He told me that "<i>indigo comes from India... where it attaches itself as mud to the foam of the reeds.</i>" Hence the name, indigo, which is derived from the Latin word <i>indicum</i>, meaning <i>substance from India.</i><br />
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Now I can understand how someone would have come up with the idea of fermenting indigo leaves. I surmise that someone noticed that the muddy foam on the indigo plant stained fingers and cloth. They then sought to duplicate the natural process, and likely found that they needed a bit of this sticky foam as a starter. Whatever animicula was in the foam -- maybe it was yeast? -- would greedily ingest something in the leaves and go through some sort of chemical reaction that liberates the indigo dye molecules.<br />
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<i>A bit of historical pedanticness -- just which Roman historian I spoke with is a matter of disagreement among historians. The quote above is from Ball, p. 201. Another account (Phipps) refers to Pliny, without a fancy quote. Another author, DeBonnet, attributes a similar quote to Dioscorides in 23 BC. I am not really sure who I talked to on the phone. I had spent the whole night sampling my fermented indigo, and ... well...</i><br />
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Marco Polo brought this dye to Europe from his travels in India. Indigo dye became a much desired item for import from India to Europe, first along the Great Silk Road, and then around the Cape of Good Hope. For example, Dutch ships carted nearly 170 tons of the dye from India to Europe in 1631. This factoid will <u>not </u>appear on the final exam.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YSnyqIleGuMImkuhGueKXSGnfDH1k2F__LyuYz-qoz4k81JW4ypbMRMGZKUh-_JTAA-VhBKxRBZLcUSqC0DWXdFBnhKvzcaCVfvh5EySDhyphenhyphen0pPOlW09mk9ZGRz1zPG67fc0Ca4D_SKg/s1600/John+Phipps%252C+Indigo+plant.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="569" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YSnyqIleGuMImkuhGueKXSGnfDH1k2F__LyuYz-qoz4k81JW4ypbMRMGZKUh-_JTAA-VhBKxRBZLcUSqC0DWXdFBnhKvzcaCVfvh5EySDhyphenhyphen0pPOlW09mk9ZGRz1zPG67fc0Ca4D_SKg/s320/John+Phipps%252C+Indigo+plant.PNG" width="275" /></a></div>
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<i>Cool picture of the indigofera plant, from Phipps, 1832</i></div>
<br />
I pause here to admit to a gap in my personal recollection of world history. I'm a bit surprised that the ancient Greeks had trade routes going with India. Here I thought Marco Polo was the guy who first connected European commerce with Indian commerce. Did I sleep through that day in history class?<br />
<br />
So far, the story goes like this: The recipe for making indigo dye from the indigofera plant was devised in India, which became the source of indigo dye in Europe. There are reports of indigo dye in Harappan Civilization in the Indus valley somewhere around the time 2,000 BCE, so this all makes sense.<br />
<br />
But that's only part of the story. A clay cuneiform tablet, dating back to 600 or 500 BCE, was found in southern Iraq with the recipe for creating indigo dye.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDqrf_R306qaWwHk1W7etxLY8J5cC0BIM84pOBTeeUZZuVvWbQs96wPuaGvgzc0gHX4SSKuAeEI6g5OcAMWnuyCt5NbPFbCvobi9rRyuyrQP5ExSnenPZzICaKuumuid8ZdTsPt-inPeg/s1600/Recipe+for+indigo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="304" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDqrf_R306qaWwHk1W7etxLY8J5cC0BIM84pOBTeeUZZuVvWbQs96wPuaGvgzc0gHX4SSKuAeEI6g5OcAMWnuyCt5NbPFbCvobi9rRyuyrQP5ExSnenPZzICaKuumuid8ZdTsPt-inPeg/s320/Recipe+for+indigo.jpg" width="302" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=327282&partId=1"><i>Tablet housed at the British Museum</i></a></div>
<br />
This is a bit of a conundrum having to do with the history of indigo. Suppose you were transporting indigo from India to Babylonia. Would you load your camels or rafts or what-have-you with bundles of leaves, or would you load up with cakes of the processed dye? I'm thinking I would go with the more compressed form. Keep up with me now... so if we have an ancient Babylonian tablet, written in ancient Babylonian cuneiform, that was found in the area that was ancient Babylon... and that tablet gives a recipe for turning indigo leaves into indigo dye...<br />
<br />
Do you see where I'm going here? Why would a Babylonian go to the trouble of describing he process to manufacture indigo dye to a Babylonian when Babylonians are only receiving shipments of the processed dye???!?<br />
<br />
I think that the indigo plant may have been cultivated in ancient Babylon. I think that indigo seeds were transported from India to Mesopotamia at some point before 500 BCE. Then again, maybe the seeds went the other direction at some time before 2,000 BCE?<br />
<br />
Here's another indigo sighting from about that same time period. Herodotus (a Greek historian from about 450 BCE) wrote that in Caucasus "They have trees whose leaves possess a most singular property: they beat them to a powder, and then steep them in water; this forms a dye which they paint figures of animals on their garments." Herodotus doesn't actually use the word <i>indigo</i>, but it sure sounds like he was talking about how to make indigo dye. He also doesn't mention India. Strange.<br />
<br />
So, now I'm confused about whether the process to manufacture indigo dye actually came from India.<br />
<br />
Let's muddy the waters a bit more. In ancient Egypt, mummies were wrapped in linen. The strips of linen were dyed with indigo. This puts the invention of indigo back to around 2,400 BCE, and perhaps earlier. Did the very ancient Egyptians get their indigo from India? Or did the Indians get their indigo from Egypt? Were there even trade routes between these civilizations at that time? Tell me, just where did the indigo?!!??<br />
<br />
There are also early reports of indigo dyes being used in the Xinjiang province of China around 1,000 BCE. Were there trade routes between China and India? Here my meager world history completely falls on its face. I done got edicated in 'murica. We don't need no stinking urapean history there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwzKpsqAbkguo2pA0c8Ed0GW976MPpZ2AX1P5S2sm-UwTYGflhAIKBdy_KhJ90doGRhtBaT9tB6osEUpLFCUVbyP2WdMhu3dy5bJIYZHJWvTO9Cw05LprKQTGPWaifsCM2LDMPKUgirqI/s1600/Indigo+sightings.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="980" data-original-width="1600" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwzKpsqAbkguo2pA0c8Ed0GW976MPpZ2AX1P5S2sm-UwTYGflhAIKBdy_KhJ90doGRhtBaT9tB6osEUpLFCUVbyP2WdMhu3dy5bJIYZHJWvTO9Cw05LprKQTGPWaifsCM2LDMPKUgirqI/s640/Indigo+sightings.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Earliest occurrences of indigo dye in various regions of the Old World</i></div>
<br />
I look at the map above, and it seems likely to me that indigo dye was developed independently in Egypt and India, and possibly also in China.<br />
<br />
But I omitted one last piece of the puzzle. Indigo dyed fabric was found in scraps of cloth in Huaca Prieta, Peru that date back as far as 5800 BCE! I hope you're as excited about that as I am.<br />
<br />
My conclusion: a process to extract indigo dye from the indigofera plant was developed independently in multiple places around the globe. That will be on the final exam.<br />
<br />
<br />
Stay tuned for part 2 of this series of blog posts, where I investigate Isaac Newton and the indigo that he put in our rainbow!<br />
<br />
Want to know more about pigments and dyes?<br />
Have a look at a blog post about <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2019/04/what-city-in-italy-is-color-magenta.html">mauve, Tyrian purple, and magenta</a>.<br />
Or, check out the blog post about <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/12/bbc-article-on-man-who-invented-color.html">the invention of Klein blue</a>.<br />
Or better yet, have a quick read about <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-joy-of-vermilion-take-2.html">vermilion and cinnabar</a>.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Bibliography</span></b><br />
<br />
Ball, Philip, <i>The Bright Earth, Art and the Invention of Color</i>, University of Chicago Press, 2001<br />
<br />
Beloe, William, <i>Herodotus, Translated from the Greek</i>, 1814, p. 254<br />
<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-6sCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA254&lpg=PA254&dq=herodotus+indigo&source=bl&ots=DyKZWua1TA&sig=ACfU3U3r-EdOPzBCnicfxexVFzz2j0_qFA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiinZjvzunjAhUPiqwKHXQsDjMQ6AEwEHoECGIQAQ#v=onepage&q=herodotus%20indigo&f=false">https://books.google.com/books?id=-6sCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA254&lpg=PA254&dq=herodotus+indigo&source=bl&ots=DyKZWua1TA&sig=ACfU3U3r-EdOPzBCnicfxexVFzz2j0_qFA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiinZjvzunjAhUPiqwKHXQsDjMQ6AEwEHoECGIQAQ#v=onepage&q=herodotus%20indigo&f=false</a><br />
<br />
DeBonnet, Maurice, <i>Origin of Paint Pigments, Varnishes, Vehicles</i>, National Painters Magazine, Vol 48, Jan. 1921, page 26.<br />
<br />
Finlay, Victoria, <i>The Brilliant History of Color in Art</i>, Getty Publications, 2014<br />
<br />
Mattson, Anne, <i>History of Indigo in the Early Modern World</i>,<br />
<a href="https://www.lib.umn.edu/bell/tradeproducts/indigo#s5">https://www.lib.umn.edu/bell/tradeproducts/indigo#s5</a><br />
<br />
Nassau, Kurt, <i>The Physics and Chemistry of Color</i>, The Fifteen Causes of Color, John Wiley and Sons, 1983, p. 285<br />
<br />
Phipps, John, <i>A series of treatises on the principal products of Bengal</i>, 1832<br />
<br />
Splitstoser, Jeffery C., Tom D. Dillehay, Jan Wouters, and Ana Claro, <i>Early pre-Hispanic use of indigo blue in Peru</i>, Science Advances 14 Sep 2016: Vol. 2, no. 9,<br />
<br />
St Clair, Kassia, <i>The Secret Lives of Colour</i>, pps. 189 - 192<br />
<br />
Wikipedia, <i>Indigo</i>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo</a><br />
<br />
Wild Color, <i>History of Indigo & Indigo Dyeing</i>,<br />
<a href="http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/indigo_history.html">http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/indigo_history.html</a><br />
<br />
<br />John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-20187896974496240972019-05-17T11:59:00.001-04:002019-06-03T18:01:56.718-04:00The Red Velvet Cake EffectI recently stumbled upon a video this week where the speaker described experiments where the presence of color tricked participants into tasting flavors that weren't there. The idea seems preposterous. How can flavorless food coloring impart taste?<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/al2addgXpus/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/al2addgXpus?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<i>How Color Affects Taste, Prof. William Lidwell of University of Houston</i></div>
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As odd as this may seem, it must be true. I mean, I found another video on YouTube that makes the same general claim: "<i>Soft drinks that are blue are considered to be more thirst quenching, whereas soft drinks that are pink are considered to be more sugary, even if they're not.</i>" There are not one, but <i>two</i> guys who are articulate, sound intelligent, and have the massive funding required to produce a YouTube video on this topic, so who am I to question their veracity?<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dLZcy9y0zkk/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dLZcy9y0zkk?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<i>The Taste of Color, Trace, for DNews</i></div>
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A little googling turned up similar results. For example, two manufacturers of color measurement devices have blog posts on the topic. Here is a quote from the blog post from Konica Minolta:<br />
<br />
"<i>In a study published in the Journal of Food Science, researchers found that people confused flavors when a drink did not have the appropriate color. A cherry-flavored drink manipulated to be orange in color was thought to taste like an orange drink, and a cherry drink manipulated to be green in color was thought to taste like lime.</i>"<br />
<a href="https://sensing.konicaminolta.us/blog/how-color-affects-your-perception-of-food/">How Color Affects Your Perception of Food</a><br />
<br />
A blog post from HunterLab points to an important distinction between how color affects our <i>expectation</i> of taste and how color affects our <i>perception</i> when we taste. "<i>[We] constantly evaluate foods based on their hue, from checking if the meat is still red to guessing an avocado is ripe when its skin becomes dark green</i>."<br />
<br />
The author goes on to say "<i>Color is so powerful that [it] can override what our other senses are telling us to be true, causing us to taste sweetness that isn’t really there, experience flavors that aren’t present.</i>"<br />
<a href="https://www.hunterlab.com/blog/color-food-industry/examining-the-science-behind-color-perception-of-food-flavor-and-quality/">Examining the Science Behind Color Perception of Food Flavor and Quality</a><br />
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I'm going to invent a name for this phenomenon: <i>The Red Velvet Cake Effect</i>. The rich flavor of red velvet cake is is an olfactory illusion which is caused by the flavorless red food coloring. At least that's what my wife told me. Again, who am I to question?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPmBAbu8sSniBtPQSwc8XGvyDEIoAkLEBQ9rn0swiZiGSaWkwdHapVYGcVERVqg6PeT88RCxpWYDEzrXhFK3wijjDr-R-jZXmzQYdX4WeVFohUn1SxDVvvbaM4M29wjS2F1ocWk0pA9Ks/s1600/The+Red+Velvet+Cake+Effect.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1252" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPmBAbu8sSniBtPQSwc8XGvyDEIoAkLEBQ9rn0swiZiGSaWkwdHapVYGcVERVqg6PeT88RCxpWYDEzrXhFK3wijjDr-R-jZXmzQYdX4WeVFohUn1SxDVvvbaM4M29wjS2F1ocWk0pA9Ks/s400/The+Red+Velvet+Cake+Effect.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Ok. Maybe that's not exactly true. The action of an acid (from vinegar or buttermilk) on natural cocoa imparts a red color to this cake, and this acid probably has an effect on the flavor. But pretty much all recipes for red velvet cake also include red food coloring. Why do this? The red food coloring in the cake tricks us into thinking that the cake is richer in flavor. Or maybe the cake really is richer in flavor?<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">These are not criticisms</span></b><br />
<br />
Let me preface my next comments -- the comments about the aforementioned videos and blog posts. I don't mean for my comments to be criticism.<br />
<br />
The first three of these reports are <i>infotainment </i>-- journalism targeted to inform and entertain. It is not expected that they go into details about how the experiments were performed. There is no talk of qualification of participants, a control group, accounting for the placebo effect, or the statistical relevance of the results. To go into such details would defeat the purpose of entertaining. Who wants to wade through boring details when all they want from the article is a factoid that they can share at the local tavern?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDrehtuVOabGMz62bRFm-gTm9b2Y42Dg0Op49Zf6i8ivdr9kU_qJg0uIwZvzV1uosrc71FAcH5uzRykrgN9ngGR5ayq4F3Lcef13f6pA4fsJBYy4wBg0h2cz28weWIsxtqxPhTQtS23U/s1600/Worm+worm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="921" data-original-width="1228" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDrehtuVOabGMz62bRFm-gTm9b2Y42Dg0Op49Zf6i8ivdr9kU_qJg0uIwZvzV1uosrc71FAcH5uzRykrgN9ngGR5ayq4F3Lcef13f6pA4fsJBYy4wBg0h2cz28weWIsxtqxPhTQtS23U/s400/Worm+worm.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>It's a little known fact that Cliff Clavin never actually said this.<br />It comes from <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-joy-of-vermilion-take-2.html">a John the Math Guy blog post on vermillion</a>.</i></div>
<br />
Another shortcoming of the preceding infotainment (with no criticism implied) is that none of the first three give specific reference to the experiments. Again, I am not being critical, but the articles don't offer a lot of help to the person who is a bit more than just curious. How can they find the technical paper on the topic?<br />
<br />
Let me make this clear. I am not criticizing the first three. Infotainment is a great thing, and these are great examples of infotainment. But let's take them for what they are. Suppose you are president of the American Broccoli Growers Association, and I need to decide whether to fund research for a plant geneticist who wants to adjust the cruciferous color so as to make kids go wild about the taste of broccoli. You really need to research beyond the infotainment articles.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILz_tu021OWIJkkojILW9HhGARa586eXo9MIvaF4yL5PZXU0kXGhHqVY2Q-UvLL8g-H4ELQfgr5SaXoR6bVfZRTl8b4ql5i-KWi7r_FzwSiQphdaMc58eDDiR_jSlh4g8PdwYAHjinzk/s1600/Yechy+and+yummy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="884" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgILz_tu021OWIJkkojILW9HhGARa586eXo9MIvaF4yL5PZXU0kXGhHqVY2Q-UvLL8g-H4ELQfgr5SaXoR6bVfZRTl8b4ql5i-KWi7r_FzwSiQphdaMc58eDDiR_jSlh4g8PdwYAHjinzk/s400/Yechy+and+yummy.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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I commend the HunterLab article for moving from infotainment into the realm of <i>edutainment</i>. The article educates as well as entertains. There is a clear explanation of what experiments were performed and how they can be interpreted. And the technical papers and experts are identified so an interested reader can go out to find additional details.<br />
<br />
But... I wonder if is there some selection bias in the choice of research papers that have been cited? Do other experiments confirm these conclusions? In true John the Math Guy style, I have done a borderline-obsessive amount of digging to get to the true flavor of this question, not colored by any preconceived notions.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Does the color of the food itself change the taste?</span></b><br />
<br />
I followed the HunterLab link to an actual research paper from 1980. Here is what a quote from that paper:<br />
<br />
"<i>Results showed that color masking dramatically decreased flavor identification of fruit-flavored beverages, while atypical colors induced incorrect flavor responses that were characteristically associated with the atypical color. In addition, the color level of beverages had significant effects on their overall acceptability, acceptability of color and of flavor, as well as on flavor intensity."</i><br />
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229496011_Effects_of_Colorants_and_Flavorants_on_Identification_Perceived_Flavor_Intensity_and_Hedonic_Quality_of_Fruit-Flavored_Beverages_and_Cake">Effects of Colorants and Flavorants on Identification, Perceived Flavor Intensity, and Hedonic Quality of Fruit‐Flavored Beverages and Cake</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXDge8j-z99ryfzeoXqvvBbtgSZZiNVl0nhvcJzDIKVKjpfxdbZmakpyPpgjCsRpX3ikVm-24pkym473VJyVvjSZJR7ey8DyWOaehPO-kEsJbB2tvA3e9hyphenhyphen-HE7Uz-Q1UlQF03m0ZB3IU/s1600/Fruit+beverages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="1024" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXDge8j-z99ryfzeoXqvvBbtgSZZiNVl0nhvcJzDIKVKjpfxdbZmakpyPpgjCsRpX3ikVm-24pkym473VJyVvjSZJR7ey8DyWOaehPO-kEsJbB2tvA3e9hyphenhyphen-HE7Uz-Q1UlQF03m0ZB3IU/s400/Fruit+beverages.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Only with a blindfold could Sherlock tell that all the glasses contained prune juice</i></div>
<br />
Here is another research paper demonstrating that the taste of sweet beverages can be "flavored" by color.<br />
<br />
"<i>The results of the present experiment corroborate the findings of the previous experiments, demonstrating the influence of color on taste perception</i>"<br />
"... <i>subjects in the present study were moved by the color stimuli to completely misjudge the flavor of the substance being tasted (calling the birch beer such things as "cherry soda" or "cream soda").</i>"<br />
<a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/BF03329979.pdf">The influence of color on the taste perception of carbonated water preparations</a><br />
<br />
And yet another...<br />
"<i>Both the colour of the cider itself and the colour of the label significantly influenced perceived flavour and hedonic response to the ciders.</i>"<br />
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325316589_Cross-modal_influence_of_colour_from_product_and_packaging_alters_perceived_flavour_of_cider">Cross-modal influence of colour from product and packaging alters perceived flavour of cider</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj94gksOrRWE4c6-XYhl81lqmDD4wtLvaLwwyPhHbDAxOHfUwKOkBfoFMZno1YriNGxonIp9CI1FWAeeFbHNJNIS3KSrD_8a2nQPrKMKl6RaxwGAyMsBYdbUH9sN5pxpp_y6vfQNAxkNxw/s1600/Hedonic+response+cider.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="963" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj94gksOrRWE4c6-XYhl81lqmDD4wtLvaLwwyPhHbDAxOHfUwKOkBfoFMZno1YriNGxonIp9CI1FWAeeFbHNJNIS3KSrD_8a2nQPrKMKl6RaxwGAyMsBYdbUH9sN5pxpp_y6vfQNAxkNxw/s320/Hedonic+response+cider.png" width="308" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Oh! I gotta get me some of that Hedonic Response Cider!</i></div>
<br />
The only fruit-flavored beverage that I drink is wine, so I kinda don't care. The HunterLab article anticipated my predilections so they also mentioned a <a href="https://www.hunterlab.com/blog/color-food-industry/spectrophotometric-analysis-of-wine-color-can-enhance-sensory-perception/">blog post of theirs that talked about color and wine</a>. That second blog post summarized an experiment where researchers tried to trick professional wine tasters by adding flavorless red food coloring to white wines. The deceit was successful.<br />
<br />
"<i>A white wine artificially colored red with an odorless dye was olfactory described as a red wine by a panel of 54 tasters. Hence, because of the visual information, the tasters discounted the olfactory information.</i>"<br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11712849">The color of odors</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtbZprdaWcorbs1ot2UnME1Sje_rQ0e1op0AsYzcac8RosTB2CErJLQlUSLZFc_DDWLiuMXeNIcZehSaLIvEubRCDLagDoovGxZkKcsuFquJyzccS3ijTiTe7IijdBzXjAHAQZjxCMiaE/s1600/red-white-wine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtbZprdaWcorbs1ot2UnME1Sje_rQ0e1op0AsYzcac8RosTB2CErJLQlUSLZFc_DDWLiuMXeNIcZehSaLIvEubRCDLagDoovGxZkKcsuFquJyzccS3ijTiTe7IijdBzXjAHAQZjxCMiaE/s320/red-white-wine.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>My wife's favorite whine is "I want to go to Miami!"</i></div>
<br />
It is a little known fact that <i>olfactory </i>means "relating to the sense of smell."<br />
<br />
This was a bit of a disappointment to me, since I know that, all scientific research aside, I prefer red wines! I probably don't like Riesling, but I'm not sure. I've never riesled.<br />
<br />
As you may expect, beer is also important to me. And I <i>know </i>that dark beer is way more better than a an icky sickly pale yellow pilsner. But if two beers differ only in color, does my eye convince my tongue and nose that the beer that is richer in color is also richer in flavor? I can't count the number of times that I have lain awake at night pondering that question!<br />
<br />
Interestingly, experiments with beer haven't been as conclusive. The quote below is a bit complicated, but here is what I <i>think </i>it says: If someone is a Miller Lite kinda guy, they are more apt to be fooled by a little brown food coloring. I believe this, but only because it fits my preconceived notion that people who drink light beer are less sophisticated than I am.<br />
<br />
"<i>When the participants evaluated the expectations and tasting experience of the two different beers ... (pale vs. dark), after tasting, those who preferred pale beers, rated the darker beer as tasting sweeter than those who usually prefer other types of beers, such as dark ones...</i>"<br />
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330098082_Dark_vs_light_drinks_The_influence_of_visual_appearance_on_the_consumer's_experience_of_beer">Dark vs light drinks The influence of visual appearance on the consumer's experience of beer</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-nogjyxl9tjsV4D7OWMZZFmrNUaxI9nYYVQZuqmFJ3B4wsVivM2twMVTaTr1oYsgG1gcigrb1xDRGfJbVBwMPOTM8gCLBWRURkxQwKNkBhDXrXTdvBlckEWIezkOQQbAuNgnr2opFTE/s1600/Lovibond+scale.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="469" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-nogjyxl9tjsV4D7OWMZZFmrNUaxI9nYYVQZuqmFJ3B4wsVivM2twMVTaTr1oYsgG1gcigrb1xDRGfJbVBwMPOTM8gCLBWRURkxQwKNkBhDXrXTdvBlckEWIezkOQQbAuNgnr2opFTE/s400/Lovibond+scale.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The Lovibond scale is used to assess beer color</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
One finding of the next experiment (below), is that before the mug comes to my lips, I <i>expect </i>that a beer with a rich brown color will be richer in flavor than a light yellow beer. Well, duh. The important part of this research is that when I actually taste the beer, my palate will not be fooled.<br />
<br />
"<i>Dark and pale beers were evaluated both before and after tasting. Importantly, these beers were indistinguishable in terms of their taste/flavor when tasted without any visual cues. The results indicate that the differing visual appearance of the beers led to clear differences in expected taste/flavor. However, after tasting, no differences in flavor ratings were observed, indicating that the expectations based on visual cues did not influence the actual tasting experience.</i>"<br />
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321913162_The_Influence_of_Color_on_the_Consumer's_Experience_of_Beer">The Influence of Color on the Consumer's Experience of Beer</a><br />
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So, let's move on to chocolate, another place where I like to brag about my superior tastes. In my opinion, milk chocolate is for the hoi polloi. Having an affinity for dark chocolate shows that you have culture. But, at least according to this research, my false snobbery can be exposed with a little brown food coloring in the outer candy shell of an M&M. And even worse, just calling the little rabbit pellets <i>dark chocolate </i>will fool me. Really? Am I that easily misled!?!?!? </div>
<br />
"<i>The participants rated brown M&Ms as being significantly more chocolatey than green M&Ms and “dark chocolate”-labeled M&Ms as being significantly more chocolatey than “milk chocolate”-labeled ones</i>."<br />
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/16298525/The_Influence_of_Color_and_Label_Information_on_Flavor_Perception">The Influence of Color and Label Information on Flavor Perception</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpeVJIZv8Qv6_hAAMED_QwG22MK1NhOFILuL1fp7NNtyomh4TBE9dTefQgAoAaUnD5sZgkmChbqKuHF8IZgUcQlpo4YV-_XquJGjiOFHzrp2pLKkawMa_Ul3j5IKqcqKGDh0SgQ8MpILU/s1600/Dark-Milk-or-White-chocolate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="491" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpeVJIZv8Qv6_hAAMED_QwG22MK1NhOFILuL1fp7NNtyomh4TBE9dTefQgAoAaUnD5sZgkmChbqKuHF8IZgUcQlpo4YV-_XquJGjiOFHzrp2pLKkawMa_Ul3j5IKqcqKGDh0SgQ8MpILU/s320/Dark-Milk-or-White-chocolate.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>I like my chocolate just like my used motor oil - dark and flavorful</i></div>
<br />
This sampling of research papers suggests that color can suggest taste, but that might not always be the case.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Does the color of the plate or cup influence the flavor?</span></b><br />
<br />
I want to investigate a phrase from the cider experiments which I skipped over: "<i>and the colour of the label</i>". The cider house rules apparently extend beyond the color of what goes into your mouth. The effect on flavor of the color of the coffee mug seems to be fairly well researched. And the research seems to be heavily weighted toward verification of the Red Velvet Cake Effect. I have some quotes below.<br />
<br />
"<i>The results revealed that the colour of the cup exerted a significant influence on both pre- and post-tasting ratings for all attributes measured.</i>"<br />
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331571545_Cup_colour_influences_consumers'_expectations_and_experience_on_tasting_specialty_coffee">Cup colour influences consumers' expectations and experience on tasting specialty coffee</a><br />
<br />
"... <i>the coffee was rated as less sweet in the white mug as compared to the transparent and blue mugs.</i>"<br />
<a href="https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2044-7248-3-10#B17">Does the colour of the mug influence the taste of the coffee?</a><br />
<br />
"<i>The colour of the cup, for instance, has been shown to prime notions of sweetness (e.g., pink cup) or acidity (e.g., yellow or green cup) that may carry over to influence the tasting experience.</i>"<br />
<br />
"<i>Given that different styles/varieties of specialty coffee have different dominant/desirable qualities (e.g., acidity/sweetness), in the future, the design of coffee cups may need to be customized for different coffee drinking experiences (e.g., origin or roast), much as seen in the world of fine wine (with different glasses for different grape varieties).</i>"<br />
<a href="http://assessing%20the%20influence%20of%20the%20coffee%20cup%20on%20the%20multisensory%20tasting%20experience/">Assessing the influence of the coffee cup on the multisensory tasting experience</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaTghVZHAchaPQs1-ZPT623ni83336BuyUif25iKU7d3MGm2iSYFN_EmsNMb2kDUx6nYRGtaDat5mvgNZQuR9WGe75HdXRjxbr15ZE9KRUuCszvrl80tbklU20qLf3h2ntktwvFRGRWDs/s1600/Coffee+mugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaTghVZHAchaPQs1-ZPT623ni83336BuyUif25iKU7d3MGm2iSYFN_EmsNMb2kDUx6nYRGtaDat5mvgNZQuR9WGe75HdXRjxbr15ZE9KRUuCszvrl80tbklU20qLf3h2ntktwvFRGRWDs/s320/Coffee+mugs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Choose your cup wisely, it will affect the taste of the coffee</i></div>
<br />
Seems pretty conclusive that the Red Velvet Cake Effect extends to coffee mugs. But are pastries on plates any different from red velvet chocolate? Apparently so.<br />
<br />
"[No]<i> main effects of the plate colour on the evaluations of greasiness, crunchiness, creaminess, and sweetness [of pastries], as well as the hedonic value and purchase intent in stage 1 and stage 2 could be found</i>."<br />
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331363001_Visual_merchandising_of_pastries_in_foodscapes_The_influence_of_plate_colours_on_consumers'_flavour_expectations_and_perceptions">Visual merchandising of pastries in foodscapes: The influence of plate colours on consumers’ flavour expectations and perceptions</a><br />
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But the color of the plate has a clear effect on the sweetness of strawberry mousse.<br />
<br />
"<i>Specifically, we investigated the influence of the color (black or white) and shape of the plate on the perception of flavor intensity, sweetness, quality, and liking for identical strawberry mousse desserts.The results demonstrated that while the color of the plate exerted a significant influence on people’s perception of the food, the shape of the plate did not. In particular, when the mousse was served from a white plate, it was perceived as significantly more intense and sweeter, and was also liked more.</i>"<br />
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/16722149/Is_it_the_plate_or_is_it_the_food_Assessing_the_influence_of_the_color_black_or_white_and_shape_of_the_plate_on_the_perception_of_the_food_placed_on_it">Is it the plate or is it the food? Assessing the influence of the color (black or white) and shape of the plate on the perception of the food placed on it</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKqN0_Sc-CXoyGJsJ6d_io3mYG6NADjshbQj9EG8-jr_vSsgGSarekw_VWrHJzJnFZlNMKP20DUg2x7MPJTtvkb9L9MOKd7OePP2XVWBTMZhg09fRJ5k86VcrQnqBOEBFn4MCmY3VxWlk/s1600/Cake+on+colored+plates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1300" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKqN0_Sc-CXoyGJsJ6d_io3mYG6NADjshbQj9EG8-jr_vSsgGSarekw_VWrHJzJnFZlNMKP20DUg2x7MPJTtvkb9L9MOKd7OePP2XVWBTMZhg09fRJ5k86VcrQnqBOEBFn4MCmY3VxWlk/s400/Cake+on+colored+plates.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Choose the plate wisely if the dessert is red velvet cake or strawberry mousse,</i></div>
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<i>leave the ugly plates for pastries</i></div>
<br />
I'm not sure what to make of all this. I am getting a bit peckish for dessert, though.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Survey papers</span></b><br />
<br />
This limited research has led to some conflicting conclusions. I have browsed through a dozen papers and found that most (but not all) confirmed the Red Velvet Cake Effect. I readily admit that my sampling of technical journals on flavor science has not been thorough. Basically, I have only earned my associates degree in Velvet Cake from Google University. In particular, I would expect that my research would be biased in favor of papers that support the surprising results.<br />
<br />
It is a little known fact that red food coloring might be made from Hemipterates (the order of true bugs, in the class Insecta) like the cochineal or kermes vermilio, but that <a href="https://www.livescience.com/36292-red-food-dye-bugs-cochineal-carmine.html">Starbucks has pledged to stop using the natural dyes that are made from insects</a>.<br />
<br />
To get a better perspective, I will have a look at scholarly review papers.<br />
<br />
Charles Spence (from Oxford) is a prolific author on the Red Velvet Cake Effect. (I say this despite the fact that he has not, to my knowledge, used this phrase. I am sure he will start using it when he reads this blog post.) Here are a few of his papers which provide an overview of a little bit of the research that he has reviewed. When I say "a little bit", I mean... well... the first paper has about three pages of references. The second one has 170 references. I should live long enough to read that many research papers.<br />
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<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225762625_Does_Food_Color_Influence_Taste_and_Flavor_Perception_in_Humans">Does Food Color Influence Taste and Flavor Perception in Humans</a><br />
<a href="https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13411-015-0031-3">On the psychological impact of food colour</a><br />
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323442517_Background_colour_its_impact_on_food_perception_behaviour">Background colour & its impact on food perception & behaviour</a><br />
<br />
Spence (In his paper "Does Food Color...") makes the following statement:<br />
<br />
"<i>Does food coloring influence taste and flavor perception in humans? Although researchers have been investigating this important (both on a theoretical and practical level) question for more than 70 years now (see Duncker 1939; Masurovsky 1939; Moir 1936 for early research), an unequivocal answer to the question has not, as yet, been reached.</i>"<br />
<br />
Ahhh... that explains the confusing results that I found! Then he goes on to burst my bubble.<br />
<br />
"<i>That, at least, would seem to be the conclusion drawn by the majority of researchers in the field</i>."<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Slicing the onion thinner</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQYr9zSD_SFhChpeY8Ny8XXTfIcN4kGf7RNeB1cAGYkrzPBjQP12V3_NaSKxCv1twH78DShIdwmnYmX1lEiyPayjoubhZDix9bsgtT6r6CODvv22i5pZ0kJd1w1YR-YQGQkgZGSdv0pPc/s1600/Onions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQYr9zSD_SFhChpeY8Ny8XXTfIcN4kGf7RNeB1cAGYkrzPBjQP12V3_NaSKxCv1twH78DShIdwmnYmX1lEiyPayjoubhZDix9bsgtT6r6CODvv22i5pZ0kJd1w1YR-YQGQkgZGSdv0pPc/s400/Onions.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>When I asked her for the color of the car, she said it was the color of an onion</i></div>
<br />
Anyone who has passed an intermediate level course in "how to lie with statistics" will recognize that the answer you get depends a great deal on the precise phrasing of the question. There are a number of different but related questions that a Red Velvet Cake Effect experiment could address:<br />
<br />
1) Does the color of the food influence my expectation of taste before I sample the food?<br />
<br />
2) Does the color of the food influence whether I can correctly identify a given food?<br />
<br />
3) Does the color of the food influence my assessment of the intensity of the <i>taste </i>of the food (the gustatory effect)?<br />
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4) Does the color of the food influence my assessment of the intensity of the <i>flavor </i>of the food (the olfactory effect)?<br />
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Wait... Aren't 3) and 4) the same question? Maybe to you and I <i>taste </i>and <i>flavor </i>mean the same thing, but to people who are really into the science of taste and smell, there is a distinction. <i>Taste </i>is the thing that we do with our tongue when we are not sticking out at people we dislike. We can distinguish only five distinct tastes with our tongue: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami (which means something like savory).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf6f5MfRBKfdXW8tnOOG0NoZhKuDgNpI_4Nzua4tpLiq-iEhIFmqdrUNofGPHSMly8J1CQdnFAaAUzbpIr8IFWNOsI_HTX4GNAwHra4sbgspdriotSVG0pQTPaGoq7yYmSllUAh6_2MBY/s1600/Einstein_tongue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="230" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf6f5MfRBKfdXW8tnOOG0NoZhKuDgNpI_4Nzua4tpLiq-iEhIFmqdrUNofGPHSMly8J1CQdnFAaAUzbpIr8IFWNOsI_HTX4GNAwHra4sbgspdriotSVG0pQTPaGoq7yYmSllUAh6_2MBY/s320/Einstein_tongue.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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<i>I never developed much of a taste for relativity</i></div>
<br />
<i>Flavor, </i>on the other hand, is detected in the nose. To make things even more complicated, this olfactory (smell) component might be administered <i>orthonasally </i>(though the nose, as when someone pretentiously sticks their nose in a wine glass to detect the <i>nose </i>of the wine), or it may be administered <i>retronasally </i>(through the mouth, like when you take a sip of the wine).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOPdIWo6IsFKIF1cO-t0Kc976iqpYTf3cecGKdE8PFB2uz6IcGQEhgnu9WcCHAX930PHZ9QhWHwEn63aZF_n7SmIjpAOLpnEDRcKGURdyzLuHqNB8zxXPETQ416lBSaIhdXylOxiNf3s/s1600/Testing+the+nose+of+a+wine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOPdIWo6IsFKIF1cO-t0Kc976iqpYTf3cecGKdE8PFB2uz6IcGQEhgnu9WcCHAX930PHZ9QhWHwEn63aZF_n7SmIjpAOLpnEDRcKGURdyzLuHqNB8zxXPETQ416lBSaIhdXylOxiNf3s/s400/Testing+the+nose+of+a+wine.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The nose of a wine is best sensed in near silhouette conditions <br />with clouds and mountains in the background.<br />Pretentiousness is accentuated by an "I forgot to shave for the past four days" beard. </i></div>
<br />
As an aside, a true oenophile (which is French for <i>priggish wine snob</i>) will tell you that the best way to tell the nose of a wine is to take a sip, spit it out, and then exhale through your nose. This is an example of retronasal olfaction. A true Wisconsinite like myself would be aghast at the thought of spitting out something that contains alcohol.<br />
<br />
Now, how did Spence answer the four questions?<br />
<br />
Spence summarized one experiment having to do with the first question. British and Taiwanese participants were asked what they expected a colored beverage to taste like. The Brits overwhelmingly (14 out of 20) expected a brown beverage to taste like cola. None of the 15 Taiwanese participants expected a cola taste - grape, mulberry, and cranberry were their choices. So, the answer to the first question is "yes", but the expectation is culturally dependent.<br />
<br />
According to Spence, the answer to the second question is unequivocal. Color influences identification of foods.<br />
<br />
According to Spence, the experiments that address the third question do not give consistent results. According to me, the combinations (which colors have an effect on which of the four tastes) is confusing.<br />
<br />
According to Spence, the answer to the fourth question is clear cut. Color does flavor our sense of flavor.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-xMIdkW2CjyDTt_fyB6ZpHRFLxznB5jyPtFh3TieKZlhSo-G5YDUsNhLO4Xd23oLrPXeWTlkzZ-eI2HHxR_Xux5JZExygwkvqWmuVdDOudxYpK9sZbeEur9bY9kXqduEdEigOO5izV-4/s1600/Charles-Spence-lead-image-640x401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="640" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-xMIdkW2CjyDTt_fyB6ZpHRFLxznB5jyPtFh3TieKZlhSo-G5YDUsNhLO4Xd23oLrPXeWTlkzZ-eI2HHxR_Xux5JZExygwkvqWmuVdDOudxYpK9sZbeEur9bY9kXqduEdEigOO5izV-4/s400/Charles-Spence-lead-image-640x401.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Charles Spence, Food Scientist</i></div>
<br />
So, I conclude that the two videos and two blog posts mentioned way back at the start of this blog post are pretty decent in their portrayal of the science behind the Red Velvet Cake Effect. They didn't quite catch all the nuances and slightly contradictory results, but we can't expect everyone to produce blog posts that are as long and boring as this one!<br />
<br />
If you have read up to this point, I leave you with a well deserved factoid: The flavor and taste of red velvet cake is most likely due (at least in part) to the red food coloring, which might be manufactured from bugs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Updated June 3, 2019 - In my haste to pat myself on the back for knowing that Umami has moderately recently been acknowledged as a member of the Taste Bud Band, I neglected another key member of the band, Salty Dog. I have corrected the blog accordingly. Thanks to <a href="http://www.rmimaging.com/products.html">Robin Myers</a> for pointing this out to me. </i>John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-46765338544880036732019-04-23T13:20:00.003-04:002020-10-20T12:10:04.338-04:00What city in Italy is the color magenta named after?I have asked this question in my color classes, Inevitably, I get no answer, or answers like Rome? Venice? Flagstaff? I then ask some rhetorical questions: "When was the war of 1812?" "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" "What is the color of a red dress?" and "Who is the greatest color scientist who ever lived?" This will often prompt one of the more adventurous students to take a wild guess at the answer to the magenta question. For the time being, I will keep you in suspense about the answer cuz I got a little story to tell.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tyrian purple</b></span><br />
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The story starts around 1600 BCE with a special purple dye that has been made from the rock snail for several millennia. It takes a lot of these snails to dye all your hankies. Like, a lot of snails. Like jillions of the little guys. About a quarter of a million of these mollusks had to be sacrificed to yield one <i>ounce </i>of Tyrian purple dye. As a result the dye was incredibly expensive - it was literally worth more than its weight in gold.<br />
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But it was a distinctive color and it was fade resistant, so fabrics dyed with Tyrian purple were prized by people who had more money than they knew what to do with. Purple is thus associated with royalty. This association grew draconian in fourth century Rome, when no one but the emperor would be caught dead wearing Tyrian purple. Literally. The punishment for wearing Tyrian purple was death.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVo6VXbQb8vD_VCna3TC4AMlCpIkwkchh2klXnCcEEdFRv_fg0Q9oo58JpzH1KUN9z0M7Ejyz34y3TGs_INZgO-lJ2cTVgmojMUujO7L55jZi2G65D5qvZAHCQRRBELX-lBk3jHNlkrwo/s1600/Murex+brandaris.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="757" data-original-width="974" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVo6VXbQb8vD_VCna3TC4AMlCpIkwkchh2klXnCcEEdFRv_fg0Q9oo58JpzH1KUN9z0M7Ejyz34y3TGs_INZgO-lJ2cTVgmojMUujO7L55jZi2G65D5qvZAHCQRRBELX-lBk3jHNlkrwo/s320/Murex+brandaris.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The rock snail (Murex bandaris), and Tyrian purple</i></div>
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The royalty's purple fetish did not return until 1857 with the wife of Napoleon III, the Empress Eugénie de Montijo. She was the fashionista that all of France turned their eyes to. She fixated on purple, which was then available in one dye that was derived from lichen, and another dye called murexide, in homage to the Murex family of mollusks. It was not made from mollusks. We'll get back to that.<br />
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The industrial revolution ushered in a new form of affluence -- money and power that was not associated with family lines and land ownership. Entrepreneurs built factories that made stuff that people bought... enter a burgeoning middle class. With that middle class came the need for stuff to buy to show off one's affluenza. Since Kohler had yet to offer the <a href="https://www.us.kohler.com/us/numi-comfort-height-one-piece-elongated-dual-flush-intelligent-toilet-w-skirted-trapway-and-standard-remote/productDetail/toilets/1334092.htm">Numi toilet</a> (with Bluetooth and an intuitive touch-screen remote), that need had to be met by fashionable clothes.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Murexide</span></b><br />
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Now, back to the source of murexide purple, as I promised. Murexide was first derived in the 1830's from the uric acid found in snake droppings. (Please try to avoid snickering at this. It is most unprofessional.) Apparently the commercialization of this was hindered by the unwillingness of snakes to produce sufficient quantities of excrement. It wasn't until the 1850's, when Europe was importing large quantities of the finest Peruvian bird poop (stop it!) for fertilizer, that would-be murexide producers found a source for the raw materials. Calling the raw material guano only enhanced the desirability of murexide.<br />
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<i>A hard day's work in the <a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/guano-mania/">guano mines</a></i></div>
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The beautiful color was lightfast (it didn't fade in sunlight like many dyes) but it unfortunately lost its color on exposure to the acidic air of urban life. The burning of coal soured the air. Still, the European taste for purple had been whetted by bird poop. (I consider that last sentence to be my finest contribution to the field of chromo-scatalogical humor. Feel free to snicker at that.)<br />
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But all good times must come to an end. Sadly by 1881, books were being written about the end of the Golden Age of Guano in Peru [see Duffield, for example]. I should note that the decline in the guano market was not so much due to dwindling murexide production as it was the availability of cheaper commercial fertilizers that were locally grown. Modern day politicians should take note of the problems with basing an economy on guano.<br />
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"Excuse me Math Guy, what does this have to do with magenta?"<br />
"Hang on, I'm getting to that."<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Coal tar</span></b><br />
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I mentioned the burning of coal in connection with the downfall of murexide purple. In an example of "that which taketh away, also giveth", coal was to indirectly lead to the purples that replaced murexide. So, I may seem to be taking a detour to talk about coal, but trust me. It all ties together in the end.<br />
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A compound known as <i>coke</i> was being used to fuel the voracious iron smelting operations in England. Coal has lots of impurities, but coke is mostly pure carbon, so it burns faster and hotter than coal. It is manufactured by heating coal in an absence of oxygen. When it is heated, the carbon in the coal cannot burn due to insufficient oxygen. The impurities in the coal exit either as a gas (coal gas) or as a liquid (coal tar).<br />
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Coal gas is a mixture of flammable gases such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane. Around 1800, a fellow by the name of William Murdock hit on the idea of running the coal gas through pipes to places where it could be burned to produce light. In a792, his home in Cornwall was the first house to be lit at night with gas light. Making use of this byproduct of coke production soon became a business in its own right. By 1812 the British parliament chartered the Gas Light and Coke Company of Westminster, London as a utility company to provide coal gas for lighting.<br />
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So, a profitable use had been made of coal gas. How about the liquid byproduct? Coal tar (as one might guess from the name) is a thick black liquid -- the kind of thing you just want to dump into the river in order to make it someone else's problem. But it is also an organic chemist's playground, consisting of over 10,000 different chemicals.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNcBLfBewJNhBQx3EIIowctKkJWlOP4h-JqbWnmU8h5HDKN2H-Bs8noKkilwWtd1iAHNfBDQA1_jbpsI3l4KCOclQWvU1zYYzFd8rghBFONIuYp0bS3Eu-tMnX-4CyNbfI8VGLhRalsdA/s1600/Black+coal+tar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="560" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNcBLfBewJNhBQx3EIIowctKkJWlOP4h-JqbWnmU8h5HDKN2H-Bs8noKkilwWtd1iAHNfBDQA1_jbpsI3l4KCOclQWvU1zYYzFd8rghBFONIuYp0bS3Eu-tMnX-4CyNbfI8VGLhRalsdA/s320/Black+coal+tar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Looking forward to a thick, rich cuppa Joe</i></div>
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Over the coming decades, curious chemists extracted a number of interesting organic compounds from coal tar, including naphthalene (1819), anthracine (1832), and in 1834, both phenol and aniline. I'm not going to get into the utility of the first two, but the latter two are relevant to this story because they could be turned into pigments.<br />
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In 1842, a process was discovered whereby nitric acid was added to phenol to create a yellow pigment called picric acid. This was a pretty color bu the pigment lacked commercial success since it was neither lightfast nor resistant to washing. It has found much better use as an explosive. And really, who doesn't want an explosive that has a pretty color?<br />
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Aniline, on the other hand, led to the development of many important pigments.<br />
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"You mean, like magenta?"<br />
"Please be patient. I'm still setting the stage."<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Mauve</span></b><br />
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1856 London. William Henry Perkin was a mere lad of 18 when he started experimenting with aniline in the hope of finding a way to synthesize quinine. Quinine is derived from the bark of the cinchona tree of South America, and was devilishly expense. It is used to treat malaria, and as a result, it is found in the ever-popular drink <i>gin and tonic</i>. British folks in India were known to contract malaria just to get treated with gin and tonics. But a wise man once said that the bark of the cinchona tree is devilishly expensive. Suffice it to say, a cheap alternative to the manufacture of quinine was a worthy goal for the young Perkin.<br />
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Two authors have commented on the naivete of Perkin in one of his experiments. Philip Ball has this to say:<br />
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<i>[In one experiment] all he obtained was a reddish-brown sludge. Organic chemists quickly become familiar with this type of reaction -- generally it means the reagents have combined to give an unintelligible mess that is best flushed down the sink.</i><br />
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Garfield explains Perkin's naive tenacity this way:<br />
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<i>Most chemists, particularly those trained by Hofmann at the Royal College, would have thrown the reddish-brown powder into a rubbish bin, and begun again.</i><br />
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But Perkin inquisitively continued this utter waste of time with aniline and arrived at a fabulous purple. He dyed a piece of silk with the chemical and was delighted by the brilliant color and the fact that it didn't readily fade. The image below shows sample of silk that was dyed by Perkin in 1860, and which now resides at the Smithsonian. Not Perkin; the sample of silk resides there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmPfg98Z1NTFKnss7FbYPCZPXSnOTMwy4KJ0HAKcQjw3WopiaV7IrOd2ioez1gHl6xxHyYHs7rsvYbjsGwVEi9OVfom5fx4gj6f1rR8bOzlSI-NF2JWzXv2UKtpGMWK3wGgPQQEa5BCm8/s1600/perkin_mauve_silk_rws2015-06374s.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="1600" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmPfg98Z1NTFKnss7FbYPCZPXSnOTMwy4KJ0HAKcQjw3WopiaV7IrOd2ioez1gHl6xxHyYHs7rsvYbjsGwVEi9OVfom5fx4gj6f1rR8bOzlSI-NF2JWzXv2UKtpGMWK3wGgPQQEa5BCm8/s400/perkin_mauve_silk_rws2015-06374s.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Perkin initially dubbed his dye Tyrian purple, but later settled on mauve, which is the French name for the mallow flower. The chemical is also known as aniline purple, aniline violet, mauveine, chrome violet, indisin, Perkin's violet, purpurin, rosolane, and violein. There is no dearth of invented words in the field of industrial color production.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0wvQzrdCNyz0qHvCkTcW4TlGby5pIoZBPJhpSygeaR1BtjTercZ2TQTKzNtQvKQEZfzj0-Vj5vTavofVTVk9IEDdCT5JE8DDi2pybXp6Rex9TQgcuOHUrs6fy8hri0fTDw9OqE3VlM6A/s1600/Mallow+flower.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1067" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0wvQzrdCNyz0qHvCkTcW4TlGby5pIoZBPJhpSygeaR1BtjTercZ2TQTKzNtQvKQEZfzj0-Vj5vTavofVTVk9IEDdCT5JE8DDi2pybXp6Rex9TQgcuOHUrs6fy8hri0fTDw9OqE3VlM6A/s400/Mallow+flower.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The mallow flower</i></div>
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The timing couldn't have been better for Perkin. Remember how I cleverly mentioned the Empress Eugénie de Montijo and her purple fetish which was unsated due to the end of The Golden Age of Guano? In 1857, Queen Victoria wore a mauve gown to her daughter's royal wedding. Empress Eugénie expressed her delight that mauve matched the color of her eyes. The craze was so crazy that <i>Punch </i>magazine satirized the outbreak of "mauve measles". </div>
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There is a lot more to Perkin's story, but it's time to move on to explaining how magenta got its name and how this relates to Italy. But first, we will talk about fuchsia.</div>
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"Stop teasing me and answer the question!"</div>
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"It's not about the destination. It's about the journey."</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Fuchsia</span></b><br />
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Perkin's success with investigating coal tar sparked a fierce competition between colorists (chemists in the science of dyeing) in England, France, and Germany. They reasoned that there must be other brilliant colors hiding in the murky depths of coal tar. This hunch bore fruit of many colors. The general importance of coal tar in the production of dyes can seen by thumbing through Hurst's 126 page volume, <i>A Dictionary of the Coal Tar Colors</i>. That's right. A volume of 126 pages listing dyes made from color tar. A copy of this can be found on the coffee table of any reputable color scientist.<br />
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François-Emmanuel Verguin was one of the French competitors, who created aniline red in 1858. His choice for a color name was the euphonious <i>fuchsine</i>, after the fuchsia flower. In England, Edward Chamber Nicholson created the same aniline red in 1860 by a different process and named it <i>rosein</i> or <i>roseine</i>, presumably a rose by any other name.<br />
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Aniline red also goes by the name <i>rubin or rubine</i>, but I have not been able to track down the source, other than being derived from the Latin <i>rubeus</i>, meaning <i>red</i>. You got it. Someone called the dye red because it was purple.<br />
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Before I answer the original question, about how the color magenta got its name, I would be remiss to talk about fuchsia without pointing out that it is one of the most misspelled of all color names. Nathan Moroney ran an online <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248201885_Unconstrained_Web-based_Color_Naming_Experiment">color naming experiment</a> for years. He had a website that would display some combination of red, green, and blue, and then ask the person to type in a name for the color. The pie chart below shows that there are three misspellings of fuchsia that are more common than the correct spelling: fuschia, fuscia, and fushia. Only 10% of three respondents spelled the word correctly.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNIjTU3uA53cC0ekv-VuFFOjAQHFPJuJtm1D6W-dr0X85LiCsG9_71O32PkjolZwAZBztye3EpJ7GX43scnKZJr3RQR4gDSb_KZiBBDz3hghMUnH44uNxj0IfZaDn0FLZ27M4gntyV1kU/s1600/Misspellings+of+fuchsia.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="1146" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNIjTU3uA53cC0ekv-VuFFOjAQHFPJuJtm1D6W-dr0X85LiCsG9_71O32PkjolZwAZBztye3EpJ7GX43scnKZJr3RQR4gDSb_KZiBBDz3hghMUnH44uNxj0IfZaDn0FLZ27M4gntyV1kU/s640/Misspellings+of+fuchsia.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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But I digress. Let's return to the story, which is already in progress.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Battle of Magenta</span></b><br />
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The Battle of Magenta, fought near Magenta, Italy, occurred on June 4th of 1859. This was a decisive battle in the Second Italian War of Independence. The French-Sardinian alliance, led by Napoleon III, won out over the Austrian forces. Yes. This is the same Napoleon III who was mentioned earlier for having a fashionista wife. An interesting coincidence, but unrelated to the question at hand.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYfBwCpWm0vhQVdhe0h4mtIUU0XJg7LEnsOPUQlX5-UjsVH0jci7PkcaIkvs68loAFSUBjFwnj7QUU4kJM0MrLBjUsRXiwpeyc3IkCKWG7m3a-vl2uZY4PoOBp-D58ZCuTMrRcNsd2JFU/s1600/Battle+of+magenta.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="1200" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYfBwCpWm0vhQVdhe0h4mtIUU0XJg7LEnsOPUQlX5-UjsVH0jci7PkcaIkvs68loAFSUBjFwnj7QUU4kJM0MrLBjUsRXiwpeyc3IkCKWG7m3a-vl2uZY4PoOBp-D58ZCuTMrRcNsd2JFU/s640/Battle+of+magenta.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The Battle of Magenta<i>, by Gerolamo Induno</i></div>
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I will quote from three sources as to how this battle relates to the newly created dye, aniline red.<br />
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Philip Ball offered this explanation:<br />
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<i>But the color became more popularly known as magenta, named in honor of the Italian town where the French army fought and defeated the Austrians in June 1859.</i><br />
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Ok... sounds good. But how did the dye get associated with the battle? Kate Smith's rendition:<br />
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<i>The Battle of Magenta, fought on the outskirts of the town during the Second Italian War of Independence. Some historians say the Battle of Magenta was a turning point in the war. ... The color reminded someone – most likely the person who named it – of the uniforms worn by the Zouave troops of the French army.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>Maybe this is the connection? But it begs the question about what dye was used for these uniforms, since the dye was brand new. And another thing that bothers me: I understand that the image above of the 160 year old painting painting as rendered on my computer display is not likely to be color accurate, but the color of the uniforms seems to be closer to red than magenta.<br />
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Victoria Finlay had a more practical take on the matter:<br />
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<i>It's first name "fuschine" (from the reddish-purple flower fuschia) was too easy to mispronounce, and it got better sales when renamed after a battle that year in the town of Magenta in northern Italy.</i><br />
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Kassia St Clair has offered an even more business-savvy explanation. I have found no other evidence of her assertion that one of the first sales was to an army, but the explanation is compelling.<br />
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<i>The first customers [of the dye], intriguingly, were several European armies, who used it to dye their uniforms. The names, though -- 'fuchsia' in France and 'roseine' in Britain -- would not do for so dashing and assertive a hue. Instead, it became known as 'magenta', in honour of the small Italian town where, on 4 June 1859, the Franco-Piedmontese army won a decisive victory against the Austrians.</i><br />
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So, the connection between the war and the dye is a matter of heated dispute. But one thing is clear. The name <i>magenta </i>was good product branding.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Solferino?</span></b><br />
<i><br /></i>
Hurst's Dictionary of the Coal Tar Colours lists one more name for the dye: solferino, but neglects to give a source for the name. I found this a bit confusing. The word reminds me of sulphur, which is yellow. Of course, it also reminds me of the purple sulphur bacteria. It would probably not be a good marketing move to name a sexy new dye after a type of bacteria. I can understand why this name didn't stick.<br />
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So, naturally, I started googling. I found out that Solferino is the name of another city in Italy. Oh? Interesting. I dug a bit further. It seems that there was a battle fought in Solferino, 20 days after the Battle of Magenta. Oh??? Isn't that interesting?!?!?!<br />
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Simon Garfield offers some explanation. The first time I read his account, I missed the fact that it is talking about two different names for the same color.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In Britain, it [aniline red] became known as solferino and then magenta, taking the names from the Franco-Piedmontese war against Austria and Garibaldi's victory in North Italy, where the dye matched the color of the soldier's tunics. </i><br />
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Here is a different explanation from an <a href="http://wordsmith.org/words/solferino.html">online dictionary</a><br />
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<i>After Solferino, a village in northern Italy, where the Battle of Solferino was fought on June 24, 1859, resulting in forty thousand casualties in a single day. The color was named so because the dye of this color was discovered shortly after the battle, and supposedly the color represented how the battlefield appeared after the bloodshed.</i><br />
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One one trivial correction - the dye was discovered shortly <i>before</i> the battle, not after. Another rather bigger error - blood is red, not fuchsia. Blood dries quickly to a dark brown. I don't find this a credible explanation.<br />
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My own best guess is that there was a large order of aniline dyes for military uniforms that occurred slightly after the Battles of Magenta and Solferino. Patriotism and the positive image of a winner became useful branding for the new dyes. Both town names were used, but magenta won out in the end, possibly because of the connotation of solferino with sulphur.<br />
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And that, my friends, is how the color magenta got its name.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Bibliography</span></b><br />
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Ball, Philip, <i>Bright Earth, Art and the Invention of Color</i>, University of Chicago Press, 2001<br />
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Blaszczyk, Regina Lee, <i>The Color Revolution</i>, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012, pps. 21 - 44<br />
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Duffield, Alexander James, <i><a href="https://archive.org/details/prospectsperuen00duffgoog/page/n6">The Prospects of Peru: The End of the Guano Age and a Description Thereof,</a></i> Newman and Company, 1881<br />
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Finlay, Victoria, <i>The Brilliant History of Color in Art</i>, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2014<br />
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Garfield, Simon, Mauve, <i>How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World</i>, Faber and Faber Limited, 2000<br />
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Hurst, George H., <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=8npUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP9&lpg=PP9&dq=%22Dictionary+of+the+Coal+Tar+colours%22&source=bl&ots=kQE2pQ2poq&sig=ACfU3U14c5sSp7RymJdIbtuseY1d39cnkw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj__sTo287hAhUJM6wKHb0mC_cQ6AEwD3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Dictionary%20of%20the%20Coal%20Tar%20colours%22&f=false">A Dictionary of the Coal Tar Colours</a>, Heywood and Company, 1892<br />
<br />
Lunge, <i><a href="http://www.survivorlibrary.com/library/coal-tar_and_ammonia_1887.pdf">Coal-Tar and Ammonia</a></i>, Gurney and Jackson, 1882<br />
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Meldola, Raphael, <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=mVBCAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq=natanson+aniline&source=bl&ots=zcgfY5MIzn&sig=ACfU3U0mnuT_4g5fOO9jzTNS88Z-9O6-ug&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj5vZ644s_hAhUOM6wKHTHJDH8Q6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%20aniline&f=false">Coal and what we get from it: A romance of applied science</a></i>, 1913<br />
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Moroney, Nathan, <i>The many misspellings of fuchsia</i>, from <i>Colour Coded</i>, Society of Dyers and Colourists, 2010<br />
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Smith, Kate, <i><a href="http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-around-the-world/italy-colorful-city-magenta-1922#.XLIPD-hKiUk">Italy | The Colorful City of Magenta</a></i>,<br />
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Smithsonian Libraries, <a href="https://library.si.edu/exhibition/color-in-a-new-light/making"><i>Making Color</i></a><br />
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St Clair, Kassia, <i>The Secret Lives of Colour</i>, John Murray Publishers, 2016, pps. 162 - 164, 167 - 171<br />
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<br />John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-24957940531558017102019-04-01T11:38:00.002-04:002019-04-01T11:45:34.632-04:00A new color has been patented!Milwaukee, WI. -- Rufus Chromaphile, spokesperson for John the Math Guy, LLC announced today the issuance of US Patent 10,244,600, assigned to John the Math Guy, LLC for a new color. "This patent represents a great leap forward for fashion, for design, for art, and most important, for color science. John TheMathGuy has truly demonstrated thinking outside the rainbow on this one!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvnQ3lVPY0DE0chUB0_UEC5YLv-i_sIKSySYEbAimHImumG4mK7SbGt9IidI1Tm-RFByaRvwnaLUerOmRgs1yD38K7uHeJHkfYApZoIccdLyW3HQSfOngAHUAh7BXUnIXS2sajwDWi4pk/s1600/My+patent+on+a+color.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="1600" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvnQ3lVPY0DE0chUB0_UEC5YLv-i_sIKSySYEbAimHImumG4mK7SbGt9IidI1Tm-RFByaRvwnaLUerOmRgs1yD38K7uHeJHkfYApZoIccdLyW3HQSfOngAHUAh7BXUnIXS2sajwDWi4pk/s400/My+patent+on+a+color.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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When asked to comment, TheMathGuy explained the brilliant Aha! that led to this invention. </div>
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"I was pondering about how it's not possible to stimulate only the M cones in the human eye. If you go to the edge of visible light at the infrared end, you can effectively stimulate only the L cones, and you will see red. If you go to the ultraviolet edge, you can stimulate only the S cones and see a lovely violet. Unfortunately, all visible light which stimulates the M cone (the one in the middle) will also stimulate the L or the S cones. What if we could see a color which only stimulated the M cones?"</div>
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TheMathGuy reasoned that he had to use light similar to ultraviolet and infrared to get this effect, but obviously it couldn't be either of them. The Aha! moment came when he started thinking about the compliments of these two colors, ultrared and infraviolet. He rushed to his lab to dig out a darkon generator (which generates anti-photons) and a monochromator (which isolates a single wavelength of light). After a quick trip to American Science and Surplus, he developed a way to combine ultrared and infraviolet.</div>
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The resulting color was so mind-blowing that it sent him to the emergency room, but not before he emailed a quick description to his patent attorney. </div>
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The name of this new color? Ubergreen. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUA0bTdIOKpo7Jkw3xQWOOoV8Fb-6xa-eQyR_GjUVNS75w6BME391GgZLP7SgSHjCLQtXJkSK7a4n3pOeVP1tI3CcO7JJsuc4E02X7Yv0pOQT3v6K-zaY5grFjadnH2sVUNkuUmkCH6Rg/s1600/Simulated+ubergreen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="604" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUA0bTdIOKpo7Jkw3xQWOOoV8Fb-6xa-eQyR_GjUVNS75w6BME391GgZLP7SgSHjCLQtXJkSK7a4n3pOeVP1tI3CcO7JJsuc4E02X7Yv0pOQT3v6K-zaY5grFjadnH2sVUNkuUmkCH6Rg/s320/Simulated+ubergreen.png" width="297" /></a></div>
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<i>Simulated Ubergreen</i></div>
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John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-36589930264657859952019-03-25T18:20:00.003-04:002022-12-09T12:28:38.255-05:00 I'm forever blowing bubbles<div style="text-align: left;">
Bubbles. What's not to love? There just have to be some patents on making the fun little things.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyARnubHB9CzW_oSL7tZS03nuc2xB9rZqo7LEmVMskPGKttxIeKg6HyH360256U6-ZA8Wwb7C0K2-2Gtpe7S-01QRx6ll382VKDd_fEZYSjCxvZuQhQY_BkhHyDj8D5pIaTCa257RDneM/s1600/Lawrence+Welk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="218" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyARnubHB9CzW_oSL7tZS03nuc2xB9rZqo7LEmVMskPGKttxIeKg6HyH360256U6-ZA8Wwb7C0K2-2Gtpe7S-01QRx6ll382VKDd_fEZYSjCxvZuQhQY_BkhHyDj8D5pIaTCa257RDneM/s320/Lawrence+Welk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">The bubble mitt</b></div>
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A patent came to my attention today -- one where I can't help but say, "Gee whiz, I wish I'd thought of that!" The title of the patent: "Wearable article and packaging for generating bubbles". I'll wait for everyone to return from an Amazon search before continuing.<br />
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The image below shows the miraculous and ingenious invention. On the right, we see the result when "two thin films of plastic are welded together to form an article that, in one embodiment, is sealed around most sides but open at a proximal end to form a pocket to allow entry of a body part such as a hand." Note that the inventors cleverly left open the possibility that the body part could be something other than a hand. I am positively delirious considering the body parts that I might generate bubbles with!<br />
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In a patent, it is generally a good idea to give a broad description ("a body part") and follow that up with one or more specific embodiments to cover what you intend to actually build. This way, maybe you might just be able to keep vicious competitors from selling similar items. The inventors also disclose an embodiment where "the article is sock-like and the pocket is shaped to receive a foot."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6xLkea1DPVIJ9ML3qtulTOrQoK1hAb3Pzo9lTfDlfmcQ2kbIKiBVsUTsQV-15NkqaX7KdnH0YcYvzv8mpBbcB60eWPjavfPwq9rRQK0dArNgmTJBK0WxVoWcumRkY0mDozJTSTvIqTY/s1600/Using+your+bubble+mitt.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="757" data-original-width="819" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6xLkea1DPVIJ9ML3qtulTOrQoK1hAb3Pzo9lTfDlfmcQ2kbIKiBVsUTsQV-15NkqaX7KdnH0YcYvzv8mpBbcB60eWPjavfPwq9rRQK0dArNgmTJBK0WxVoWcumRkY0mDozJTSTvIqTY/s400/Using+your+bubble+mitt.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Selected figures from <a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=15&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=(bubbles.ABTX.+AND+blow$)&OS=abst/bubbles+and+blow$&RS=(ABST/bubbles+AND+blow$)">US Patent 10,105,618</a></i></div>
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The upper right of the drawing demonstrates the ensoapification process. That word -- <i>ensoapification </i>-- is my own invention. The inventors did not use that word, but they could have. The patent office recognizes the fact that inventions may contain parts or involve processes where a word doesn't yet exist. So, they are pretty much cool with inventors who make up their own words, provided that the new words are defined. Making up words for patents is one of my favorite activities.</div>
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The diagram in the lower right shows how the wearable article and packaging for generating bubbles may be used. A simple whoosh of the hand (or foot, in an alternative embodiment) creates a plethora of mirthful frothy effervescence.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">A patent must be useful</span></b><br />
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One of the requirements for a patent is that it must be useful. Generally speaking, it must solve a problem with the prior art. (<i>Prior art</i> has nothing to do with paintings made by Richard Pryor, by the way. Prior art is fancy legal talk for "stuff that has previously been described that relates to the invention".)<br />
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So, patents usually include some verbiage about how pitiful the previous inventions were. This patent is no exception. The inventors articulate not one, not two, but three woeful limitations to other bubble making devices.<br />
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1. "[O]ne typically gets the soapy liquid on oneself and ends up a sticky mess, especially on one's hands." Egads! How do you clean a soapy mess off your hands?!?!? You can't hardly use soap!!<br />
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2. "Also, most bubble wands have a single or very few holes in the distal (blowing) end, resulting in few bubbles being produced at a time." I readily acknowledge that my distal end has only a single hole for producing bubbles.<br />
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3. "[F]or small children or the otherwise inexperienced bubble blower, often it is difficult to find the right rate of blowing to achieve good bubbles: blow too softly and nothing happens; blow too hard and the soapy film collapses and nothing happens. It can be very frustrating." I can't even count the number of parties that I have been to that were ruined by inexperienced bubble blowers!<br />
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I'm sure all would agree that society is well served by this new invention.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">But wait!</span></b><br />
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Some of you may have read my blog post about <a href="https://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/05/get-out-pitchforks.html">a patent issued to Amazon</a>. Those of you who read this work of art will recall that the internet was absolutely furious that Amazon had been awarded a patent for something as obvious as a white background for a photograph. You will also recall that the actual patent was not nearly as broad as that. I explained in the blog post that you have to read the claims to find out what the inventor (or assignee of the patent) actually owns the rights to.<br />
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If you are looking for an opportunity to take advantage of a loophole, I suggest you take a look at the claims.<br />
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Claim 1 of the patent includes the phrase "said article being a glove or mitten and said pocket being shaped to receive a hand". Bear in mind that to infringe on a patent, you must transgress all of the recitations in at least one claim. If you omit even one part, you are not infringing.<br />
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Further, I should explain something about claims 2 through 14 of this patent. They are all <i>dependent </i>claims. Each of these claims includes by reference all the parts of the corresponding independent claim, as well as further limitations. For example, claim 1 requires a pocket which is shaped to receive a hand. Dependent claim 3 further requires that "said pocket comprises at least two finger portions".<br />
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Claim 1 is the only independent claim in US Patent 1,105,618. Claim 1 includes the requirement that the wearable article and packaging for generating bubbles must be a "glove or mitten ... shaped to receive a hand". Can you see where I'm going with this?!?!<br />
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I'm pretty excited about this loophole I found. Even though the inventors specifically mentioned using a sock on the foot instead of a glove on the hand, they didn't claim it! I am free to sell a wearable sock and packaging for generating bubbles! I don't know about you, but I am picturing a parade with a row of clowns walking on their hands, generating bubbles as they wave their feet at the adulant crowds.<br />
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Caveat: The freedom to sell swim fin bubble makers is based just on this patent. Before firing up the manufacturing facility, I strongly suggest doing a full patent search.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Why did they omit the sock?</span></b><br />
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Why did the inventors (or the lawyers for the inventors) not claim a bubble maker that could be put on your tushie so that it is activated when you shake your tail feathers?<br />
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The lawyers did their job. I had a look at the initial filing of the patent, which can be found in the file wrapper and is available online. Claim 1 in the original did not include any limitations about hands and gloves or mittens. It talks about a pocket being shaped to receive a body part.<br />
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The patent examiner, who serves as a referee to block patents that aren't quite up to snuff, also did his job. I haven't read the whole file wrapper, but I would guess that the examiner looked at the prior art, and came to the conclusion that the original claim was too broad, and that the inventors' lawyers responded by adding limitations until the patent examiner yielded.<br />
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I am actually familiar with one piece of prior art that was cited by the examiner. The picture below is from a design patent filed by Steve Jernander and Ardith Clubb.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4MQuQFCBLpXSFddo2wNeNsuupYjDVoYRUgB5PHBMEjiqbUAZoteAfA0l2qiwlI0wxJbPbScZnoalI1aQhzPZoLduZmMyoGm81InN8ejWGH_tO79rL8RWrlv_czMdTcuIRBCFhrqXA9E/s1600/Jernander+bubble+cap.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="487" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4MQuQFCBLpXSFddo2wNeNsuupYjDVoYRUgB5PHBMEjiqbUAZoteAfA0l2qiwlI0wxJbPbScZnoalI1aQhzPZoLduZmMyoGm81InN8ejWGH_tO79rL8RWrlv_czMdTcuIRBCFhrqXA9E/s400/Jernander+bubble+cap.PNG" width="258" /></a></div>
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<i>From US design patent D292,641, <a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2FD292641">Cap for bubble blowing</a></i></div>
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So you see that the idea of inserting a body part into a bubble generation device is not novel. That in itself is probably not enough to keep the bubble mitt from being patented. The original claim required "at least two films of liquid resistant material", which are "sealed on at least one common edge", and which are configured for "substantially preventing "the body part" from getting wet. Ideally, the examiner must find prior art that describes all the recitations in a given claim, and there are a lot of other parts to the bubble mitt claim. I am sure the examiner did this, but I am just too lazy to read through the whole file wrapper.<br />
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You may be wondering how it is that I would know about this bubble cap patent. I'm sure you noticed that the patent issued on my birthday, but the reason I knew of the patent is that Steve Jernander was a cousin of mine.<br />
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Disclaimer: Despite my apparent claims about actually knowing something about patents, I am not a patent attorney or agent. Or anything having to do with patents, to be honest. Nothing in this blog post should be construed as being legal advice. If you are silly enough to take something from this blog post as actual advice, then my liability is limited to the amount that you paid me to read the blog post.John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-81365727777647510942019-02-11T11:41:00.000-05:002019-02-11T12:07:31.759-05:00International Day of Women and Girls in ScienceToday is, of course, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. I should clarify, As I write this post, it is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. As you read this post, it may no longer be the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This is sad, because the International Day of Women and Girls in Science should go on forever, to remind us that Science (with a capital S) is not just about guys, but it's about guys and gals. I personally would like for Science to not be just a men's club.<br />
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If you are a blog post aficionado, and you are spending your International Day of Women and Girls in Science reading blog posts about the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I'm gonna guess that you are getting tired of reading about Marie Curie. I mean every blogger and his/her left-handed third cousin twice removed from Akron is writing today about Marie Curie. I certainly don't want to belittle her contributions to Science. I mean, there's <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/biographical/">that whole Nobel Prize thing</a>. I guess that's kind of a big deal.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FtciZgruTnmmhq_QY_W8ALcz9RgLRf65SjAeEoMrxAQSB2c-_wCDyuMDRPJxCQz5EBISGgoaQUdajcQzvedZ0PVn_DoFI7WfZmytVmacE9ZPVnt5DkUBcz8wTux5kUyrns8Xk-2PR8Q/s1600/marie-curie-12835-content-portrait-mobile-tiny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="232" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FtciZgruTnmmhq_QY_W8ALcz9RgLRf65SjAeEoMrxAQSB2c-_wCDyuMDRPJxCQz5EBISGgoaQUdajcQzvedZ0PVn_DoFI7WfZmytVmacE9ZPVnt5DkUBcz8wTux5kUyrns8Xk-2PR8Q/s320/marie-curie-12835-content-portrait-mobile-tiny.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
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But I do want to highlight someone else, someone who has not gotten the recognition that she deserves.<br />
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My first thought was Ada Lovelace, who was the very first computer programmer. She programmed a computer developed by Charles Babbage, the Analytical Engine. She programmed the computer before it even existed. How cool is that? I'm not sure how she debugged her code.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFKVtfyX35JzI8OKn4c_eJ323ix-tme4d92saBge8HnY7qLejuHgJEpqJx9hubHkFc20H01zX2vJNxDPVEeRqCfWdNJBKCwyNFNHBO9kIOTqQqRcEd_pm7LpC-GAYh_2kU8W-kcEeuUiY/s1600/1200px-AnalyticalMachine_Babbage_London.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="1200" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFKVtfyX35JzI8OKn4c_eJ323ix-tme4d92saBge8HnY7qLejuHgJEpqJx9hubHkFc20H01zX2vJNxDPVEeRqCfWdNJBKCwyNFNHBO9kIOTqQqRcEd_pm7LpC-GAYh_2kU8W-kcEeuUiY/s320/1200px-AnalyticalMachine_Babbage_London.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine">A model of Babbage's Analytical Engine</a> which has been on backorder since 1837 </i></div>
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Naaaahhhh... she's been overdone. They even named a programming language after her. Not "Lovelace". That has to do with a film that no one will admit to having watched. The language was Ada.<br />
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Then there's the early programmers of the ENIAC -- a computer which actually existed. Likely becasue of the war, these Rosie the Riveters shown below were the first to program the ENIAC. The programming on this beast wasn't done by typing in stuff like "If x = b, then ...". It wasn't even done by flipping switches for 0s and 1s. It was done with short cables that connected various arithmetic units together.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzV38ec95mM-LSKZcgrgKsESc87z0nrR__Rl1MqKsiRS-F-E6CsrX_9n3CQQuEtMF35-OQNDBp2CbTUXTP8CL9un5VE56xVhB__7HCZIimiTs-H6G4qp-wPBVr8KgZYme1GM3vMjech5s/s1600/02102016_ENIAC_programmers_LA.2e16d0ba.fill-735x490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="735" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzV38ec95mM-LSKZcgrgKsESc87z0nrR__Rl1MqKsiRS-F-E6CsrX_9n3CQQuEtMF35-OQNDBp2CbTUXTP8CL9un5VE56xVhB__7HCZIimiTs-H6G4qp-wPBVr8KgZYme1GM3vMjech5s/s400/02102016_ENIAC_programmers_LA.2e16d0ba.fill-735x490.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas and Ruth Lichterman were <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/70-years-ago-six-philly-women-eniac-digital-computer-programmers/">the original programmers of the ENIAC</a></i></div>
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My next thought was Florence Nightingale. She deserves some credit, since she doesn't get the credit that she deserves. I think most people would remember her as a caring nurse at a field hospital during the Crimean War (in Turkey, circa 1856). This is true. She was a nurse to the soldiers. But to call her "just a nurse" significantly underplays her contribution to Science.<br />
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As a nurse, she saw many soldiers die, and was understandably concerned. But rather than just being compassionate, or complaining about the constant deaths of the wounded, she did something about it. She took data. She drew some cools info-graphics. I have no idea what the chart below shows, but someone told me that it is a visualization of the mortality data by month.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdcz-NTAVINbSE4olOtJCN8rvf_WdbbXxi4MhwEunPqgq0P_PIDoNh6F5cbeR0ku-MGHFxkBD4tL7zWxOAiTe-TuMjaivY8C4GSB_epf5Lh4V4gL__uxnrGvtevlOT_qt8foALI4LVx0A/s1600/Coxcomb1+from+Florence+Nightingale.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdcz-NTAVINbSE4olOtJCN8rvf_WdbbXxi4MhwEunPqgq0P_PIDoNh6F5cbeR0ku-MGHFxkBD4tL7zWxOAiTe-TuMjaivY8C4GSB_epf5Lh4V4gL__uxnrGvtevlOT_qt8foALI4LVx0A/s400/Coxcomb1+from+Florence+Nightingale.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Early infographic on field hospital mortality</i></div>
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In the end, Nightingale determined that unsanitary conditions were a major deciding factor into whether a wounded soldier survived. I see this as a three-fold win. First, of course, there was the immediate short-term benefit of saving lives. And that's what war is all about, isn't it?<br />
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The second benefit is one that is clear even today when someone goes into surgery. The area of the incision on the patient is carefully cleaned. The surgeon washes his or her hands very thoroughly, and is careful not to get the hands dirty after that. Even in every hospital room, we see a hand sanitizer dispenser on the wall.<br />
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The third benefit is more nebulous. From the fact that Nightingale is remembered as a nurse, I conclude that this point may have been lost on the general public. The nebulous and under-appreciated learning from this story is that data can drive decision making. She took data, she analyzed data, came to conclusions based on that data, and those conclusions led to significant improvement to the process.<br />
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To quote William Deming, an early proponent of statistical process control, "In God we trust. All others bring data."<br />
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Then I come to the woman who I decided would be the topic of this blog post, Dorothy Nickerson. She started her work at the Munsell Corporation and went on to work the bulk of her career at the US Department of Agriculture. She was instrumental in the development of measurement of color, process control in the manufacturing of color, and development of international standards for color.<br />
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<i>This looks like a good paper!</i></div>
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I wish I had started this post a few days ago, cuz I would have done a bunch of research on her and presented a really cool and compelling story. My apologies. I promise to get to that blog post some time in the future.<br />
<br />John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-41220521406015908882019-01-30T22:12:00.000-05:002019-01-31T12:15:16.706-05:00The Color Name Conundrum<i>This article was flagrantly stolen from my keynote presentation at ISCC/AIC Munsell Conference, July of 2018, and from the ISCC Newsletter of January, 2019.</i><br />
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It’s a common argument that my wife and I have. We are at a store or movie or coffee place, and I will comment on another woman’s blouse. “Hey, Honey. Look at the woman in the turquoise top. Isn’t she cute? … She smiled at me… And she handed me a card with her number on it.” Madelaine will invariably respond with “That’s not turquoise!” She may say that it’s teal, or aqua, or beryl, but she will never agree on the color name that I chose. I can blather on all I want about how I am a world-famous color scientist who was asked to give a keynote for the Munsell Conference. It won’t matter. What do I know about color?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExh2I5rPat8VkVgebcUiXl8pvfCroomK09Kv1cBu9JcbVDoOIkQRV2CP3owqUm0_L8_F6ifJpv610_DglNlfFZe_XFidWZlV8kvRXqVi2EKLm1X0fMKxdMiS3G2KMQZveH-bKut2EHUw/s1600/Turquoise+top.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="919" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExh2I5rPat8VkVgebcUiXl8pvfCroomK09Kv1cBu9JcbVDoOIkQRV2CP3owqUm0_L8_F6ifJpv610_DglNlfFZe_XFidWZlV8kvRXqVi2EKLm1X0fMKxdMiS3G2KMQZveH-bKut2EHUw/s400/Turquoise+top.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The lady in the allegedly turquoise top</i></div>
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This time, I decided that I would win the argument. I started with Merriam-Webster’s dictionary since it is an authoritative reference that would show I was using the color name correctly. This dictionary defines turquoise as “a bluish-green color”, and follows up with the full and much more explanatory definition “a light greenish blue”.<br />
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I exercised due diligence and spoke directly with the person who wrote the full definition, Kory Stamper, to help resolve the argument with my wife. She politely (and wisely) declined to get involved. But I could tell that she was agreeing with me.<br />
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[As an aside, the exciting thing about attending ISCC/AIC Munsell conferences is that eminent chromo-lexicographers like Kory might be in the audience when they are called out in a keynote address.]<br />
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Dictionary.com defines turquoise similarly: “a greenish blue or bluish green color”. The Oxford English Dictionary provides a similar definition but leans more to the greenish side: “a greenish-blue color”. So, it seems we have a consensus between the dictionaries. But more importantly, we have a consensus in which I win the argument!<br />
The image below shows blue, greenish-blue, bluish-green, and green. The blouse is definitely close to bluish-green, so turquoise is indeed an appropriate descriptor of the blouse color. Did I mention that I claim victory?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc5nQeoUDVju9jVYyRldF5pQEmxpINBjSsDjlE43z3c67LTCYsFPrRf-4kixv0eHv-XKVwK9esh4RcpxVR6GI6cJtTH3QreqXDYS17zCWZZbJIBy49iL6qUHxsiDeY_O-R-kkh0au4Bbg/s1600/blue%252C+greenish-blue%252C+bluish-green%252C+and+green.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="999" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc5nQeoUDVju9jVYyRldF5pQEmxpINBjSsDjlE43z3c67LTCYsFPrRf-4kixv0eHv-XKVwK9esh4RcpxVR6GI6cJtTH3QreqXDYS17zCWZZbJIBy49iL6qUHxsiDeY_O-R-kkh0au4Bbg/s400/blue%252C+greenish-blue%252C+bluish-green%252C+and+green.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The happy shades between blue and green</i></div>
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But I decided to check one last dictionary, Webster’s Third New International. The definition in this dictionary is at once beautiful and tedious.<br />
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<i>1) a variable color averaging a light greenish blue that is deeper and slightly greener than average turquoise blue, and greener and deeper than average aqua or average robin’s-egg blue (sense 1)</i><br />
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<i>My stalwart research assistant suggests that the definition might be a bit too complicated</i></div>
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You can see that our puppy, Mozart, was puzzled when he read it, so I diagrammed the definition out for him (see next image). He thanked me when he saw the diagram, and went off to bark a friendly greeting to a squirrel that was outside. By the way, Mozart is not named for Hank “the Tank” Mozart. You will recall that Tank played defensive hatchback for the Green Bay Bruins. His claim to fame is that he scored the winning basket over Jack Nicklaus in the 1968 War of the Roses Tournament. Madelaine and I named the dog after the less-well-known Wolfgang “Wolfie” Mozart.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjt62GJPbqfjDZHHOTXz4HWrWbDXw2UCWxi2fXb1DLIVWzUGfaXbJNnO3JQ-anMIGAv5aCAnZgAkJzBgBHYhq6xoUm-FI2TV3EORsbaKnPv1qIQk7UbNl01p7WqR-pZR8iGHoKnPgwB6M/s1600/Network+of+colors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="988" data-original-width="1600" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjt62GJPbqfjDZHHOTXz4HWrWbDXw2UCWxi2fXb1DLIVWzUGfaXbJNnO3JQ-anMIGAv5aCAnZgAkJzBgBHYhq6xoUm-FI2TV3EORsbaKnPv1qIQk7UbNl01p7WqR-pZR8iGHoKnPgwB6M/s400/Network+of+colors.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>An Applied Math Guy reads the dictionary</i></div>
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In most dictionary definitions, the lexicographer works to define complex words in terms of more basic words. The Webster’s Third definition of turquoise is unique in that it defines the color relative to other colors which are just as non-basic as turquoise. To really make sense of this tortuous definition of turquoise, I realized that I had to generate similar diagrams for aqua and robin’s egg blue and turquoise blue and greenish-blue, and then for each of the other colors that were called out in those definitions. It only took me three days to generate the following table that delineates the territory of the ten tones in the turquoise tautology. It is clear from this that color names are very precisely defined.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwlJtDPP5s06IIWYuGxUAd7GEKk8xNk3jY-1bks96iJsnDcBAarfVvwb__yJ1sBLN2iJuNJvlnvCHnANaosl0IlS3QDR7gumAdJQKe-wpmz9w_57AkVD2kd0w0MRe9u7vsWun2qOy1EEg/s1600/2D+map+of+colors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="856" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwlJtDPP5s06IIWYuGxUAd7GEKk8xNk3jY-1bks96iJsnDcBAarfVvwb__yJ1sBLN2iJuNJvlnvCHnANaosl0IlS3QDR7gumAdJQKe-wpmz9w_57AkVD2kd0w0MRe9u7vsWun2qOy1EEg/s400/2D+map+of+colors.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>A handy reference for color names in the blue-green family</i></div>
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But I still wasn’t happy. The intertwined definitions haunted me. Where Kory is the Steinbeck of chromo-lexicography, whoever wrote the lovely and sadistic color definitions from Webster’s Third was the Faulkner. I simply had to find out who this anonymous author was.<br />
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Luckily, it didn’t take long. The list in the front of the dictionary of contributing experts provided me with the answer. It had to be Isaac Godlove.<br />
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[As an aside, the exciting thing about attending ISCC/AIC Munsell conferences is that the audience will recognize the names of prominent researchers in color when their names are mentioned in a keynote address. Let me tell you, the cheers were deafening! Everyone recognized that Godlove was the third author of the seminal paper “Neutral Value Scales. I. Munsell Neutral Value Scale” from the Journal of the Optical Society of America in 1933.]<br />
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Of course, some of the people cheering also recognized that Godlove was the director of the Munsell Research Laboratory from 1926 to 1930. What an enormous coincidence that he should get mentioned in the keynote at the Munsell Conference! A few chromo-historians in the crowd actually knew that Isaac Godlove was the chair of the ISCC Committee on Measurement and Specification in 1933. (Note again the coincidence that the ISCC was one of the organizers of the Munsell Conference!)<br />
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While Godlove was chair, a group of pharmacists approached Godlove about the need for a definitive guide to color names. This eventually led to the National Bureau of Standards runaway best seller “Color – Universal Language and Dictionary of Color Names”, which became a Broadway play of much acclaim. This absolutely delightful standard carved the Munsell Color Space into 267 regions (called Centroid Colors) and gave each region an intuitive designator like “bG 159”, along with a euphonious name like brilliant bluish green.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn4MF8zzDCOmiIMyqwG-v8t88B5o7gKlpqAhldHUvHKYxCvG6HokVmWBVelzrGj87-7vuzSYQeIGbOUv0JxlTkkBVIYFm_jyuyfKALjVlsBMQ4NJsCltvahl5QC-31hgDchcaV6aXgzA0/s1600/NBS+standard+on+color+names.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="626" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn4MF8zzDCOmiIMyqwG-v8t88B5o7gKlpqAhldHUvHKYxCvG6HokVmWBVelzrGj87-7vuzSYQeIGbOUv0JxlTkkBVIYFm_jyuyfKALjVlsBMQ4NJsCltvahl5QC-31hgDchcaV6aXgzA0/s400/NBS+standard+on+color+names.png" width="307" /></a></div>
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<i>A hue slice from the NBS standard on color names</i></div>
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As if that wasn’t enough to earn a prominent spot in my bookcase, the authors dug through all the available color naming guides (like Maerz and Paul, Plochere, and Ridgway) to determine the Munsell coordinates for each of the color words that were defined. As a result, the NBS standard further provides two lists: 1) a list that goes from common color name to the appropriate Centroid Colors in Munsell space, and 2) a list that provides all the color names that have been associated with each of the 267 Centroid Colors.<br />
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I was ecstatic. I quickly saw that this book provided a solution to the recurring argument that I had with my wife. The solution is astoundingly simple. Whenever I am within earshot of Madelaine, I just have to go through four simple steps before I utter any color names.<br />
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Step 1: Measure the color in question. For example, I called up the woman in the turquoise top, explained the situation, and met her at Starbucks with my spectrophotometer so I could measure her shirt. She understood my predicament perfectly, and agreed to share a Starbucks with me. Her shirt measured CIELAB of 86, -47, -4. Her name is Teal, by the way.<br />
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Yes, it’s a bit of a bother for me to carry a colorimeter with me at all times, but what color scientist worth his or her salt doesn’t carry one for the occasional color measurement emergency?<br />
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Step 2: Convert from CIELAB coordinates to Munsell designation. One could make use of the Munsell Renotation Data. The official version is conveniently available on the RIT website to do the approximate conversion, but several people have written software that does this. Harold Van Aken (of Wallkill Color) provided a piece of software as a freebie in honor of the Munsell Color Conference. (Yet another astounding coincidence.) Paul Centore has graciously provided an open source conversion, and Danny Pasquale sells an inexpensive tool called PatchTool that provides this function among others. The CIELAB coordinates of Teal’s allegedly turquoise shirt were thus converted to 5BG 8.5/9 in Munsell notation.<br />
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[As an aside, the exciting thing about attending ISCC/AIC conferences is that two of the three people who wrote software for this conversion (Paul and Danny) were actually in the audience for the keynote.]<br />
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Step 3: Convert from Munsell designation to Centroid colors. It goes without saying that it is pretty quick and easy to leaf through the diagrams (like the one below) in the NBS standard to find the Centroid corresponding to any Munsell designation. In this case, the Centroid Color is 159. Yes, it’s a bit of a bother to carry the NBS standard with me, but it’s a small price to pay for me to prove that I am right in an argument with my wife.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RKP9iZvzT8RkH0wKShOS6GS4Cl3jDzjVXwpLJpaVlIy-z46DZOMlppHIXNGQTLJL2e39YAUKCegorzHgI3wqjbTAndwqq14Ctuv61YDRRGK4loSx4eRYT9AF1BrBrkK48GwLTeKIP-Q/s1600/More+NBS+color+names.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="514" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RKP9iZvzT8RkH0wKShOS6GS4Cl3jDzjVXwpLJpaVlIy-z46DZOMlppHIXNGQTLJL2e39YAUKCegorzHgI3wqjbTAndwqq14Ctuv61YDRRGK4loSx4eRYT9AF1BrBrkK48GwLTeKIP-Q/s400/More+NBS+color+names.png" width="285" /></a></div>
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Step 4: Look up the color names listed under the Color Centroid. In the case of Centroid 159, the list is rather short. It includes Beryl Green, Bewitch, Blue Green, Bluish Green, Bright Aqua, Bright Aqua Green, Bright Emerald Green, Bright Green, Bright Jade Green, Bright Turquoise, Bright Turquoise Green, Chill, Crest, Du Barry Blue, Festival, Green, Ice Boat, Light Emerald Green, Lilting Green, Naid, Persian Green, Picturesque, Pool Green, Promised Land, Salome Blue, Song of Norway, Sprite, Sulfate Green, Turquoise Green, Venetus, Venice Green, … and of course, Turquoise. I win!<br />
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The fact that this particular color has 32 valid names shows that our assignment of color names to physical colors is not nearly as precise as Godlove and Webster’s Third would have us believe. We need a system like Munsell or CIELAB (or NCS or RAL or Pantone) in order to accurately communicate colors. That’s an important thing to realize, but the more important takeaway from the research presented here is that I won the argument!<br />
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May you enjoy arguing with your significant other as much as I do.<br />
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<i>If you enjoyed this article, you might consider joining the <a href="https://www.iscc.org/">Inter-Society Color Council</a>! Individual membership is only $50 per year, for which you will receive the ISCC newsletter, as well as reduced rates for any ISCC sponsored conferences.</i><br />
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<i>Such as... the joint <a href="https://iscc.org/events">TAGA/ISCC conference in balmy Minneapolis in March</a>.</i>John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-173096252252319192019-01-23T20:33:00.004-05:002019-02-17T13:32:29.225-05:00Which way is north in Munsell color space?I wrote a blog post for <a href="https://inkjetinsight.com/knowledge-base/crayon-space-and-three-attributes-of-color/">Inkjet Insight about the Munsell color space</a>. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but the post is mostly just a gateway post to one about the CIELAB color space. For the Inkjet Insight post, I had my crayons pose for the aesthetically pleasing picture below. I do expect an Emmy for the picture, but I will try to appear surprised when I get called to the stage.<br />
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<i>Happy crayons get together for a crayon picnic</i></div>
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Boy! Did that picture stir up a hornet's nest when I posted a link on LinkedIn! Two of my color scientist friends took umbrage. You may be wondering about my choice of the word "friends". Perhaps I use the term loosely, but Danny and Dave are the closest thing I have to friends, I mean, aside from Truffle and Mozart. And I feed Truffle and Mozart twice a day.<br />
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Here's Danny's malicious comment: "It seems that you have ordered the crayons as CIELAB would but not as Munsell does."<br />
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Dave's equally viscous comment: "Oops. Danny is right of course. Unless, ... this is a view from below! To be more CIELABish I actually reverse the hue direction in my hanging Munsell Tree."<br />
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The gauntlet has been thrown down!!<br />
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I gotta ask you gentlemen, Danny and Dave, which Munsell color system you are referring to?<br />
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First, there is nothing inherently in the Munsell <i>notation </i>(7.5PB 4/6) that tells us which color points east (0 degrees) and whether orange is clockwise or counterclockwise of red. The Munsell notation for each color includes one of ten designators (R, YR, Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P, or RP) to specify a hue family. Within each hue family, there are ten steps which (oddly enough) are numbered from 1 to 10. Each number is one-step change in hue. Thus, 7.5PB is a unique specification for a hue, without any implied orientation.<br />
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Take that, Danny and Dave!<br />
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Second, there is a disagreement between Albert Munsell and Albert Munsell about the direction of red. As shown in the image below, his 1915 atlas has red pointing at around 45 degrees clockwise of east.<br />
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<i>Page ripped from the Munsell Color Atlas of 1915</i></div>
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But in Munsell's New York Times 1919 bestseller "A Color Notation System" the master shows red pointed due north.<br />
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<i>More vandalism, but to Musell's A Color Notation System</i></div>
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Both of these Munsell illustrations show orange as being counterclockwise from red. Pretty much the same as the way my Crayolas arranged themselves, and also, the way that CIELAB is arranged. Since there is no "correct" direction for red to point, I feel justified in pointing red to the east.<br />
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How do you like the color of them apples, my Dynamic D-named Duo!?!?? Well, I'm not done yet!<br />
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Third, the ASTM disagrees with both of these Munsell orientations. In 1968, the ATSM provided us with a "standard method of specifying a color by the Munsell system" (ASTM D 1535). Note that in the ASTM system, red points to the north. This agrees with the second illustration, but hang on a sec while I expound on some ASTM D 1535 trivia that is likely to come up the next time Danny, Dave and I get together for sushi.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQgNpwgmbAS287y6F9eLDyBhvlA1w31Q5LOzHX1-JZ5IOc_EbNMOMXfDoo9XxDb54cIdIPj0CmL5YKexMa6Q06NgNP9ULG7t8BSRBN4PMY3iHRq7N1G4kY9YulIwIMvfQMF8wQ48JwKc/s1600/ASTM+D+1535%252C+Standard+Method+of+Specifying+Color+by+the+Munsell+System%252C+1968.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="618" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQgNpwgmbAS287y6F9eLDyBhvlA1w31Q5LOzHX1-JZ5IOc_EbNMOMXfDoo9XxDb54cIdIPj0CmL5YKexMa6Q06NgNP9ULG7t8BSRBN4PMY3iHRq7N1G4kY9YulIwIMvfQMF8wQ48JwKc/s400/ASTM+D+1535%252C+Standard+Method+of+Specifying+Color+by+the+Munsell+System%252C+1968.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>ASTM D 1535 dictates this orientation</i></div>
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ASTM D 1535 also assigned a number for each discrete step of Munsell hue angle, from 1 to 100. Interesting point -- their notion of hue "angle" is in centicircs. I just made that word up. One centicirc is 3.6 degrees. It's about time we went metric and got past this silly Babylonian notion that we should measure arcs by comparing against the size of arc that the Earth makes around the Sun in a day. Approximately a day.<br />
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The ASTM adopted the <i>obvious </i>convention that 0 Munsellian centicircs would be at 18 degrees counterclockwise from north. I mean... of course. Well... I need to clarify. No one ever really told me whether "true" red was 0R or 5R. I guess I assumed it was 0R.<br />
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Also D 1535 is not explicit, but I think that 0 centicrics is not allowed. That has to be called 100. Kinda like the zero-phobia that says that midnight is 12:00 instead of 0:00. And that the first day of a month is 1, rather than 0.<br />
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More importantly, note that contrary to "normal" analytical algebra, Munsellian centicircs increment in the clockwise direction! I'm going to report them to their calculus professor!<br />
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But hang on. Here's the big thing. Even more importantly, and contrary to Munsell's two books, in the D 1535 system, orange is <i>clockwise </i>from red. O.M.G.!!<br />
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Dave boastfully mentioned his "hanging Munsell Tree". Not to be outdone, I provide a picture of my own hanging Munsell Tree. In my case, the world famous Munsell Color Model is joined by the world famous Munsell Color Model Model, Madelaine. We can see that my tree and Dave's tree both adhere to the "orange is counterclockwise from red" convention.<br />
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<i>Wild times at the John the Math Guy household</i></div>
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Since there seems to be some latitude in the orientation of the color wheel in Munsell space, I claim that I am well within my rights to orient Munsell space in such a way as to serve as a stepping stone to CIELAB.<br />
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For those of you who are wondering about the significance of all this detailed historical research, let me be clear. It's all about me proving that I am right. Nothing else really matters.<br />
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NOTE: I would like to thank Robin Myers for pointing out an egregious error in my initial post. I had stated that the Munsell Color Atlas was published in 1913. Robin sent a photo of a page from his very own copy of the Munsell Atlas that clearly shows the date as 1915. (I am so jealous that he has this copy!) I would make up some excuse for why I got this wrong, but it would either be a total "my dog ate my homework" excuse, or it would make me look bad. So, I will just apologize for any pain and suffering which may have been caused by my ineptitude. I am eternally grateful to Robin for finding this embarrassing error, and would like to publicly offer to buy him a cup of coffee or a glass of the most inexpensive beer that can be found, provided he reciprocates by buying me a drink of similar value.<br />
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While John the Math Guy, LLC strives to maintain the highest level of scholarly eptitude in all its blog posts, there will inevitably be lapses into complete failure of logic, due diligence, and clarity of exposition. Any liability for anyone actually taking any of these posts seriously shall be limited to any considerations received directly from the party who has his undies in a bundle about this stuff.John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-88856692807136960402018-08-25T11:14:00.000-04:002018-08-25T11:14:59.148-04:00A dialog on the superiority of humans over canines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-42684838264653992522018-08-21T11:54:00.000-04:002018-08-23T10:43:02.530-04:00State of the art in Extended Gamut printing<i>I had a series of blog posts on expanded gamut (parts <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/04/expanded-gamut-when-ideas-time-has-come.html">one</a>, <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/04/expanded-gamut-when-ideas-time-has-come_26.html">two</a>, and <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-heyday-of-expanded-gamut-printing.html">three</a>) which were very popular. When I say "very popular," I of course mean that I have indirect evidence that there may have been one person -- possibly in Spokane, WA -- who stayed on the web page for longer than one minute. While it is likely that he or she was not actually looking at the screen at the time, we cannot dismiss the possibility that someone actually read part of one of the previous blog posts.</i><br />
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<i>Obviously, I need to follow up, to provide some practical advice on expanded gamut. Since I am only capable of impractical advice, I have called on a friend who has convinced me that he knows stuff about this stuff. I turn this over to today's guest blogger, Mike Strickler.</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Introduction</b></span><br />
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John has treated us to an entertaining history of attempts to achieve more colorful results by overcoming the limitations of 4-color printing. But what of the situation today? What does “Extended Gamut” mean in the present context; what do these solutions look like? EG systems now range from simple arrangements consisting of nothing more than Photoshop and a multichannel output profile to entire integrated workflows with proofing and elaborate options for spot color handling. But for all the recent attention paid to the subject, there is still a lack of industry consensus on just what a constitutes a proper EG separation, and any effort to make sense of the subject typically faces a mixture of conflicting proprietary claims, incomplete studies, and persistent misconceptions. It is still the Wild West. Perhaps by considering how these systems came to exist we might better understand what they actually do and how well they fulfill their purpose.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Extended-gamut today: a dual heritage</span></b><br />
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We can simplify the origins of all EG systems to two distinct lineages, each corresponding to a different need: Systems that convert images and those that convert spot colors. Combining and reconciling these two functions is the key challenge faced by designers of EG systems today.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Spot color conversion systems: a tyranny of rules</span></b><br />
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As we read earlier, several decades ago some clever individuals saw that one might reproduce a wide range of spot colors as equivalent process builds using CMYK with the addition of secondary inks such as a red, orange, green, blue, or violet. This was in the days before digital color management, so lookup tables were laboriously built from trial press runs and served as guides for converting colors, object by object. These systems mostly used AM screening, so immediately the question of screen angles had to be addressed. The usual scheme of 0, 15, 45, and 75 degrees was seen as imperfect because it forced a choice of either creating additional intermediate screen angles, increasing the risk of moiré, or sharing screening angles among complimentary colors such as cyan and red/orange and magenta and green, an unpopular choice as it raised the risk of color shifts caused by misregistration on press—a reasonable concern when printing vector objects, with their well-defined boundaries. A near-consensus converged around two simple rules for multicolor separations:<br />
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1. No color shall be converted to more than 4 process colors. Three is even better.<br />
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2. Complimentary overprints, such as cyan-red/orange and magenta-green, must be prevented. Who needs them, anyway?<br />
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These rules continue to be applied in a majority of EG systems, even those updated with automatic color-managed conversions. Spot color tints and overprints are handled by arithmetic interpolation or other simple means. The intricacies, and limitations, of these schemes will be discussed in the next blog. For the remainder of this one, we’ll focus on image conversions.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Images conversion systems: the rise of multichannel ICC profiles</span></b><br />
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While those brave pioneers were building their lookup tables, deft prepress workers were enhancing CMYK images with “touch” or “bump” plates of stronger colors. This practice can be seen as the true progenitor of multichannel extended-gamut systems.<br />
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With rare exceptions, modern image conversion methods rely on ICC color management. For generating multicolor (CMYK+N) press separations a basic system includes two profiles, one for the source color apace (often RGB) and one for the multicolor destination space, a CMM (Color Matching Method), AKA a “color engine,” and an application such as a RIP, color server, or other color-managed program such as Photoshop to interpret the source pixels and build the new image.<br />
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The profiles contain lookup tables that translate color appearance values (XYZ or Lab, AKA the PCS, or Profile Connection Space) to device values and vice versa. The CMM draws smooth curves through the LUT points and interpolates all intermediate values. PCS to device (or B2A) tables may contain a good deal of “secret sauce” for enhancing printability, saving ink, increasing the amount of black in neutrals, etc.; separate tables are built for different rendering intents or gamut mapping strategies. On top of this, device-link profiles may be employed to bypass the PCS conversion and apply even more rules, e.g., to exempt certain colors from the conversion. The key points to know about multicolor ICC systems are:<br />
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They are automatic, fast, and precise.<br />
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They are able to juggle multiple objectives, the two most important being accuracy and smoothness of output color, even up to 7 or more output channels.<br />
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Any combination of output channels may be used to fulfill objectives.<br />
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Results are conditioned by the quality and completeness of underlying measurement data.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Two systems, two outcomes</span></b><br />
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Image conversion is still an important function of EG, and systems do perform differently depending on their underlying logic. To illustrate this we can look at the results from converting an RGB test image with two very different solutions, one developed primarily for simulation of spot colors—you might say an heir to those clever lookup tables—and the other a typical representative of ICC color-management, the current default method for converting images. The test image contains a smorgasbord of truly devilish color conversion challenges: delicate flesh tones, textures and smooth gradations in deep, saturated colors, and full-tone black and white images. Any serious defect in a color conversion system is unlikely to escape detection here.<br />
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Details: Some gamut compression will be required convert these images to these smaller multicolor output spaces: In the first example perceptual rendering intent was used; in the second, relative colorimetric with black point compensation was chosen as the best available option with that system. Black generation (GCR) was adjusted to be as similar as possible in both cases.<br />
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<b>System A</b>. This is a conventional ICC-based system, available as a standalone profiling application (to be used in ICC-compliant workflows) and optional color server, which was employed here for the conversion. The underlying measurement data of the profile (for coated packaging board) is plotted in Lab space below. It shows a good balance of shadow, mid-tone, and highlight samples. A modest number of complementary color pairs (C-O, M-G) and extra-color overprints (O-G, V-G, OV, OVG) are present.<br />
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The results, shown below, are good. Details and tonal separations are preserved in the deepest and most saturated colors; gray balance is excellent, and no contouring, banding, or posterization is evident. Gradations are smooth.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQQlrkWqmD_x6gn2dNDVacx-1YSIN_ApN6ZFjqWfZL-stYAORUY7i6sQx_l7qbhRbEcFoesBz-obZEmanHp4aqGKmgcD2FCLQCNHIbhJP-MdCQndnbTM_cQFoRBx6mXQyVEG-6BQnEhp0/s1600/Image+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="400" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQQlrkWqmD_x6gn2dNDVacx-1YSIN_ApN6ZFjqWfZL-stYAORUY7i6sQx_l7qbhRbEcFoesBz-obZEmanHp4aqGKmgcD2FCLQCNHIbhJP-MdCQndnbTM_cQFoRBx6mXQyVEG-6BQnEhp0/s400/Image+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The OGV separation view below shows a long scale for the OGV channels; they extend deep into colors that are printable with CMYK alone (flesh tones, underside of sunflower).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq6fRDgrhveGPd7nogTJAWNo-yC9Iwq_srLa1sfMW0aRLGzb4iLrwMd5eGJ2Hoy_SaF-xaLwDcH_L2diUTlSfTdmNtQWRsVck4Z_yO2FuLuy2saQDcbW4HTpY-94GCRb6-LR1olW6HBCM/s1600/Image+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="400" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq6fRDgrhveGPd7nogTJAWNo-yC9Iwq_srLa1sfMW0aRLGzb4iLrwMd5eGJ2Hoy_SaF-xaLwDcH_L2diUTlSfTdmNtQWRsVck4Z_yO2FuLuy2saQDcbW4HTpY-94GCRb6-LR1olW6HBCM/s320/Image+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The graph below, derived from the lower-right image of the jack-o-lantern plant, shows how a range of colors from red-orange to dull green is composed. The extensive interleaving of channels, including small amounts of complementary colors, is a very probable contributor to the visual smoothness of the color transitions.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfsWnsHEP8-j9ac46EBaR_gjJi0N9ApZBNpNW9LYJxncOSTVoZE-s_TBTCYROqmONhXodVl80Yr1aVb5vr7sLzIUypd1tYD2kyECDwbaNAeAEiRCQ6qk89RvcdDEt4GiF1CVleYmlIQ4o/s1600/Image+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="640" height="83" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfsWnsHEP8-j9ac46EBaR_gjJi0N9ApZBNpNW9LYJxncOSTVoZE-s_TBTCYROqmONhXodVl80Yr1aVb5vr7sLzIUypd1tYD2kyECDwbaNAeAEiRCQ6qk89RvcdDEt4GiF1CVleYmlIQ4o/s400/Image+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This system would be a good choice for demanding image reproduction work.<br />
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<b>System B</b>. Here we have a non-ICC system sold as an option for a popular workflow suite. It is a bit of a hybrid, its profiling scheme showing echoes of earlier simple spot-color lookup systems: Complimentary colors (C-O, M-G), extra colors (O.G.V) do not overprint, and no build exceeds 4 total colors. Otherwise, its profiles contain an abundance of tint and overprint data, as seen in this Lab plot:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidFCjuEa0VqgCkhS3zEnWIvfXpjsYgWJh4_HG7TJfLNfgAMhWX3_FebEQp28MZxK6rKY4qEQYNxHTW9aiSKgpOTUW2If-IZLau9Spqk7F6y9pwtqsyVIdwRw89k5ux7g9t3ILHBKxhFRc/s1600/Image+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="400" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidFCjuEa0VqgCkhS3zEnWIvfXpjsYgWJh4_HG7TJfLNfgAMhWX3_FebEQp28MZxK6rKY4qEQYNxHTW9aiSKgpOTUW2If-IZLau9Spqk7F6y9pwtqsyVIdwRw89k5ux7g9t3ILHBKxhFRc/s400/Image+5.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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The profile structure is unique, consisting of 4 4-color charts, thus simplifying its design. As we’ll see, simpler is not necessarily better, as when approaching multidimensional problems like image transforms in 7-color space.<br />
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The converted test image below predictably shows some differences with Sample A. Color transitions are more abrupt, as shown clearly in the patch chart at the top of the form.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuwodKQldF07LhqKgiXkDvhbWtmMR6siVuL4ZZ-XWPFEzlvbhEheKggL47IdYUXg8KqezxW3clKxMBcYthQU9HrkceisWkE5DsXCK1NcBP9p0L72G-g0qrdzkGnA8pEZGKWzyJdvO1Yw8/s1600/Image+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="400" height="381" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuwodKQldF07LhqKgiXkDvhbWtmMR6siVuL4ZZ-XWPFEzlvbhEheKggL47IdYUXg8KqezxW3clKxMBcYthQU9HrkceisWkE5DsXCK1NcBP9p0L72G-g0qrdzkGnA8pEZGKWzyJdvO1Yw8/s400/Image+6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The OGV separation view shows very limited replacement of in-gamut CMY by OGV inks, though this reportedly may be adjusted to some degree in the software. Gradations in these channels are noticeably less differentiated than in System A. The overall appearance of the n-channel separations is more like that of old-fashioned touch colors than fully functioning process channels. The red-green transition contains much less channel interleaving than in Sample A.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYMr6jESCZL7F_1FZ5HgYTwcrwJSkek5W9-t0vIft-1NLixf8xLE7WJ6iM4FqhxS67hP933zWtxUD-JcVRd3NB1M9YJkgaA9e7u7-mbvYsA9SGrMGotRcs9-z9utQMixtB9_2N8Z6T39k/s1600/Image+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="400" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYMr6jESCZL7F_1FZ5HgYTwcrwJSkek5W9-t0vIft-1NLixf8xLE7WJ6iM4FqhxS67hP933zWtxUD-JcVRd3NB1M9YJkgaA9e7u7-mbvYsA9SGrMGotRcs9-z9utQMixtB9_2N8Z6T39k/s400/Image+7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgriOOPaN4j2dRYwDnz9K3VrCDvmPzwvqy3JDWdowj3biwDxfl_7Shw-e6GKq2rgSEMtqqNEDjnLv4ydVGz3Z3C_qQPtebiQT-u1hsenQN7KFtrFMemD0nU8ClVO4lH53KUDjW7BM6anzc/s1600/Image+8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="640" height="83" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgriOOPaN4j2dRYwDnz9K3VrCDvmPzwvqy3JDWdowj3biwDxfl_7Shw-e6GKq2rgSEMtqqNEDjnLv4ydVGz3Z3C_qQPtebiQT-u1hsenQN7KFtrFMemD0nU8ClVO4lH53KUDjW7BM6anzc/s400/Image+8.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Two image comparisons will suffice to show some implications for these different separation schemes. In the lower area of the still life image below we see the dramatic impact of the compacted tonal scale of the violet channel in System B (right). Deep blues are hollowed out and posterized. Faithful rendering of dark, saturated colors is a critical attribute of any good color reproduction system, and this example is decidedly sub-par. System A (left) shows normal results.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rHgXkEnU9uOGHLBXTLxRmkgwXsUbLuJo4iCkGxGAS6ez0aAV_LcJRCiJlnfEy38Rbw4ifUCjgZ8sJJvO3hZxBuMRxZAM2v9wUQVO_tXgdkF2Q6px8kXs2AKHEo974jdQnqPt8AVeXrY/s1600/Image+9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="1600" height="53" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rHgXkEnU9uOGHLBXTLxRmkgwXsUbLuJo4iCkGxGAS6ez0aAV_LcJRCiJlnfEy38Rbw4ifUCjgZ8sJJvO3hZxBuMRxZAM2v9wUQVO_tXgdkF2Q6px8kXs2AKHEo974jdQnqPt8AVeXrY/s400/Image+9.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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The next image detail is a good test for reproduction of subtle color transitions. As seen in the System A image (left), the jack-o-lantern displays a nicely nuanced transition from orange to yellow-green in which a multitude of slightly varying flecks of yellow-green and yellow-orange can be seen. The System B image (right) looks comparatively crude, with a relatively flat, featureless orange abruptly breaking to an undifferentiated yellow-green. (This may be difficult to see in this low-resolution image.) Such defects are not correctable through image retouching, as the separations simply lack the necessary supporting tonal information.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwxah_Hdlc5-hoP74JEM3ByEYR-G_CCLetZqza6vB6ipPJVmyp04oF59f8kEWVMqwaB534OvJmbDIstc0jUIhyphenhyphenDLWcydqo0_-IxyJm2XcQI0mwLyHfpdVL6hZC0r9xKUuU4YRlEJ2MdY/s1600/Image+10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="1063" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwxah_Hdlc5-hoP74JEM3ByEYR-G_CCLetZqza6vB6ipPJVmyp04oF59f8kEWVMqwaB534OvJmbDIstc0jUIhyphenhyphenDLWcydqo0_-IxyJm2XcQI0mwLyHfpdVL6hZC0r9xKUuU4YRlEJ2MdY/s400/Image+10.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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This image also shows an interesting feature of System A. In the transitional color regions we see the presence of the complementary orange-cyan combination:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIEFQLkZmz1ZfsJvTe3gYgeWRQ77p48zJiPiHNpWQ2k5MlQofYo-dd7jTAkOhlWFq3m2cNKxrGLaRG-r9l1dju7B5PWyyqAhKX6bzdC0klvH0q1PiP6bJpuu9vUFTJzl1SPd1RARY1dvk/s1600/Image+11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="591" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIEFQLkZmz1ZfsJvTe3gYgeWRQ77p48zJiPiHNpWQ2k5MlQofYo-dd7jTAkOhlWFq3m2cNKxrGLaRG-r9l1dju7B5PWyyqAhKX6bzdC0klvH0q1PiP6bJpuu9vUFTJzl1SPd1RARY1dvk/s400/Image+11.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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These colors, as well as green and magenta, are of course mutually cancelling and therefore commonly regarded as unnecessary in a press separation, a belief so widely accepted that it might be regarded as one of the tenets of extended-gamut printing. As noted earlier, such combinations are excluded from the separation in System B. However, closer study reveals a useful role for these “interstitial” colors in smoothing transitions.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">A cautionary note on profile accuracy</span></b><br />
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An otherwise capable multicolor system may be compromised by the sort of measurement data underlying the profile being used. Here is a Lab plot of a typical 7-color measurement set used by a popular ICC profiling application.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz_jmYE8WLDFFmdIEOZq-iWe84c9W1bTApUxTHyu8op6R6va4YbsOv15OzwhBzaak5wiaaE8gAHEwM1fq2W6kGXjdjx-5x50yQt8hGshYZtpUKbeTgkmFotmIkf2b7qw-IsyMtGBaOg14/s1600/Image+12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="400" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz_jmYE8WLDFFmdIEOZq-iWe84c9W1bTApUxTHyu8op6R6va4YbsOv15OzwhBzaak5wiaaE8gAHEwM1fq2W6kGXjdjx-5x50yQt8hGshYZtpUKbeTgkmFotmIkf2b7qw-IsyMtGBaOg14/s400/Image+12.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Notice the extreme abundance of dark overprints, far in excess of any possible utility, and the skeletal representation of mid-tones and highlights. This gaping void must be interpolated, literally guessed at by the CMM. The resulting converted images are smooth, but intermediate values are largely fictitious. The less linear the device output is the worse the fiction! There is no known workaround with this application.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusions</span></b><br />
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Modern multicolor extended-gamut systems must capably convert a variety of elements, including images, vector objects, and spot and process colors, singly and in combination. Systems based on older spot-color matching schemes may have a tougher time converting images compared with systems based on ICC multichannel profiling. Nonetheless, these older systems continue to enjoy popularity in package printing, where the dominance of vector designs gives rise to concerns about printability that may compete with the need for high image fidelity. In the next blog we’ll see how these two schools of thought play out in actual practice, with particular focus on strategies and techniques for converting spot colors. If space allows we’ll also touch upon the arcane subject of EG proofing.<br />
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Are you having a multicolor crisis of your own? Are battles over your system configuration leaving you black and blue? Please feel free to post comments and questions here, or send them to mike@mspgraphics.com.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">About today's blogger</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Q8oOgB1BMVBEBqhWAYLZjSX-aVemnPoRYKriRe9L4pVbC5pt-zeYzy1RPusuRvXp-eRJAzDlmxDjwfi0eWPLMwb9h0vhEmKsv4-n93CdHOZN2SKd-WMrr3S7tfLFJDYR1pL93MU4qH0/s1600/Mike+Strickler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Q8oOgB1BMVBEBqhWAYLZjSX-aVemnPoRYKriRe9L4pVbC5pt-zeYzy1RPusuRvXp-eRJAzDlmxDjwfi0eWPLMwb9h0vhEmKsv4-n93CdHOZN2SKd-WMrr3S7tfLFJDYR1pL93MU4qH0/s320/Mike+Strickler.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mike Strickler is the guy I call on the rare occasions when I want to sully my mind with practical concerns about color management. Mike is a specialist in graphics arts and color management. He is an Idealliance G7 Expert, CMP Color Management Master Trainer and member of PIA and IAPHC. Based in the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles areas. Specialties: Color management, printing, remote proofing, and photography.<br />
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Mike is the principal at <a href="http://www.mspgraphics.com/">MSP Graphic Services</a>.John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-9852012933698131052018-06-26T09:00:00.000-04:002018-06-26T10:37:47.226-04:00Looking for case studies!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXEo-CzpSGlwoDfY3r-c9l0Q3aLeAt_n6PvM1kzuvqfDShQE7ys3CC4DutgWS3IrSZ5NBZ20AXTfVsl6CAdgaQG0ZpFaCBuRY_RvvNKBxCcI3onwX0DJStuKfqwvrneAwCYdnFIm7EhI/s1600/Turning+CIELAB+into+Insight.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1085" data-original-width="1178" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXEo-CzpSGlwoDfY3r-c9l0Q3aLeAt_n6PvM1kzuvqfDShQE7ys3CC4DutgWS3IrSZ5NBZ20AXTfVsl6CAdgaQG0ZpFaCBuRY_RvvNKBxCcI3onwX0DJStuKfqwvrneAwCYdnFIm7EhI/s320/Turning+CIELAB+into+Insight.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Proof of concept</i> has been established on my ColourSPC project. Over 561K color measurements have been compiled of roughly 3,000 production colors from nine different sources, including data from packaging, newspaper, toner-based, and offset printing, as well as photography, and plastics. The analysis demonstrated that when a color process is in control, the new Zc statistic will follow a specific known distribution.</div>
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I am moving to the <i>proof of utility</i> phase, where I hope to show that my new techniques can turn color data into information that is useful for color manufacturers.</div>
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I am looking for case studies; people with color manufacturing data and a burning question that they would like answered with that data. Contact me if you want to be part of this exciting new research! john@johnthemathguy.com</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Example questions</span></b></div>
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Some examples of questions that can be answered with ColourSPC:</div>
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Is this data point an outlier, or just somewhat unusual?</div>
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Was this production run under control?</div>
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What is the major contributor to color variation?</div>
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Did this new piece of equipment or software, or a change in process reduce color variation?</div>
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Can this process reliably meet the color tolerance that my customer wants?</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">References</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2017/09/statistical-process-control-of-color.html">Statistical
process control of color, approaching a method that works</a>, Sept 12, 2017</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2017/11/statistics-of-multi-dimensional-data.html">Statistics
of multi-dimensional data, theor</a>y, Nov 14, 2018<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2017/11/statistics-of-multi-dimensional-data_21.html">Statistics
of multi-dimensional data, example</a>, Nov 21, 2017<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/01/statistical-process-control-of-color.html">Statistical
process control of color, a method that works</a>, Jan 16, 2018<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/02/is-my-color-process-going-awry.html">Is
my color process going awry?</a>, Feb 14, 2018<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/02/is-my-color-process-all-wonky.html">Is
my color process all wonky?</a>, Feb 28, 2018<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324991872_Statistical_Process_Control_of_Color">Statistical process control of color</a>, TAGA, March 2018</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324276863_Applications_of_ColourSPC">Applications of ColorSPC</a>, Print Properties Council, March 2018</span></div>
John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-49306003015326854962018-05-30T19:44:00.003-04:002019-08-05T14:48:13.778-04:00How well do we remember color?<div style="text-align: justify;">
In a previous (and highly entertaining) blog post, I reviewed <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/05/do-you-remember-logo.html">two studies that tested people on brand color recognition</a>. The studies were not peer-reviewed, Nobel prize winning efforts, but enough effort was put into them for me to find the results <i>suggestive</i>. I don't mean that in a salacious way; I do mean that the experiments suggest that our recognition of brand colors is not as good as we might think it is.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZtytbj8yxJkSZU02LB4UbEBFYi8YbXiv8YoIa6YCIkizWjOXWi8FLfkQOyXTJyNvPCbsPSs6K8zW4dF4xd46PgvEVKpOC93Dr1hjUBwvWXZpacmoDbBh13b4BAbMqPQR-OQaOYie7uE8/s1600/Starbucks+periwinkle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="1600" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZtytbj8yxJkSZU02LB4UbEBFYi8YbXiv8YoIa6YCIkizWjOXWi8FLfkQOyXTJyNvPCbsPSs6K8zW4dF4xd46PgvEVKpOC93Dr1hjUBwvWXZpacmoDbBh13b4BAbMqPQR-OQaOYie7uE8/s400/Starbucks+periwinkle.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The sight of Starbucks periwinkle makes me thirsty</i></div>
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In today's post, I will take a dive into what peer reviewed Science has to say on the matter, specifically on the topic of how accurately we remember colors.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">What I didn't study</span></b></div>
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There are a lot of stones in this field, and I left a lot of them unturned. Here are some exciting topics that I skipped over...<br />
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Color and emotion - This is a big field. It would be cool to really dig into how color effects us emotionally. I would love to separate the wheat from the chaff (valid research from pontification). The paper by Yu et al. Looks like it would be fascinating. But, I didn't really look at it for this blog post.</div>
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Color and emotion and <i>brands </i>- Another mondo interesting study would be to look at our emotional reaction to the color of a box of cornflakes. Presumably, there is an ideal corn flake box color that will seduce the unwary buyer into filling the shopping cart. Gosh, I would love to learn all about that. I bet the paper by Rupert et al. would be a great place to start.</div>
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Color constancy - There has been all this research around the cool topic of how it is that our perception of the color of something doesn't change all that much when the illumination changes drastically. Like from the yellowish incandescent light in your living room to the blueish light outside. There is a huge difference in the spectra of the light hitting your eye, but we still see white paper as still being white. This is the kinda topic that makes people want to quit their day job and become a PhD candidate! But I'm not going to talk about it. Well... maybe I will mention it in passing.</div>
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Many roads diverged in this multicolored wood, and I am sorry that I could not travel them all. I took the one less traveled. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Color memory</span></b></div>
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Here's what I am thinking: I have a picture in my head about what Starbucks green is. I see it as a darker shade of green that might be just a tiny bit toward the blue end. But, my memory of Starbucks periwinkle is wrong. If you don't believe me, just ask my wife. She is the world's authority on all my shortcomings, and would love to acquaint you with my multifarious imperfections. But, everyone's memory of the official Starbucks green is not quite perfect. How far off are we?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJWZu0RSptjD6Lm-38zfPr_RjSNgzlQuMJQgJWIh3KbVJSDxyjq65SIjxUu0Mq7T90wiLM0IWAne5ZfgPc5kT0Yp48t8zIwu-Dd7uPKD4XNNvxb6T-erS04w84riiC48sREzatR0Ausdo/s1600/I+remember+it+well.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="1232" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJWZu0RSptjD6Lm-38zfPr_RjSNgzlQuMJQgJWIh3KbVJSDxyjq65SIjxUu0Mq7T90wiLM0IWAne5ZfgPc5kT0Yp48t8zIwu-Dd7uPKD4XNNvxb6T-erS04w84riiC48sREzatR0Ausdo/s400/I+remember+it+well.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>I just can't remember the name of this film</i></div>
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We all know that a banana is yellow, and a school bus is a slightly orange flavor of yellow, and the color of an orange is slightly weaker than true orange, but that carrots are true orange, which is why we call them carrots. These are all memory colors.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGauuGbeEgQikBarfAQUY8WKgmQT9FnIpXxJ3XlsEyyfqwy05jc0q-uFBj8UXzZ3y7E-zvVoHDUd8JKxIliMXYeDquJKQtbaDb_h40yhOcVm-QWKW8BD2ToppBaBwa97poZ2bleuDWW78/s1600/Starbucks+periwinkle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i></i></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggEMK9jYMsTRxnIeaTArRn7nRRJ-WmcCf2wOfjXdyTimzMum1QJlpu-v5ijnuxVxyNQkcUkC_A65CZAjqTuwShxZBAIhEQuakZ4IfLCRYGLOJxA5VBgP8vdm2ietF2GE9i_h4nLolW4Lc/s1600/Yellow+and+orange.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="1384" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggEMK9jYMsTRxnIeaTArRn7nRRJ-WmcCf2wOfjXdyTimzMum1QJlpu-v5ijnuxVxyNQkcUkC_A65CZAjqTuwShxZBAIhEQuakZ4IfLCRYGLOJxA5VBgP8vdm2ietF2GE9i_h4nLolW4Lc/s400/Yellow+and+orange.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Carrots should really be called oranges</i></div>
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The idea of <i>memory colors</i> dates back to Ewald Hering in 1878. Loyal readers will remember that Hering has been mentioned in a few of my previous blog posts. Hering is the guy who developed the <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2013/07/is-my-green-same-as-yours-revisited.html">color opponent theory</a>. This theory says that we can assess any color in terms of three attributes: where it fits between white and black, where it fits between red and green, and where it fits between yellow and blue. This is how color is encoded on its way to the brain, and this idea was baked into CIELAB.<br />
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<i>Hering's three attributes of color</i></div>
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Hering made another contribution to color science. He said that our perception of the color of an object is effected by our memory of the color of a prototypical object. Like, if we see a banana that is kinda yellow, but not quite, we will remember it as being yellow. Remember how I said that I was gonna mention color constancy? Now is the time. Hering's theory has been used to explain color constancy. If the yellow of a banana has a slightly unusual shade, then our brain will use that fact to deduce the color of the illumination.<br />
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There is a prediction from Hering's theory of color memory that is important for the purpose of this blog. If his theory is true, then our memory will tend to bias toward the quintessential version of that color. We will remember our bananas being yellower than they really are.<br />
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David Katz reiterates Hering's theory:<br />
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<i>... in the imagination we exaggerate colours of objects whose colours are generally distinguished only in terms of brightness, darkness or hue. If we ask a person to pick out a blue which will match the colour of the eyes of someone he knows very well, he generally selects a blue which is too saturated. If we ask a person to match a brick, he usually chooses a black which is too deep or reds which are too highly saturated. Almost always he selects a colour which is too bright to match a bright object, one which is too dark to match a dark object, and one which is too saturated to match an object which is known to have a distinct hue.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi19d1CUjAHv1gMzKXdqsdkUu3EKdnp44Zc1hb5VBtWSXXuAhXbIFmeuax0LdZFsLgp_AWUZXXdTD3YfjlgcZNue4LT-nh0oVRyihEfMLORxrFPIbXWxcRP__DfUfug3v45MDCvGZn9cRM/s1600/Cats+like+herring.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="495" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi19d1CUjAHv1gMzKXdqsdkUu3EKdnp44Zc1hb5VBtWSXXuAhXbIFmeuax0LdZFsLgp_AWUZXXdTD3YfjlgcZNue4LT-nh0oVRyihEfMLORxrFPIbXWxcRP__DfUfug3v45MDCvGZn9cRM/s320/Cats+like+herring.png" width="192" /></a></div>
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<i>Katz liked Hering's theory on the distortion of colors by our memory</i></div>
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If this theory is true, then our color memory is flawed, so our recollection of Starbuck's green is flawed. The practical message for everyone in the business of making sure that Starbucks has the correct shade of green is that the exact color of the logo doesn't really matter, since we will identify the logo by it's shape, and our brain will translate the color into the correct shade of green.<br />
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Wow. Big stuff here.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">What does the research say?</span></b><br />
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Hering was a brilliant guy, and rates up there with Munsell as one of the <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/02/munsell-father-of-color-science-part-3.html">Fathers of Color Science.</a> But he was largely a theoretical guy. Have experimental results backed up his theories of memory colors?<br />
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An early investigation by Adams provided evidence that agreed with Hering, but it was inconclusive. </div>
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<i>From our investigations of the perceptions of the five natural objects grass, snow, coal, gold and blood, we may say that Hering and Katz were correct in claiming that the seeing of these objects is ordinarily affected by memory color. Although our investigation failed to give a quantitative measure of a single memory color, it was thus not unfruitful.</i></div>
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Adams (1923)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4p5fwHcjvgEaCx7mRTAqIHW7Bb9PP6E3wKiG_F6fksj9OgH24R-RuyBqvvaMiU4cLMovFiyP53iSSzs_ZjRnrfelgQX5mnUxiOagMh77K9iAJzTjApVEu1g1skJW_2bHgbtxdLo6Rf0k/s1600/Five+memory+colors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="779" data-original-width="1093" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4p5fwHcjvgEaCx7mRTAqIHW7Bb9PP6E3wKiG_F6fksj9OgH24R-RuyBqvvaMiU4cLMovFiyP53iSSzs_ZjRnrfelgQX5mnUxiOagMh77K9iAJzTjApVEu1g1skJW_2bHgbtxdLo6Rf0k/s320/Five+memory+colors.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Five memory colors from Adams' paper</i></div>
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<i>Not </i>unfruitful? I didn't see a single fruit in their list of memory colors! It is likely that the hard results were lacking because of the lack of rigor in this paper. To be honest, the paper reads like a cheap and boring novel with pages and pages of one anecdote after another, and then a short experiment.<br />
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Bartleson provided a more rigorous test of memory colors, using colors of ten familiar objects: red brick, green grass, dry grass, blue sky, flesh, tanned flesh, broad-leafed summer foliage, evergreen trees, inland soil, beach sand. Here is their assessment:</div>
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<i>Each memory color tended to be more characteristic of the dominant chromatic attribute of the object in question; grass was more green, bricks more red, etc. In most cases, saturation and lightness increased in memory. </i><br />
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<i>There is </i><i>evidence of increased saturation in the memory colors. </i><i>In most cases there are hue shifts with memory in the </i><i>direction of what is probably the most impressive chromatic </i><i>attribute of the object in question.</i></div>
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Bartleson (1960)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFrczh-8lP_zVsw_1wfPmWgMGKDUmGwgA_jtZynw7H4tLNKActBNc6Xi7bw9l8gvXIc-WpC2jYINzaOxcmJwy7ZJmKW283kSkb8tBF4vLnkTX4D01k59tzY78uIxdMU1Z-oZkYX4MNsY/s1600/Sunset.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="937" data-original-width="1406" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFrczh-8lP_zVsw_1wfPmWgMGKDUmGwgA_jtZynw7H4tLNKActBNc6Xi7bw9l8gvXIc-WpC2jYINzaOxcmJwy7ZJmKW283kSkb8tBF4vLnkTX4D01k59tzY78uIxdMU1Z-oZkYX4MNsY/s400/Sunset.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>The grass is always greener in our memory</i></div>
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A bit more recently, Siple et al. did a similar test with six foods (carrot, corn, lettuce, lime, orange, and peanut), and agreed with the theme that we remember colors as being more vivid. Note that their test was the first that was <i>literally</i> fruitful, since they included oranges and limes.<br />
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<i>Results indicated that, for hue and brightness, memory and preference were quite accurate </i><i>for the objects tested; however, all subjects remembered and also preferred all items to be more </i><i>highly saturated.</i><br />
Siple and Springer, 1983<br />
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One could argue that trying to recall the color of grass is a bit problematic. After all, the color of grass varies with species. Is it Kentucky bluegrass? Fescue? Rye grass? Easter grass? The color also varies with the plenitude of rain, nutrients, and sun. And where my doggies have visited.<br />
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Three recent papers (one by Bloj et al., one by Pentz, and the final by Newhall et al.) sought to eliminate this problem of variability of the colors of real objects. Bloj asked subjects to bring along a familiar object. Even when recalling those familiar and well-defined colors from memory, the conclusion of this paper was that "Our results, on average, confirm that objects are remembered as more saturated than they are."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikoO24jZOs4oEszg29zc8_fkv4uAB1qCxU5lVPsN7nZGp4G4M_2f8Q3dTnDweRu9mFeOttlvbSIS_wC2olvAWub4hDLalZ1eLUzMdP7feOfJ01SihHrXfFP2wt2g6frVc3NFnWSdt6Mh0/s1600/Our+color+memory.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="1435" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikoO24jZOs4oEszg29zc8_fkv4uAB1qCxU5lVPsN7nZGp4G4M_2f8Q3dTnDweRu9mFeOttlvbSIS_wC2olvAWub4hDLalZ1eLUzMdP7feOfJ01SihHrXfFP2wt2g6frVc3NFnWSdt6Mh0/s320/Our+color+memory.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Somehow Johnnie graduated from Kindergarten despite his sub-par drawing skills</i></div>
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On to Pentz's paper. He taught a color class for several years, and recruited the members of each class for an experiment, eventually testing 283 people. The people in the class were shown a blue piece of plastic and were told that they would need to recollect the color later on. They each had a chance to hold the plaque and could look at it as long as they wanted. Later, they were shown a collection of 24 plaques which included the one they had looked at. "Only thirty percent of participants at plastics coloring seminars were able to correctly identify a color observed only an hour earlier." While the correct plaque was determined by the most participants, the two next most likely guesses had a color difference of about 10 ΔE from the correct plaque.<br />
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(How big is 10 ΔE, you may ask? Imagine a color match that is as big as you might consider acceptable for production. Then multiply that by 2 or 3.)<br />
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Newhall et al. looked at our short term memory of colors in order to eliminate the ambiguity for familiar objects. The subject was shown a color for 5 seconds, given a 5 second break, and then asked to adjust knobs to recreate that color. Here is one of the conclusions from the paper:<br />
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<i>Significantly more purity and somewhat more luminance were required to complete the color matches by memory than were necessary for the simultaneous matches. This principal result was confirmed by the results of three supplementary experiments.</i><br />
Newhall, Burnham, and Clark (1957)</div>
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Newhall et al. found that we remember colors as being higher in chroma (by 1.7 steps in Munsell chroma) and somewhat lighter. They also found no consistent change in hue between what we remember and what we see.<br />
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<i>The typical migration pattern of a color trapped in a brain</i></div>
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How big is a step in chroma of 1.7? The data is all in the paper. I <i>could </i>type it all into a spreadsheet, convert it into CIELAB, and then compute color differences. But I could just be lazy and wave my hands. Fully saturated colors go up to maybe 15 in Munsell chroma, and maybe 100 in CIELAB C*. A step of 1.7 in chroma is roughly 10 ΔE. I dunno. I think this is kinda big for a 5 second delay.<br />
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One common theme from these experiments is that colors are remembered more vividly than they actually are. Whether or not colors are lighter in our memory and whether there is a systematic error in the hue are both up for debate.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Colligation</span></b><br />
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The ancient Greek, Ptolemy, developed a set of equations that could be used to predict the positions of the planets at any time. The equations were based on a lot of wrong assumptions, like "the Earth is in the center, and all the rest of the celestial bodies move in circles that revolve around other circles". The model worked, at least to an extent.<br />
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A millennium or so later, <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-revolutionary-idea-about-revolutions.html">Copernicus decided that the Sun belonged at the center</a>. Then Kepler came along and decided that ellipses made the whole thing simpler than the circles in circles thing, and then <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-apple-doesnt-fall-far-from-newton.html">Newton provided the big colligation</a>. The inverse square law of gravity was the grand unifying theory that explained the whole enchilada. If the pull of gravity goes in inverse proportion to the square of the distance between the objects, then planets will travel in Kepler's ellipses. Eureka!<br />
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By the way, <i>colligation </i>means "<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colligate">to subsume (isolated facts) under a general concept</a>". I really love that word. It explains the essence of what I think it is to do Science: to find simple theories that explain lots of data.<br />
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We are ready for a colligation of our understanding of color memory. We have all this data from these studies. We have a generalization of how saturation changes when it gets implanted into our memory. It's a bit fuzzy what happens with hue and lightness, since the data doesn't always agree. We need an explanation that can tie it all together and explain some of the anomalies.<br />
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In this case, the colligation was fairly recent, by Bae et al. in 2015. The idea is pretty simple. We have a limited number of folders in the filing cabinet in our head. Although we can <i>distinguish </i>perhaps millions of colors, there are eleven basic folders where we store colors, at least in the English speaking world. The folders are labeled white, black, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, brown, and purple. This was the result from Berlin and Kay, and also in the groundbreaking experiment that I never got around to publishing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWWiNMoiTlIIR9XwY2upbo_BcHHpZz05vk3xPiksObiseXG3SLU0ysFvJhZsEiQVCOA1p2Xqz-8_dI9U9poVxBaRZYWUkMgQ-68U3kI633h7lfDg5ywbP5IRetdQ2ho6zH2y8ncRWVqs/s1600/Eleven+colors+everyone+can+think+of.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="99" data-original-width="291" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWWiNMoiTlIIR9XwY2upbo_BcHHpZz05vk3xPiksObiseXG3SLU0ysFvJhZsEiQVCOA1p2Xqz-8_dI9U9poVxBaRZYWUkMgQ-68U3kI633h7lfDg5ywbP5IRetdQ2ho6zH2y8ncRWVqs/s400/Eleven+colors+everyone+can+think+of.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-many-colors-are-in-your-rainbow.html">How many colors are in your rainbow?</a></i></div>
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Here is the grand and glorious theory of color memory distortion.....<br />
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When we want to store the color of an object in our brain, the first step is to categorize it into one of perhaps eleven archetypal colors. From there, presumably, we may make modifications to distinguish from the archetypal color (<i>yellowish</i> green, or <i>dark</i> red), and the modifications get stored along with the general category. Later when we retrieve that color from our memory, the archetypal color gets weighted a bit more than the modifier.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Evidence from Bae</span></b><br />
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Bae et al. had the participants try to remember 180 colors, equally spaced in hue, all with L* = 70 (fairly light) and C* = 38 (somewhat saturated). They saw the color for 100 msec, the color was removed for 900 ms, and then they had a chance to select the color from a ring.<br />
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The results of the paper are summarized in my drawing below. There are seven regions. Within any of the regions, for example, the blue one, people will tend to distort the hue toward the solid line which represents the archetypal example of that hue. (Four of the eleven basic colors were left out. White, black, and gray don't have a place on the hue circle. And since their L* was fairly high, they missed out on brown. They almost missed red.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZe66P5WRYKY_9yz247hrP75wXWffufbj_RugyfVdge0WmvA5ymYrzqWG9lR33-__7FEtg02ObuNHJQfaUZ8OLpbybSwiA0LfhLukC1zrivBTWe-3J_Gm9cwraDHTku0dTEgpWRuAvu-8/s1600/Bae+experiment.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="971" data-original-width="1052" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZe66P5WRYKY_9yz247hrP75wXWffufbj_RugyfVdge0WmvA5ymYrzqWG9lR33-__7FEtg02ObuNHJQfaUZ8OLpbybSwiA0LfhLukC1zrivBTWe-3J_Gm9cwraDHTku0dTEgpWRuAvu-8/s400/Bae+experiment.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><i>Hieroglyph found in a Mayan tomb, hitherto-for undecipherable </i></span></div>
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This explains why the hue of a color sometimes shifted in the experiments, and sometimes not. But the color memory experiments seem to all agree on one thing. Our memory of a color is generally more saturated than the actual color. How does the eleven-folder theory of color memory explain this?</div>
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Here is a quote from Heider that can explain this:</div>
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<i>It was quite clear, without further analysis, that the most saturated colors were the best examples of basic color names both for English speakers and for speakers of the other 10 languages represented.</i></div>
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When we think red, we don't think some wimpy-butt red. We think fire-engine-lipstick-Corvette-candy-apple-OMG-I'm-bleeding red. It only makes sense that most of the colors that were tested in the experiments cited above would not be the most saturated colors imaginable. Hence, our memory would tend to distort <i>most of the colors in the experiments</i> toward the extreme of saturation.</div>
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There are some archetypal colors that don't fit Heider's hypothesis, namely brown, gray, and pink. I would take a wild guess that these are the exceptions to the rule in the previously described experiments.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Why eleven?</span></b><br />
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Bae's research suggests that the eleven basic color names are the appropriate number. Or rather, it <i>does not</i> suggest that there are colors beyond the seven which qualify to be archetypal colors. But Bae's experiment, awesome as it was, only looked at 180 colors - all of which had the same L* and C*. There is quite a bit of uncharted color space.<br />
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Based on my personal experience, I would <i>like </i>to think that I have more than just eleven archetypal colors. I mean, I see tan, coral, olive green, and plum as distinct colors in their own right.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgW5HmbRdm3RJRX6GZuPdJ6EYNoHhdIuEWcRJgIi7xYTt_F84ITzc9I7aZig8h3EKVkcDc5NwBM25NmOmwZnKdI1CKl_CWxjEv0fInvZykgmRBKD4q_czBFnKNAr5xOYeCOGECme-lkA/s1600/Tan%252C+coral%252C+olive%252C+and+plum.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="1540" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgW5HmbRdm3RJRX6GZuPdJ6EYNoHhdIuEWcRJgIi7xYTt_F84ITzc9I7aZig8h3EKVkcDc5NwBM25NmOmwZnKdI1CKl_CWxjEv0fInvZykgmRBKD4q_czBFnKNAr5xOYeCOGECme-lkA/s400/Tan%252C+coral%252C+olive%252C+and+plum.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>My candidates for induction into the Hall of Archetypal Colors</i></div>
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In some languages, such as Russian, Japanese, and Italian, there is a separate word for <i>light blue </i>which stands on its own as a distinct color. So, maybe there are twelve archetypal colors? Dimitris Mylonas (Mylonas and MacDonald, 2015) suggested that lilac and turquoise also belong on the list. In two other papers, he has named a much larger collection, including cream, lime, olive, salmon, mustard, peach, tan, and coral.<br />
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So, I don't think we can say at this time that there are exactly eleven colors that serve as archetypal colors in our memory. There could be more. It also seems quite plausible (to me) that the number is different for different people. I would think that people who deal with colors all the time (like artists, graphic designers, fashion designers, interior decorators, and the spouses of color scientists) might have developed a wider collection of focal point colors. On the other hand, it could be that the relatively small collection of focal point colors are a result of something hardwired in the brain.<br />
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Here's another interesting thought. We know that some people have <i>perfect pitch</i>, an uncanny knack to identify musical notes. All of these studies looked at people's color memory in the aggregate. Perhaps there were a few individuals whose superpower is to have perfect hue? I have heard more than one person make that claim. Of course, one person who made that claim also told me that he was raised from infancy by a troop of iguanas in a volcanic crater. He probably learned it from them.<br />
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All interesting stuff for further research!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Non-References</span></b></div>
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Burnham, Robert W., and Joyce Clark, <i>A Color Memory Test</i>, Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol 44, No 8, Aug 1954</div>
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Rupert, Andrew Hurley, Rachel Randall, Liam O'Hara, Charles Tonkin, Julie C. Rice, <i>Color harmonies in packaging</i>, Color Research & Application, Volume 42, Issue 1, 28 March 2016</div>
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Yu, Luwen, Stephen Westland, Zhenhong Li, Qianqian Pan, Meong Jin Shin, Seahwa Won, <i>The role of individual colour preferences in consumer purchase decisions</i>, Color Research & Application, Volume 43, Issue 2, 10 October 2017</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">References</span></b></div>
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Adams, Grace Kinckle, <i>An Experimental Study of Memory Color and Related Phenomena</i>, The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Jul., 1923), pp. 359-407<br />
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Bae, Gi-Yuel, Maria Olkkonen, Sarah R. Allred, and Jonathan I. Flombaum, <i>Why Some Colors Appear More Memorable Than Others: A Model Combining Categories and Particulars in Color Working Memory</i>, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2015, Vol. 144, No. 4, 744–763</div>
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Bartleson, C. J., <i>Memory Colors of Familiar Objects</i>, Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol 50, No 1, Jan 1960<br />
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Berlin, B., and P. Kay, <i>Basic color terms: their universality and evolution</i> (Stanford, Calif.: Center for the Study of Language and Information 1969).<br />
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Katz, David, <i>The World of Colour</i>, Kegan, Paul, Trench, Tubner, 1935, p. 164<br />
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Heider, Eleanor Rosch, <i>Universals in color naming and memory</i>, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1972, Vol. 93, No. 1, 10-20<br />
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Hering, Ewald, <i>Outlines of a theory of light sense</i>, Grundzüge der Lehre vom Lichtsinn 1905, translated 1964, Harvard University Press<br />
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Mylonas, Dimitris and Lindsay MacDonald, <i>Online Colour Naming Experiment Using Munsell Samples</i>, European Conference on Colour in Graphics, Imaging, and Vision - CGIV, June 2010<br />
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Mylonas, Dimitris, Mathew Pruver, Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh, Lindsay MacDonald, and Lewis Griffin, T<i>he Use of English Colour Terms in Big Data</i>, May 2015, AIC Midterm 2015<br />
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Mylonas, Dimitris and Lindsay MacDonald, <i>Augmenting Basic Colour Terms in English</i>, Color Research and Application, Volume41, Issue 1, February 2016<br />
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Newhall, S, M., R. W. Burnham, and Joyce R. Clark, <i>Comparison of Successive with Simultaneous Color Matching</i>, JOSA 47, No. 1, Jan 1957</div>
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Pentz, Anthony J., <i>Does color memory exist?</i>, SPE/ANTEC 1999 Proceedings (Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibit)<br />
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Siple, Patricia, and Robert Springer, <i>Memory and preference for the colors of objects</i>, Perception & Psychophysics, 1983,34 (4), 363-370</div>
John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-87615552735096146622018-05-17T10:21:00.000-04:002018-06-03T20:58:31.172-04:00Do you remember a logo?<div style="text-align: justify;">
I stumbled across a quote the other day that I found interesting. This was on the <a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/history/2016/coca-cola-red-our-second-secret-formula">Coca-Cola website</a>:</div>
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"<i>There is no Pantone color for Coca-Cola red, but when you see it, you know it.</i>"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0jp2kDpndqaeRf0Dqdkw44kXzS3tnc12CyWAn4VRna6aZh99wpDHz5-bNSB0Jig2aNB23CuSTj3ZboiZuUWihFhyphenhyphenXqthKCFB_z9uXyGsxmtUyz1fRkU-mxqNLH_ypDeE6fbFA41ocJZE/s1600/TastetheFeeling3-604.rendition.584.326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="584" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0jp2kDpndqaeRf0Dqdkw44kXzS3tnc12CyWAn4VRna6aZh99wpDHz5-bNSB0Jig2aNB23CuSTj3ZboiZuUWihFhyphenhyphenXqthKCFB_z9uXyGsxmtUyz1fRkU-mxqNLH_ypDeE6fbFA41ocJZE/s400/TastetheFeeling3-604.rendition.584.326.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Ah! To be tanning under the Coke Red Sun!</i></div>
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This sounds like one of those factoids that everyone knows is true, so nobody would be crazy enough to actually test it. Well, guess what? I know a few crazy people. In fact, one of my best friends, Eddy Hagen, has recently tested this very thing with an online test: <a href="https://www.insights4print.ceo/2017/11/how-good-is-your-color-memory-lets-do-a-short-test/">how well can you pick out Coke red?</a></div>
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(As an aside, here is the process for joining the <i>John the Math Guy's Best Friend Club</i>: Connect with me on social media. Contact me somehow or other with a message that does <i>not </i>contain the phrase "John the Math Guy is a doofus." Then you're in. If you just want to get on my email list, then send an email to john@johnthemathguy.com to subscribe.)</div>
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There are two tests in Eddy's blog. In the first test, Eddy tests your short-term color memory . You are shown a color, and then asked to pick it out of a line-up later. That one is kind of a warm-up to the real test. In the second test, he shows you a bunch of colors and asks you to pick out Coke red.</div>
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Do people know Coke red when they see it, as the Coca-Cole website suggests? He shares the results in another blog post. I don't wanna give anything away, but the title of this post is <i><a href="https://www.insights4print.ceo/2018/04/you-cant-correctly-remember-an-iconic-color-not-even-coca-cola-red/#Update">You can’t correctly remember an iconic color, not even Coca-Cola red</a></i>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghj7kihNBVfdLppk-0bX1ODBIdCo8iu1esDK3iQCr-KGMINxcLCamg6P3RrI6OQXSFG-B78084x179kyUuFKSleJLEG0wFa6MWeYsB09wDmvvC_wJS5l6D-waszCQhhF5h1Gm8aIE4glY/s1600/2018_04_IconicColor_ok-1024x576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghj7kihNBVfdLppk-0bX1ODBIdCo8iu1esDK3iQCr-KGMINxcLCamg6P3RrI6OQXSFG-B78084x179kyUuFKSleJLEG0wFa6MWeYsB09wDmvvC_wJS5l6D-waszCQhhF5h1Gm8aIE4glY/s320/2018_04_IconicColor_ok-1024x576.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Which one makes you thirsty?</i></div>
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Who is right??!?!? Let's get to the bottom of this!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Brand color is important</span></b></div>
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Brand colors are important, especially if you have a brand to sell. Here is what Axel Kling (Print Quality Assurance Manager for Coke) has to say about the importance of brand colors:<br />
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<i>In today’s marketplace of unlimited beverage choices, a brand’s first point of contact is most likely to be at the point of purchase. And how well your product stands out on shelf could determine whether it’s put in the shopping cart or left behind.</i><br />
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I know most of my readers have private chefs who do their grocery shopping, but imagine if you will, being in the snack aisle of a grocery. You are trying to find your favorite bran cereal with raisins. Just reading that line, I'm gonna guess that you're thinking "purple". Am I right??! Of course, the image below wasn't any clue.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1MJEHVnFSHQ3EghW3JAy9uOJ4UfZSp0__tfnu8Lf8noNb3GVMTpXpII-BkyHHeVm1q-G3WlOylF-bKE8Vw0eu6r_LZuc1MCWcHHqOJSQa4n8qDLcQQ-9kyNm_soI0WCjdaOzcNj9FMA/s1600/Raisins+Bran.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="1600" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1MJEHVnFSHQ3EghW3JAy9uOJ4UfZSp0__tfnu8Lf8noNb3GVMTpXpII-BkyHHeVm1q-G3WlOylF-bKE8Vw0eu6r_LZuc1MCWcHHqOJSQa4n8qDLcQQ-9kyNm_soI0WCjdaOzcNj9FMA/s400/Raisins+Bran.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>When I am old, I shall eat cereal out of purple boxes</i></div>
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The bran owners of the various raisin brands have trained their cereal boxes to be distinctive colors so that they can jump off the shelf into your shopping cart. And lets, face it. Nothing says "raisin bran demographic" quite like the color purple.<br />
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This is an aside, but how can Kellog's and Post and Trader Joe's and Total and John the Math Guy Breakfast Foods all use the name <i>Raisin Bran</i>? Interesting trademark factoid: The Skinner Manufacturing Company was the first to sell raisin bran, back in 1926. It trademarked the name, but in 1944, the Supreme Court rescinded the trademark, saying that you can't trademark a simple description of a product.<br />
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Speaking of trademarks, the color purple, and brand colors ... In 2004 Cadbury applied for a British trademark for the color purple (Pantone 2685C) "applied to the whole visible surface, or being the predominant colour applied to the whole visible surface, of the packaging of the goods." <a href="https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2016/04/20/Cadbury-suffers-blow-in-latest-Nestle-battle-over-the-color-purple">Nestle objected, and their application was denied</a>. It seems you kinda have to have a <i>mark</i>, if you want to have it trade<i>marked</i>. But, this trademark application in 2004 was a revision of an earlier trademark from 1995, which is still in force, at least until Nestle contests that trademark.<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHcUhi6dUN7CfCydvMk7Bdw4srdcCLbPEBCdKyhshOrKhTvGvRl2QDdu7kkVnn2e9z70pN-fG4qfQI1-QAL_84Kg9IAtvOiA7W8L99-HrVF-Y8Qugsm6gr-R6nqRJ_YOa6M3raLIW6GwQ/s1600/Cadbury.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="714" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHcUhi6dUN7CfCydvMk7Bdw4srdcCLbPEBCdKyhshOrKhTvGvRl2QDdu7kkVnn2e9z70pN-fG4qfQI1-QAL_84Kg9IAtvOiA7W8L99-HrVF-Y8Qugsm6gr-R6nqRJ_YOa6M3raLIW6GwQ/s320/Cadbury.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Imagine my surprise when I found out that the chocolate wasn't purple!</i></div>
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This is in the UK. I apologize in advance to my British friends and enemies, but I'm not all that excited about British law. I mean, back in 1492, we fought the Spanish-American war to get away from having to follow your laws about tacks in our tea. What about US trademark law and colors?<br />
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I read up a bit on Wikipedia about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_trade_mark">color trademarks</a>. In the US, you can trademark a color so long as it serves no other purpose other than to distinguish your product. So, Johnson & Johnson can trademark the <i>name </i>Band Aid, but not the color, since that serves as camouflage on certain people's skin.<br />
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There are a number of colors that are trademarked in the US, as shown in the image below. I compiled these from the Wikipedia article and the Business Insider article <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/can-you-identify-these-12-brands-by-their-trademarked-colors-alone-2012-2">Can You Identify These 12 Brands By Their Trademarked Colors Alone</a>?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyY-NIEwXCG3vp4JiN_j2MyJzPOxD6u7NaOqQtW9cHAjCUnb5_NpIRjwYAzGRQOB3UbYDHKEpaeGJQVFEcJK4mBSVTQupdNFBVhz-E6DZmS5NByuBpjpXsdxn3Oo1CNF9rGcXdGpGLtq0/s1600/Trademarked+colors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1043" data-original-width="1600" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyY-NIEwXCG3vp4JiN_j2MyJzPOxD6u7NaOqQtW9cHAjCUnb5_NpIRjwYAzGRQOB3UbYDHKEpaeGJQVFEcJK4mBSVTQupdNFBVhz-E6DZmS5NByuBpjpXsdxn3Oo1CNF9rGcXdGpGLtq0/s400/Trademarked+colors.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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I am gonna conclude that at the very least, brand owners think that brand colors are important.</div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">It's not just about being able to find your favorite cereal</b></div>
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Color is about brand recognition, It helps you find a specific product within a dazzling array of colors. But the prevailing wisdom is that it also communicates something about a product. Red universally means <i>romance</i> or hookers, except when it's used on a fire truck or a stop sign. And of course, it doesn't mean romance if you are in China, where <a href="http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-red-4344#.WviawogvyUk">red signifies joy and luck</a>. Or on one of my earlier blog posts where I decided it just signifies <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2012/10/red-is-color-of.html">excitement</a>, which explains why double-decker buses are red. But trust me. The meaning of a color is universal and unambiguous.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9GmyuuZcTKmKVm980QRjpzoCHf59WdBydLE5e-6lkgz0Vnd-DtaxW8Aa9OjPe9_3fEp3YOIbLK7ET_Gqpda-XclqG1dQmNgtSnoSMbUzT6ZLCSpjRaHQW5pzedUk7ZO513aweQ9AOSw/s1600/The+cereal+aisle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9GmyuuZcTKmKVm980QRjpzoCHf59WdBydLE5e-6lkgz0Vnd-DtaxW8Aa9OjPe9_3fEp3YOIbLK7ET_Gqpda-XclqG1dQmNgtSnoSMbUzT6ZLCSpjRaHQW5pzedUk7ZO513aweQ9AOSw/s400/The+cereal+aisle.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>John spent the better part of an afternoon looking for his cereal</i></div>
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I have heard several presentations at conferences where the speaker says something like "color accounts for 86.3% of our buying decisions". As a math guy, I know that 95.4% of all statistics are made up, so, is there any definitive research behind the importance of brand color? Or is this just one of those statistics that gets quoted enough so that it becomes established fact?<br />
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Here is a quote from Daivata Patil that sounds authoritative:<br />
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<i>Color is ubiquitous and is a source of information. People make up their minds within 90 seconds of their initial interactions with either people or products. About 62‐90 percent of the assessment is based on colors alone. </i><br />
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Authoritative, with numbers and everything. But the article does not describe how these numbers were determined or even give a reference to where they came from. Hmmm.... urban legend?<br />
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Here is a similar quote from Axel's presentation. Remember Axel? The color guy with Coke? He attributes this quote to Jill Morton's Color Matters website. Both attribute it to Loyola University.<br />
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<i>Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%. </i><br />
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I googled this quote to try to find a link to the actual study. Note that I put quotes around the words so that Google knew that I was looking for those exact words in that order. Goggle told me there were "About 2,170,000 results"! I admit to not reading through them all. I looked at the first ten hits, trying to find the title or author of the study, or maybe a link. All of them mention Loyola, and several of the web pages reference Jill Morton. None of them give any more information about the study.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WMV3835vWselxUF6JFDYmH6UBY8PjMOtOWZsau-3LBMbEF5fRQyZ0bl-MW65HRvgpknFcRKXf8D2vQybjlTVZJiwC4ZgGNWEP84JK3pHYtn0oY9eGsB66t4B8fZPARtYYWe_5-7eYqA/s1600/Jackie+Chan.jpg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="906" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WMV3835vWselxUF6JFDYmH6UBY8PjMOtOWZsau-3LBMbEF5fRQyZ0bl-MW65HRvgpknFcRKXf8D2vQybjlTVZJiwC4ZgGNWEP84JK3pHYtn0oY9eGsB66t4B8fZPARtYYWe_5-7eYqA/s320/Jackie+Chan.jpg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Time for an infamous John the Math Guy tirade. This is not Science. I'm not saying that I have reason to doubt the statement, or that the various places that provide this quote are required to track down and report the original source. It's just that, for me, I would like to assess the strength of the argument. Was this an undergrad student who made up the numbers the night before the term paper was due? A professor who assembled twenty students for a little test? Or was this a master's thesis with hundreds of volunteers following a rigid experimental protocol?<br />
<br />
Gregory Ciotti expresses my concern a bit more emphatically than wishy-washy me:<br />
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<i>Most of today's conversations on colors and persuasion consist of hunches, anecdotal evidence and advertisers blowing smoke about "colors and the mind."</i><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Getting back to the topic</span></b><br />
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Let me take a minute to try to remember where I was going with all of this. Oh yeah. Eddy Hagen's experiment about Coke red recognition.<br />
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Eddy's online experiment carefully explains the methodology and the results. It's Science, but I'm not gonna claim that Eddy's online experiment is <i>good solid </i>Science, and I don't think Eddy would either. He acknowledges that not all monitors are calibrated, and surveys where the participants are self-selected are a bit less rigorous that random selection. It could be that zealous PepsiCo employees deliberately failed the test to discredit their competitor. Or it could be that some of the individuals clicked at random just cuz it was late at night and they were waiting for the pizza guy to arrive.<br />
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Signs.com did another test of people's ability to recall brand logos. They brought in 156 people, and had them <a href="https://www.signs.com/branded-in-memory/">draw the logos of ten well-known companies from memory</a>. This involved recalling not only color, but the shape and text of the logo.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKL8UEUbtjXl6JpKOHH9SVhd7iBbrx-hWMYQin22JMiW5VHBnkJMzCNACZajAAJHedjRlPmrVx-lbp3amP1knrUeZDucvsQqPkFLfoIwXekmTP4I45F9cQbXkL00nL7T7R-uuoAizf36g/s1600/Ten+logos.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="875" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKL8UEUbtjXl6JpKOHH9SVhd7iBbrx-hWMYQin22JMiW5VHBnkJMzCNACZajAAJHedjRlPmrVx-lbp3amP1knrUeZDucvsQqPkFLfoIwXekmTP4I45F9cQbXkL00nL7T7R-uuoAizf36g/s400/Ten+logos.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Can you draw these from memory?</i></div>
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They have some stats on various aspects of the logos, but I did my own counting. I looking only at whether they got all the right colors, without adding extraneous ones. The results below are not all that fabulous, especially for multi-colored logos.<br />
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<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
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<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Company<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Correct<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Colors<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
7-Eleven<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
14%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Green, Orange, Red<o:p></o:p></div>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Burger King<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
20%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Blue, Orange, Red<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Foot Locker<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
38%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Black, Red<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Walmart<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
49%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Blue, Yellow<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Dominos<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
53%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Blue, Red<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Starbucks<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
53%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Green<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Ikea<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
56%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Blue, Yellow<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Apple<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
72%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Black<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Target<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
84%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Red<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Adidas<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
92%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
Black<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I will point out that I was rather lenient about allowing different <i>shades </i>of the correct color. I allowed an orange flavored yellow to count as a yellow, or for Ikea blue to be too light or too dark. The image below shows the variation in color for Satyrbucks, which uses only green in the logo.<br />
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<i>156 guesses at Starbucks green</i></div>
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</div>
<br />
At the far left, you see all 156 logos as drawn by the participants in the survey. (You can see a full sized version of this on <a href="https://www.signs.com/branded-in-memory/">Signs.com website</a>.) In the middle drawing, I pulled all of the green pixels from each drawing, and averaged them together to show the green that the participant chose. At the far right, I show the 21 contestants that came within 10 DE2000 of the true Starbucks green. For reference, a common tolerance for commercial printing a color is 3.0 DE2000. Only two people out of the 156 participants were able to create a color from memory that would have been deemed acceptable printing of that logo.<br />
<br />
Caveats...<br />
<br />
I have made the assumption that there was an unbroken chain of proper color management throughout this process. If I had to put money on that, I would say that I would prefer to not put money on that. I don't say that to disparage Signs.com at all. I just know that the bar for rigor in Science is pretty high. But, looking at the middle image above... I rather doubt that any deficiencies in the rigor of this test could have caused that much variation in color.<br />
<br />
Another caveat is in the interpretation of the results. This is a test of the participant's ability to recall the proper color from memory (as in Eddy's Coke red test), but also a test of the participant's ability to reproduce that color using the software provided. So, the logo drawing test is harder than the task of trying to find your favorite raisin bran.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Pondering</b></span><br />
<br />
Eddy provided me with an interesting anecdote: "To put that <i>unique Coke red</i> in perspective: in the LinkedIn ‘Printing Production Professionals’ one of the printers that works for Coca-Cola shared that in the X-mas edition, the Coke red is slightly darker… (which I checked in my collection of Coke cans and it is correct) So if color is soooooo important, how does this different Coke red impact sales?"<br />
<br />
I'm still kinda pondering why Eddy has a Coke can collection... but these two experiments beg the question about how precisely a brand color needs to be defined. Both experiments are well above the level of urban legend expressed by the statement "<i>Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%</i>". But neither experiment quite fulfills the high bar of rigor required to be accepted as peer-reviewed Science with a capital S. I don't expect to see either in the next edition of <i>Color Research and Application</i>.<br />
<br />
But, the two experiments are suggestive, and that suggestion is a contradiction between the brand owner's expectations of what is needed and the psycho-physics of the color that we see.<br />
<br />
In the next installment in this series, I will take a closer look at the Science that has been done, especially <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-well-do-we-remember-color.html">the Science having to do with our memory of colors</a>. If you want a bit of a foretaste, look through the references below. I am going to pretend to have digested them in the next blog post.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">References</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bae, G. L., M. Olkkonen, S. Allred, and J. Flombaum, <i>Why some colors appear more memorable than others: A model combining categories and particulars in color working memory</i>, J Exp Psychol Gen. 2015 Aug;144(4):744-63</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Belcher, Teri, and Kevin Harvey, <i>The Influence of Color</i>, ANTEC 2007</div>
<br />
Bartleson, C. J., <i>Memory Colors of Familiar Objects</i>, Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol 50, No 1, Jan 1960<br />
<br />
Burnham, Robert W., and Joyce Clark, <i>A Color Memory Test</i>, Journal of the Optical Society of America, Vol 44, No 8, Aug 1954<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Ciotti, Gregory, <i>The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding</i><br />
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233843<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cunningham, Meagan, <i>The Value of Color Research in Brand Strategy</i>, Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2017, 5, 186-196</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Elliot, Andrew J., <i>Color and psychological functioning: a review of theoretical and empirical work</i>, Frontiers in Psychology, April 2015, Vol 6, Article 368</div>
<br />
Goguen, Kate, <i>The Influence of color on purchasing decisions related to product design</i>, Master's Thesis, Rochester Institute of Technology, Feb 20, 2012<br />
<br />
Javed, Saad Ahmed and Sara Javed, <i>The impact of product’s packaging color on customers’ buying preferences under time pressure</i>, Marketing and Branding Research 2(2015) 4-14<br />
<br />
Kling, Axel, <i>The Importance of Color Management for a Consumer Product Company</i>, Printing Industries of America Color Management Conference, 2011<br />
<br />
Patil, Daivata, <i>Coloring consumer`s psychology using different shades the role of perception of colors by consumers in consumer decision making process: a micro study of select departmental stores in Mumbai city, India</i>, Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR) Vol 7 Issue 1 October 2012<br />
<br />
Mohebbi, Behzad, <i>The art of packaging: An investigation into the role of color in packaging, marketing, and branding</i>, International Journal of Organizational Leadership 3(2014) 92-102<br />
<br />
Morton, Jill, <i>Color & Branding</i>, Color Matters<br />
https://www.colormatters.com/component/content/article/62-color-a-marketing/240-color-a-branding<br />
<br />
Satyendra Singh, <i>Impact of color on marketing</i>, Management Decision, 2006, Vol. 44 Issue: 6, pp.783-789</div>
John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-24257996132115174692018-05-08T09:00:00.000-04:002018-05-08T09:00:03.234-04:00The heyday of expanded gamut printing patents<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>
<span style="text-align: justify;">In the </span><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/04/expanded-gamut-when-ideas-time-has-come.html" style="text-align: justify;">previous
installment of this series on the history of expanded gamut printing</a><span style="text-align: justify;">, I
chronicled three times where augmenting CMYK with a few extra colors was
independently invented. There was such an uproar to my post that I had to
write </span><a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/04/expanded-gamut-when-ideas-time-has-come_26.html" style="text-align: justify;">an
addendum</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> to add all the examples that I had missed.</span><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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At Hallmark
Cards, the technique served a niche need for that time and place. The work of
Harald Kueppers seems to have found a different niche, and gained some attention,
but it saw limited use. And the developments at Dainippon, while they were very
similar to what we see today, have left little trace in the history books. All
the examples cited by friends also wound up being niches.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Sad fact:
expanded gamut did not go mainstream during this time period.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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One of the
commentators on my post commented a comment about the futility of doing patent
searches to dig up history. So today, I look exclusively at the patent record.
In this blog post, I look at a period of twelve months in 1994 and 1995. These
372 days rocked the world of CMYK printing to its the very foundations. You
think I'm being overly melodramatic? Consider this: These 372 days saw not one,
not two, not three, four, or five, not six, but <i>seven</i> filings
for patents on expanded gamut printing. CMYK printing. World of CMYK printing,
consider yourself rocked.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRhvXOsOYuBXlFuVfMuk5mfa7SiScfUoJ55urKOChRaZAOox3KAoepgOr6UImGKQjX69jK_CB3fESEOI7nojoYiJOWbaw41TjFxDkPe1MsNSaPaHtrDntTmd-ijgLyB87UhmbEPBNCnvI/s1600/Rock+my+expanded+gamut+world%252C+baby.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1147" data-original-width="1098" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRhvXOsOYuBXlFuVfMuk5mfa7SiScfUoJ55urKOChRaZAOox3KAoepgOr6UImGKQjX69jK_CB3fESEOI7nojoYiJOWbaw41TjFxDkPe1MsNSaPaHtrDntTmd-ijgLyB87UhmbEPBNCnvI/s400/Rock+my+expanded+gamut+world%252C+baby.png" width="382" /></a></div>
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<i>Expand my expanded gamut, baby!</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Hutcheson, Du Pont, March 29, 1994</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
If one cyan
print unit is good, then two must be better, right? And if you print with two
cyan print units, why not two magenta, and two yellow, and two black? The idea
is to give a double bump anywhere that you need more ink than a single print
unit can provide. This was invented by the very modest Don Hutcheson, and
marketed by Dupont under the name <i>HyperColor</i>. I guess someone
vetoed the name <i>HyperDon</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXLgeAg5GPNpQ-3qgYnfIYeuNfF2xhzxf4F-dplvioWLFfkrwUgH3xqySHIrK7kTlcAzTCMVx_cjrP4YZ0k8Ntjjnej87I961xG9uWCvlrJ2xXwks0AZAckArMfKyiIcRD2hnprzKkUBs/s1600/A+man+and+his+patent.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="1248" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXLgeAg5GPNpQ-3qgYnfIYeuNfF2xhzxf4F-dplvioWLFfkrwUgH3xqySHIrK7kTlcAzTCMVx_cjrP4YZ0k8Ntjjnej87I961xG9uWCvlrJ2xXwks0AZAckArMfKyiIcRD2hnprzKkUBs/s400/A+man+and+his+patent.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Don'cha just love the cute drawings in patents?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
The technique
can be considered an expanded gamut process, since it does expand the gamut. It
just uses CMYK as the additional colors, instead of OGV or some other
collection.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Some of my
readers may have met Don Hutcheson. He is still in the business, and is
actually still working on this project. Idealliance's XCMYK project is a way to
expand the gamut by pushing the standard CMYK to higher densities. After 24
years, one would hope that he will be making some progress soon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
A note on
patents: Patents generally have a section at the beginning that describes
the <i>background of the invention</i> or alternately, the <i>prior
art</i>, that is, the existing stuff related to the new stuff being invented.
The title <i>prior art</i> is actually shorthand for <i>prior
art bashing</i>, since this section usually highlights the deficiencies of what
is already out there. The prior art section is followed by an obligatory
section where the inventor explicitly states the purpose of the
invention. This section is obligatory because patents have to be for something
useful. I found that out the hard way when I tried to patent a wind tunnel with
left-handed ear flaps!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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What was the purpose
for this (I mean Don's) invention? A quote from the patent: "... it is
believed to be advantageous to provide a method for extending the color
printing density range of a printing device without introducing special or
non-process printing inks or unconventional pre-press proofing systems..."<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Plettinck and Van de Capelle, Barco, April 29, 1994</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Technically,
this is not a printing method. It is a way to convert one color separation
(based on CMYK) into another separation based on non-standard inks. What do
they mean by "non-standard"? Here is an example from the patent:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i>For example,
a chocolate manufacturer will prefer an ink set wherein brown ink plays a more
dominant part.... So for example PANTONE (registered trademark) red, process
yellow, and PANTONE brown form a set of non-standard inks that are used for
printing packaging material for chocolate.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-jmfAFYZXIB4-ndU1fp96b9lpRZAUK9eLSzXaetUPnfqOvran5CwE1bBwe3LG9VoKVR7iustB2pT84jE-RisKLfYtE2d963qNeQlJwv1DQiHbr4yYNC69RkQOlLAbl5tZ2gdu97G5lUI/s1600/Chocolate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="838" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-jmfAFYZXIB4-ndU1fp96b9lpRZAUK9eLSzXaetUPnfqOvran5CwE1bBwe3LG9VoKVR7iustB2pT84jE-RisKLfYtE2d963qNeQlJwv1DQiHbr4yYNC69RkQOlLAbl5tZ2gdu97G5lUI/s320/Chocolate.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Reading the patent makes my mouth water!</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Well... ok...
maybe this isn't really expanding the gamut, although it <i>could</i>. I
just couldn't pass up a patent that talked about chocolate. Those of you who
are chocolate fanatics will understand.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
What is the
purpose of this invention? "The object of the invention is to provide a
method for generating printing data wherein the second colour separation is
determined in a more efficient and non-empirical way and a result is that the
printing quality remains unchanged or is even increased."<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Eder and Maerz, Eder Repros Offset Repro GMBH,
May 19, 1994</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
This patent is
in German, so I admit to not having read it in full. Well, actually, I didn't
read any of it. But, I can tell you that Eder has been described by Anastasios
Politis as: "One of the most significant
pioneers in processing CMYK + x colors...".
I also know that Linotype-Hell marketed the Eder software under the name Eder
MCS (Multi-Color Separation). More on that in a bit...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
The
company <a href="https://www.eder.de/en/landingpage/">Eder</a> still
exists, and is doing software under the byline "product communication in
the digital age".<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6oRRJJxK_L6GCVgwHq5AHx3-MLh0ha_iSal-r5XsFeGwi7lLBZCncN14icBttJnHzAp4M_EECVuflorjKlqOf_arDZfmhB92Kx0SvqGvVoYBDAsrMo5au307D5fZm4M3UKsb0Yq5tBow/s1600/King+Eider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6oRRJJxK_L6GCVgwHq5AHx3-MLh0ha_iSal-r5XsFeGwi7lLBZCncN14icBttJnHzAp4M_EECVuflorjKlqOf_arDZfmhB92Kx0SvqGvVoYBDAsrMo5au307D5fZm4M3UKsb0Yq5tBow/s400/King+Eider.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Printing of the King Eider duck may benefit from ederMCS
color separation</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
What was the
purpose of the invention? I did some OCR on images from the pdf of the patent,
and translated the German text into English: "It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method for creating a color print image, with the help of which create high-brilliance color images, the required printing effort is reduced compared to the seven-color printing."<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
What is the
purpose of me asking that question all the time? Please be patient. I am
actually going somewhere with this. Suffice it to say that, so far, making
prettier pictures has been the main goal so far.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Boll and Gregory, Eastman Kodak, October 21, 1994</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
One of the many
things I like about writing patents is that the patent writer is allowed to be
his or her own lexicographer. That means they can make up words! The title of
this patent contains the word <i>extra-quarternary</i>, which I take to
mean "beyond four".<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Some comments on
this uber-cool word. First, Harold Boll told me in an email: "I longingly
love that word too, mainly because it should have been in the title of my first
patent!" In the body of his patent, he used the word <i>extra-quaternary</i>.
Due to a clerical error, an <i>r</i> was added to the word: <i>extra-quarternary</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzD49YGmsWZ24XmhwcRC8wJYwSZuPBLa7wbcQrMkttu90Jc6uygwGv_iRBHqEsFIvdMGbSy4jjQlBpVIsp2cD2VHYhsp2FQeN5CH17GKEMY6CjCSktPoTXD6mpPXeZlBCxysawUoOOxDc/s1600/Beatles+plus+one.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="900" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzD49YGmsWZ24XmhwcRC8wJYwSZuPBLa7wbcQrMkttu90Jc6uygwGv_iRBHqEsFIvdMGbSy4jjQlBpVIsp2cD2VHYhsp2FQeN5CH17GKEMY6CjCSktPoTXD6mpPXeZlBCxysawUoOOxDc/s400/Beatles+plus+one.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i>Yoko was an extra-quaternary</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Second comment
on the word: several writers have used the term <i>extra-trinary</i> to
connote expanded gamut printing. This is just plain wrong!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Kodak first got
their feet wet working on a profile for Pantone's expanded gamut product,
Hexachrome. More on Hexachrome later... <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Kodak had at
least one major customer for their software product, Hallmark Cards. If you
remember all the way back to the first blog post in this series, you will
recall that Hallmark was big into expanding their gamut in the 60's.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
I'm getting
ahead of myself a bit here, but Kodak introduced an expanded gamut product
called <i>Spotless </i>in 2011, 17 years after the Boll and Gregory
patent. It is likely that there is not direct connection between the work of
Harold and Spotless. Why would Kodak jump back into the expanded gamut
ballpark? Hang onto that thought. I will come back to it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
What was the
purpose of this invention? "It is another object of the present invention that it is uniquely capable of exploiting all of the attainable color gamut afforded by an n-ink (n>4) printing process and thereby achieves maximum colorfulness for rendered colors."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Maximum
colorfulness... yum.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Herbert and DiBernardo, Pantone, November 29, 1994</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Everyone in the
print industry knows of Pantone. Lawrence Herbert is the guy who started
Pantone. His son, Richard Herbert, took over the reigns. Lawrence and Al
DiBernardo are the guys who invented Hexchrome, which was perhaps the most
well-known of the mid 1990s commercial offerings for expanded gamut printing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
This system uses
orange and green as the additional colors (there is no additional blue or
violet ink). They wanted to keep the number of inks down to six, so as to make
it usable on more presses. The ink set also includes richer CMYK inks, and some
of the inks are fluorescent so as to make them more vibrant.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
One of the
things that distinguished Hexachrome is that they had a special fandeck for the
Hexachrome colors. These guides had all the colors in their regular book, but
with one difference. The regular Pantone guides have a recipe for how to mix
each color in a bucket of ink. The Hexchrome guides have a recipe for how to
mix halftones on press to make the color.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNv8MfUqEzEq6-4G8W8f_Vb04bdyWGGbEhQTpHmC-FOQaXub-rSMjQXz7DqyYQjQK9599OCrh_bY9w9nJvJ4d7w2-vLg2Vm5bP71kY85vLl8Mp1gA12-ARfRYAxHk9b_Zkpmd1clwMuY/s1600/Hexachrome+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="640" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNv8MfUqEzEq6-4G8W8f_Vb04bdyWGGbEhQTpHmC-FOQaXub-rSMjQXz7DqyYQjQK9599OCrh_bY9w9nJvJ4d7w2-vLg2Vm5bP71kY85vLl8Mp1gA12-ARfRYAxHk9b_Zkpmd1clwMuY/s320/Hexachrome+book.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="text-align: center;">Still available on <a href="https://www.ebay.com/p/PANTONE-Hexachrome-Color-Selector-Uncoated/580967932">ebay</a></i></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
If the fan deck
of expanded gamut colors came from any other company, I would say that this was
a brilliant marketing move. It certainly raised the awareness of the product to
have a physical sample of the system. But since Pantone was kinda in the
business of making fan decks, it wasn't so much brilliant as it was obvious.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
What is the
purpose of this invention? The first few words of the summary are: "A
printing system for high fidelity printing of an image is
provided..." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
According to the
patent, Hexachrome is all abut making high fidelity colors. But (important
point here for my narrative) the Hexachrome book really can't be used to make
pictures. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Seinfeld's 100th episode, February 2, 1995</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
The 100th
episode of Seinfeld aired during the 372 days that rocked the world of CMYK
printing. Coincidence?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtAmSPPj3xDmsaH6bLyColKaYMy4diLXTW3w0WPCckk3xIrfiK3IMYGsCeLtPOvHky3zZlA0QU8xpNm7-T2QreOm2FuuFukAqXHbrWamXva9jj2fSSBvuRncRCO6KaSDdhmFF4wP_Cpow/s1600/Seinfeld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="223" data-original-width="374" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtAmSPPj3xDmsaH6bLyColKaYMy4diLXTW3w0WPCckk3xIrfiK3IMYGsCeLtPOvHky3zZlA0QU8xpNm7-T2QreOm2FuuFukAqXHbrWamXva9jj2fSSBvuRncRCO6KaSDdhmFF4wP_Cpow/s400/Seinfeld.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i>Jerry Seinfeld has yet to comment<br />
on his alleged links to expanded gamut printing </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Cooper, Linotype-Hell, March 27, 1995</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
This patent is a
two-step process. First the CMYK separation is created, and then a correction
is determined. This is all pretty obvious when looking at the diagram below from the patent.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRoy-rJyXYpQkGlH7vp-RvneSFZsNiwziuFX6fkVSwxlUAuSWVh8Qsvd0XkKimB3k5A-gVfqsMwMo6rb8ReBBlpR87nuO1hj2dZafk0AGR7iDi2boHMnXH7xp5_rSPu-TQdLa4uEyt_sU/s1600/Coopers+patent.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="441" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRoy-rJyXYpQkGlH7vp-RvneSFZsNiwziuFX6fkVSwxlUAuSWVh8Qsvd0XkKimB3k5A-gVfqsMwMo6rb8ReBBlpR87nuO1hj2dZafk0AGR7iDi2boHMnXH7xp5_rSPu-TQdLa4uEyt_sU/s400/Coopers+patent.PNG" width="271" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i>The patent office desperately needs a service for<br />
colorizing gorgeous drawing from old patents</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Linotype-Hell
released this as <i>HiFi Color 3000</i> in 1994. In 1995, they
announced that they would be selling the ederMCS package. It would have been
interesting to have been a fly on the wall for the discussions they had about switching over to someone else's product.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
What is the
purpose for this invention? I will skip the patent, and go to a <a href="http://www.greenharbor.com/LHTIfolder/lhti9405.pdf">press release
for <i>High Fidelity Color Printing</i></a>:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Why would anyone
want to print seven inks?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
•
Seven inks can print a larger color gamut which includes colors that the four
process color inks cannot achieve.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
•
Seven inks can achieve a brighter color appearance and improved modulation of
color.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
•
Seven inks allow closer color matches to the original.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
•
Printing with seven inks produces cleaner reds, greens, and blues.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Here is an
interesting quote from the patent: "Spot colors are not considered in this
application." Hang onto that thought. I will get back to it. Really. I am
getting to something.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Bernasconi, Opaltone, April 5, 1995</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Mathew
Bernasconi developed a system of expanded gamut which uses CMYK+RGB.
This is one of the few systems patented in the heyday of expanded gamut
printing patents that has survived. This patent covers a device which scans a
photograph and determines a set of color separations. Conceptually, there are
two scans. The first scan is that of a traditional scanner, where a CMYK
separation is done. The second scan creates a separation for the expanded inks to make
up for the limitations of the first separation.<br />
<br />
One difference between this patent and the others is that the extra-quaternary colors are preferably red, green, and blue instead of orange, green, and violet. Bernasconi explains the use of red over orange,<br />
<br />
<i>Orange is not a primary color, it’s a secondary (i.e mixed from red & green light). Therefore using orange ink in an expanded system actually restricts the color gamut. A red primary mixed with a yellow primary creates pure orange (see overprint image below) thus expanding the gamut whereby the red primary is also mixed with magenta to create “scarlet” reds. The hue angle difference between 100% overprint (R+Y) & (R+M) should be >30º. This hue angle difference cannot be achieved with 100% (O+Y) & (O+M) because the orange is too yellow from the outset.</i><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPScSAKonX1Pq2McAnrsh8saOQIOzpn63ymUBNRuiHPFnYD7-njovNpecnsVwEiDr7mUGivWxO-u79SGPicDI0hEerUUfZEDCQAVj3mNo_aRTnACF3Oal3E7jeK7oikhf57cdXt_U0Bw/s1600/Opaltone+color+mixes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1554" data-original-width="1600" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPScSAKonX1Pq2McAnrsh8saOQIOzpn63ymUBNRuiHPFnYD7-njovNpecnsVwEiDr7mUGivWxO-u79SGPicDI0hEerUUfZEDCQAVj3mNo_aRTnACF3Oal3E7jeK7oikhf57cdXt_U0Bw/s320/Opaltone+color+mixes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>This is not the NBC peacock</i></div>
<br />
Just in case you are getting a bit confused about which set of colors are being used as primaries, I provide the comparison in the image below. Which one is correct? The concept of primaries is based on RGB color theory, which is a simplification of color <i>science</i>. So, primaries are not really defined in color science. If, however, you seek your primaries based on color engineering, then the correct primaries are whatever set of pigments give you the biggest gamut. Finally, if you are a color practitioner, then the correct primaries are the ones that get you the colors that you want.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Cu3INOozadUtQeWqI4MIwAMKqTBux8udPmApOm5aSkrsDS2bI3hkn-hiDDSt1_drWPsLEd3o4Z_W6e7H9ytj7MphyphenhyphenzCZRJGSf5G6EfOtnvOiEUAL_qyebaY-rWrwMFLLPIGhb6ZY8ig/s1600/Inks+sets.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="656" data-original-width="1600" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Cu3INOozadUtQeWqI4MIwAMKqTBux8udPmApOm5aSkrsDS2bI3hkn-hiDDSt1_drWPsLEd3o4Z_W6e7H9ytj7MphyphenhyphenzCZRJGSf5G6EfOtnvOiEUAL_qyebaY-rWrwMFLLPIGhb6ZY8ig/s640/Inks+sets.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Comparison of the chosen ink sets</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br />
Another note on
patents in general: the body of any patent describes specific <i>embodiments </i>of
the invention. In the case of Bernasconi's patent, the addition of red, green, and blue inks to CMY is an embodiment. But the
teeth of a patent is in the claims. The claims are generally much broader,
covering many different embodiments. In this case, the first claim refers to
"a plurality of data channels", instead of listing a specific set of
inks. This means that the Opaltone patent could cover CMY+RGB (the preferred
embodiment), or it could cover CMYK+OGV or RGB+CMYK.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
In a much later
patent (2011), Bernasconi described a CMY+RGB variation on this invention.
Instead of using black ink, this system mixes red, green, and blue inks to make
black. In this way, expanded gamut printing can be done on a six color press.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
What was the
purpose for this invention? "... saturated colours such as deep reds,
greens and blues cannot be reproduced satisfactorily due to the limited print
range of four colour process."<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">One more expanded gamut effort</span></b><br />
<br />
Mark Mazur acquainted me with another expanded gamut effort in this time frame. He says that it was the first product in the packaging industry that allowed the user to select his own set of pigments.<br />
<br />
The company is called Specialcolor. According to <a href="http://www.specialcolor.com/about.html">their website</a>, they started selling expanded gamut color separation software (under the name ICISS) in November of 1995. This is just after the 373 days that shook the very foundations of the CMYK world, but I would argue that, had Glynn Hartley decided to file a patent, it would have been in the critical time period.<br />
<br />
I did search for patents from Glynn. Couldn't find any in the US or the European database. His website doesn't list any patents, so I am guessing he never filed. That's not to say that he didn't invent anything that was patentable. I think it's a pretty good bet that there was something is this effort that would be inventive enough to get a few claims in a patent.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">So what happened?</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
In 1991, Don
Carli made a bold prediction "High Fidelity methodologies ... Represent a
revenue opportunity potentially accounting for as much as 15 - 20% of the
$150 billion dollar world-wide color printing market by the end of the
decade." Speaking of cool made-up words, I should mention that Don Carli
coined the phrase <i>HiFi printing</i>. I also remember hearing him refer
to stochastic screening as <i>sarcastic </i>screening. Love the guy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
These
predictions were enabled by technology in the mid 1990s. Back in the old days, the thing that made plates was a combination scanner (to scan the films), computer (digital or analog, to do the math for color conversion and screening, and platesetter (to make the physical plates). This is a pretty closed system. Only a few engineers really got a chance to play with the cool stuff inside. This changed in the early 1990s.<br />
<br />
Apple provided affordable workstations that could play with images before they went to plate -- desktop publishing. In 1994, Creo introduced the first Computer To Plate (CTP) system. With these two pieces, a larger group of engineers could play with the way color is separated, and then make plates.<br />
<br />
Gary Field points to another necessary technology that enabled the Heyday of Expanded Gamut Printing Patents: stochastic screening, AKA FM screening. When additional inks are added to CMYK, moire patterns show up. Icky, objectionable moire patterns. FM screening is a way to avoid these icky, objectionable moire patterns. Now, FM screening goes way back to 1976, but Gary argues that "it wasn't until the introduction of Agfa's CristalRaster in 1993, that this technology became suitable for high quality work."<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Thus, desktop publishing, CTP, and FM screening were the final enablers that made it possible for engineers to scan in image files, play with them on a computer with enough horsepower to do interesting stuff, send out the files to have plates made, and use those plates for high quality printing. The playground for innovation was opened.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
By the late
1990s, we had all the technology in place from multiple vendors for expanded
gamut printing. Separation software was available from Kodak, eder, Opaltone, ICISS, and Pantone.
Inks were available through Pantone or Opaltone, or from your local ink vendor. Even Adobe jumped on the
bandwagon. Postscript 3, which became available in 1997, included support for
HiFi color.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSOE9zXNZtg-e4Exlp4aMtIoGbahEByR3UnPPyEjrcqhWMV8rgzXK23gaIibqGQ0E6mqLWkHX_V2bwvnnNVxjf-VNVLFiTfTRi6hwSH4-WzZEuWgryi9o0qBS237IXQxPQN9iNeTYoMg/s1600/Expanded+gamut+colorbar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="975" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSOE9zXNZtg-e4Exlp4aMtIoGbahEByR3UnPPyEjrcqhWMV8rgzXK23gaIibqGQ0E6mqLWkHX_V2bwvnnNVxjf-VNVLFiTfTRi6hwSH4-WzZEuWgryi9o0qBS237IXQxPQN9iNeTYoMg/s400/Expanded+gamut+colorbar.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i>Look out!! The expanded gamut ink train is coming
through!</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
But...<br />
<br />
Don Hutcheson wrote
a "state-of-the-market" article for GATF World in 1999. His first
sentence: "Despite a splashy introduction in the early 1990's, HiFi color
printing has grown very little in the last five years."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Hexachrome was
well known, but was it a commercial success? It was estimated in 1999
(Hutcheson's article) that Hexachrome was in use by only a few hundred
printers. Bear in mind that at this time, there were tens of thousands of printers. Another article (from Glynn Hartley) said in 1999 that "there is a perceived low take up of Hexachrome".<br />
<br />
In the same article about Glynn, he reported that there were "over 100 ICISS users currently operating in the UK." Maybe the software sold for the equivalent of $1000 a copy? I would call this a moderately successful small business. I don't want to appear to disparage him, but this is still a small business.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Hexachrome was discontinued in 2008, but Opaltone is also still around. They have their niche in the digital printing market. But they
are not a huge company. ICISS is also still around today, but I don't see 100 employees on LinkedIn.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">So <i>what happened</i>?</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Expanded gamut
was showing so much promise. Why didn't it fulfill the hype and become the
default printing technology?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Here is an adage
which is important to developers of new products: People are generally not
willing to pay more for higher quality. There may be niches where the extra
cost is justified, but if you want a product to hit prime time, look for ways
to make it cheaper. Better yet, look for ways that it can save your customer
money.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Adding a few
more inks may make prettier pictures, but it will cost more. Prettier, but more expensive pictures are definitely in
the niche bucket.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Kevin Bourquin has pointed to another issue that held expanded gamut back in the 90s: "I think the problem in 1994 was that while there were patents about how to do separations and some software to help, it was not well integrated into the production workflows. This made it cumbersome for companies to keep streamlined workflows." Having software to do the color separation is super cool, but you also have to be able to design, create a proof, do the RIP (with FM screening), set up profiles and plate curves, and do process control at the press side. Finding a collection of software together from multiple vendors to do something new can be a challenge.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">So what <i>finally </i>happened?</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
In 2013 Mark
Mazur conducted a survey that estimated that 10% to 20% of printers in the
flexo world were using extended gamut. Don Carli's prediction came true, but
about 15 years later than he predicted, and only within one segment of the
print market.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
More recently,
the percentage has been soaring. Dawn Connell (Brand Marketing of Snyder’s
Lance, who own Snyder’s pretzels, Jays, Kettle, Pop Secret, and Archway, to
name a few) spoke at the Flexographic Technical Association forum in spring of
2016. In her presentation she said that 85% of their work is expanded gamut. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-w2M0o53dlvPFNy9v9uAucIYOQXSBh0zCrlb0le5fH8AAmLO5xZKhRlfCLSSrqJL0TLimNBYAfE2rVsh0FkM1SgF9L6TXqbBeyp_ldvNMF6cZj9eZYpQ713a1lSC-Oxq3x8muSCJIAl8/s1600/Snyders+Lance.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="404" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-w2M0o53dlvPFNy9v9uAucIYOQXSBh0zCrlb0le5fH8AAmLO5xZKhRlfCLSSrqJL0TLimNBYAfE2rVsh0FkM1SgF9L6TXqbBeyp_ldvNMF6cZj9eZYpQ713a1lSC-Oxq3x8muSCJIAl8/s320/Snyders+Lance.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
In 2016, Kevin Bourquin of Cyber Graphics told
me that they have 5500 SKUs separated for expanded gamut. I just checked back with him. As of April 30, 2018, the number is 8615. I should also mention that <a href="https://www.flexography.org/conferences-events/annual-forum/forum-sessions-in-detail/forum-2018-expanded-gamut-where-are-we-now/">Kevin spoke on expanded gamut</a> at the FTA Forum conference in Indianapolis on May 7, 2018. (Rumor has it that he mentioned my blog.)<br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
Kevin's presentation isn't the only presentation on expanded gamut at a high profile conference. I just got news that Mike Strickler will be speaking on the same topic at another big print conference at the end of September / beginning of October. This won't be just a quick twenty minute thingie. He has a whole seminar. Smart guy, this Mike fellow. We taught each other everything we know.<br />
<br />
Having guys with these credentials... speaking at such prestigious conferences... How can you say that expanded gamut is not a big thing now?!??!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">It's not about pretty pictures</span></b><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Why this huge recurrence?<br />
<br />
Kevin points to another enabling technology: "But the first real tipping point was about 2004. Digital flexo plate had gotten a lot better and could print somewhat consistent if you tightly controlled to process. At the same time Esko and Kodak at the Drupa show, committed development resources to ingrate these tools into the workflows that people used to push files." As you can tell, Kevin is big on this whole <i>workflow </i>thing.<br />
<br />
Mark and Kevin both pointed to one major snack food company that was an early adopter. Frito Lay was aggressively pushing to drive cost down and quality up. It's tough to meet both of those goals without doing some retooling.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZEQVzLPoanyXTntRz4tCRlnsau_6-mBUNpfVBI82iu84EYy_nmBmRnl-DbfK_6Mcf9PSq2w_u5b9DjkqXIn_HADfAyUtb_uCJe6ZgVpQOLWMo5Oq0-Nvj9lZ1M8ciHJa7qtG-bocdBY/s1600/Fritos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="522" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZEQVzLPoanyXTntRz4tCRlnsau_6-mBUNpfVBI82iu84EYy_nmBmRnl-DbfK_6Mcf9PSq2w_u5b9DjkqXIn_HADfAyUtb_uCJe6ZgVpQOLWMo5Oq0-Nvj9lZ1M8ciHJa7qtG-bocdBY/s320/Fritos.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Frito-Lay-Bold-Variety-Pack-Count/dp/B073QM3SKD?th=1">Feeling a bit peckish?</a></i></div>
<br />
But enabling technology doesn't necessarily translate into market success. Companies need a reason to want to invest in change. According to Mark Samworth of Esko, "The number one way to reduce costs in packaging printing is to reduce the use of custom spot colors." He has no idea whether this is true or not, but he did say I could quote him on this.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
It probably
seems like ages ago that I mentioned that Kodak jumped back into the expanded
gamut in 2011 market with Spotless. (Scroll back if you don't remember.)
The name is pretty clever, really. The word means <i>clean</i>, but
literally, it means <i>without spots. </i>The pun refers to
the fact that expanded gamut printing can be used to replace the icky-dirty
practice of spot color printing. Roughly 90% of the Pantone book of spot colors
can be printed as a halftone of CMYKOGV.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
This saves
money. In an old-school print shop, the printer would print the first job of
the day with CMYK plus a couple of spot colors. To switch over for the second
job, the print units with the spot colors need to be cleaned out to put in a
few other spot colors. Cleaning out the print units takes time. Furthermore,
the left-over ink can't be just poured down the drain. It has to be stored in
buckets for future jobs. I have seen shops that have invested a lot of money
just in shelving units to store leftovers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWWM44_gaCRsXbo4K1VdCmUJbJfxnYJ2RndntotlQKu8mocq4x7BHZ7kdu67zY4oQR0iKtZ48fEKLvOsBQMyZDfc0Uee93SCG0qu88p1-W4j20RVKf-_ciqPLoWHwqtSjKb9PkzOihYE/s1600/Cleaning+out+the+print+unit.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="471" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWWM44_gaCRsXbo4K1VdCmUJbJfxnYJ2RndntotlQKu8mocq4x7BHZ7kdu67zY4oQR0iKtZ48fEKLvOsBQMyZDfc0Uee93SCG0qu88p1-W4j20RVKf-_ciqPLoWHwqtSjKb9PkzOihYE/s400/Cleaning+out+the+print+unit.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i>Cleaning up after a spot color ink party takes time</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
With expanded
gamut printing, the mixing of inks to make spot colors occurs not in the ink
kitchen in buckets, but rather, on the press with halftone dots. Hence, there
is no need to clean out the CMYKOGV print units between jobs.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
I spoke with Steve Balschi (who is a prepress guy at PrintPak, huge packaging printer), who said that they have plants where all they print is expanded gamut. Steve went on to explain that they had three type of expanded gamut jobs: 1) jobs where only spot colors are printed expanded gamut, and images are left CMYK, 2) jobs where spot colors and images are converted to expanded gamut, and 3) jobs that are a mixture. Whenever possible, they do not convert the images. But why would they want to? They're trying to match an image that was printed with CMYK. The best way to do that is to print CMYK. This underscores my point that it ain't about prettier images.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
A further
savings comes from the ability to gang jobs, as illustrated in the image below.
Multiple related products are printed on the same press as one run, rather than
as multiple smaller runs. The same amount of printing, but with only one make
ready.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpsqbO6gp6ZAzWz5GlqL9_mzXExnMrmnfSZ1xyWPiZ8hPJ0-z_tCrxB5XRDh0hGNtFJQb5KuXo832h3E6bG99AkofxL87TndxbJZ4SJKlWtWnwXuh9o2MZXPUfaQZb2huiq6mLDAzT7VM/s1600/Ganging+jobs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="1302" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpsqbO6gp6ZAzWz5GlqL9_mzXExnMrmnfSZ1xyWPiZ8hPJ0-z_tCrxB5XRDh0hGNtFJQb5KuXo832h3E6bG99AkofxL87TndxbJZ4SJKlWtWnwXuh9o2MZXPUfaQZb2huiq6mLDAzT7VM/s400/Ganging+jobs.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i>Choco Lotta is one of my biggest sources of snack foods</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Spot color replacement is big not only in and of itself, but it enables this gang printing which is like, way big. John Elleman commented on LinkedIn: "[Spot color replacement] is most commonly used for creating flavor/form coding across multiple packages allowing gang printing all on one form versus sequential printing with spot colors, which increases cost for extra printing plates and change over time on press." Kevin Bourquin had a similar comment: "The true benefit is the economics involved in running multiple jobs in combo after replacing all the spot colors."<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">When has an idea's time come?</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Thanks for
sticking it out through this long and boring dissertation about the history of
expanded gamut printing. We finally get to the moral of this series of blog
posts.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
In the previous
installment (and the addendum) we see that just having a clever idea doesn't
make you a millionaire. Unless of course that clever idea is to marry into a hugely
wealthy family. In the first part of this blog post we see that a clever idea
with a slick implementation is also not necessarily a ticket to the Filthy Rich
Club. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Here is the
moral: <i>An idea's time comes when the idea meets up with both the enabling
technology and the need.</i> I put that in italics to remind people to quote me on this. The idea of printing with inks in addition to CMYK is
a clever idea. Desktop publishing, FM screening, high quality plates, and a full workflow solution are all enabling technologies. Replacement of
spot colors was the <i>need </i>that made this idea worthwhile.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NYi60jhYLUnan8JL8lMhdduietqVvtKnXdRUFiuU8901ljY_hAbjXZp_g14B7cr9dUIKfqetsK6y8TcRt0WGM6oGSnZ2EPIbfaCwM4gRZL2uAwM_kysH-N2GiBcuLiNIN_zTsMWsAL0/s1600/When+an+ideas+time+has+come.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1096" data-original-width="1367" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6NYi60jhYLUnan8JL8lMhdduietqVvtKnXdRUFiuU8901ljY_hAbjXZp_g14B7cr9dUIKfqetsK6y8TcRt0WGM6oGSnZ2EPIbfaCwM4gRZL2uAwM_kysH-N2GiBcuLiNIN_zTsMWsAL0/s400/When+an+ideas+time+has+come.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>When an idea's time has come</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Acknowledgements</span></b><br />
<br />
Normally, I just make stuff up for my blogs. In this case, I thought I might try something a little different. I would like to thank the following folks for making sure my facts were as factual as possible: Don Hutcheson, Mark Mazur, Steve Balschi, Kevin Bourquin, Gary Field, Robin Myers, Mike Strickler, and Mathew Bernasconi.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">References</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Bernasconi, <i>Color
Printing Process and Product</i>, US Patent #5,751,326, filed April 5, 1995<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Bernasconi, <i>Color
separation and reproduction method to control a printing process</i>, US Patent 8,064,112, filed November 22, 2011<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Boll and
Gregory, <i>Color-to-ink transformation for extra-quarternary
printing processes</i>, US Patent 5,563,724, filed October 21, 1994<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Carli, Don, and
L. Mills Davis, <i>High Fidelity Color Rendering and Reproduction</i>,
TAGA 1991<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Cooper, <i>Process
for creating five to seven color separations used on a multicolor press</i>, US
Patent 5,687,300, filed March 27, 1995<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Eder and
Maerz, <i>Producing colour printed image from scanner</i>, German Patent
#4,417,449, filed November 23, 1995<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Hartley, Glynn, PrintWeek, <i>Bespoke HiFi provides value added market for print films, </i>December 10, 1999</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Herbert and
DiBernardo, <i>Six-color process system</i>, US Patent 5,734,800, filed
November 29, 1994<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Hutcheson, <i>Extended
density color printing</i>, US Patent 5,528,377, filed March 29, 1994<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Hutcheson,
Dom, <i>HiFi Color Growing Slowly</i>, GATF World magazine, 1999<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br />
Linotype-Hell, High Fidelity Seven Ink Printing, 1994<br />
<a href="http://www.greenharbor.com/LHTIfolder/lhti9405.pdf">http://www.greenharbor.com/LHTIfolder/lhti9405.pdf</a><br />
<br />
Plettinck and Van de Capelle, Method and a device for generating printing data in a color space defined for non-standard inks, US Patent 5,689,349, filed April 29, 1994<br />
<br />
Politis, Anastasios, et al., Extended Gamut Printing: A review on developments and trends, 1st International Printing Technologies Symposium (PrintInstanbul 2015)<br />
<br />
Wolf, Kurt, PS imagesetter: a reasonably priced entry with the Linotronic Mark series, 1995<br />
<a href="http://xmedia.biz/home/page.aspx?page_id=550&archive_type_id=92&person=0&categories=&archive_id=2981&from=611&keyword=">http://xmedia.biz/home/page.aspx?page_id=550&archive_type_id=92&person=0&categories=&archive_id=2981&from=611&keyword=</a><br />
<br /></div>
John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1840985738235902482.post-73223722830924016992018-04-26T09:00:00.000-04:002018-04-29T17:32:03.768-04:00Expanded gamut - when an idea's time has come, addendum<div style="text-align: justify;">
Welcome John the Math Guy blog fans. Today, you can color me embarrassed. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Here is a quote from my recent post on <a href="http://johnthemathguy.blogspot.com/2018/04/expanded-gamut-when-ideas-time-has-come.html">the history of expanded gamut printing</a>: "The earliest instance that I have found..." Did I get called out on my lack of scholarly research on that topic! Not just from one person, but from three people! With multiple examples that significantly predated my lousy excuse for research!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjRc-j4s-pDLGXFOn4JvHDqvJSN2hBefE2T7yJugJ8QuhAFn5kCEwDAFPlbXjdWKCpYLmS_yWaH2bNC9jwMHTKMK5Qi739iDzxmirHq-8o3izwRFYkk3dPT9uUg0d4A_mBkt4z09cOppQ/s1600/John+the+Dunce+Guy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1507" data-original-width="1600" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjRc-j4s-pDLGXFOn4JvHDqvJSN2hBefE2T7yJugJ8QuhAFn5kCEwDAFPlbXjdWKCpYLmS_yWaH2bNC9jwMHTKMK5Qi739iDzxmirHq-8o3izwRFYkk3dPT9uUg0d4A_mBkt4z09cOppQ/s320/John+the+Dunce+Guy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The Math Guy, suitably humiliated</i></div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Gary Field</b></div>
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The first person who took me to task was Gary Field, professor emeritus from Cal Poly. Being corrected is embarrassing, of course, but being corrected by Gary Field is almost an honor. I am not saying he has been in print for a long time, but before God carved the Ten Commandments into stone tablets, he hired Gary as a lithography consultant. Gary is known as the author of the printostorical book <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Color-Printing-Revolution-Productivity-Creativity/dp/0991130863/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524405928&sr=8-1&keywords=gary+field+history+of+printing&dpID=51xYO7Erz2L&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch">The Color Printing Revolution: Productivity! Creativity! Quality!</a></i>, and is a co-author of <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pioneers-Modern-Offset-Lithography-Michael/dp/0988673959/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1524405928&sr=8-2&keywords=gary+field+history+of+printing&dpID=514X-umP2TL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch">Pioneers of Modern Offset Lithography</a></i>.</div>
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In his <i>first </i>response, Gary traced expanded gamut 70 years further back than I did. Here is a response from Gary on one of my LinkedIn posts.</div>
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<i>Expanded gamut printing goes way back to the early days of process color printing - the 1890s. If you can locate early editions of the Penrose Annual, you will find many beautiful examples. </i></div>
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<i>There were three reasons for employing extra colorants: poor purity process pigments, additivity failure, and proportionality failure. In the early days (pre stochastic screens) moire avoidance was a key constraint. I used to make 6-color separations in the early 60s with proportionality failure correction the objective. Light cyan and light magenta were the extra colors (today they use the same colors in photo-quality inkjet printers). Light and regular magenta (for example) were placed on the same screen angle and the tone scales adjusted such that each colorant provided the highest purity for its respective part of the tone scale.</i></div>
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I looked for information on the Penrose Annual. Wikipedia agrees with Gary. The Wikipedia article says: "Penrose Annuals remain the quintessential record for the development of mass media, advertising, photography, design and typography throughout the 20th century..." </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjH3BMXi4UvSkd-NqLDvdL01vPu96rl5ADX77VfTbivXU7wx8UqnNpm9iSya7yikHfybnkTroWZqvCysVrwEG0YtB2U5GV32SXB69v6kOQIW9d5LuR3FYHjp-InteETLW1uFgeoukL9D4/s1600/Penrose+Annual.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1173" data-original-width="850" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjH3BMXi4UvSkd-NqLDvdL01vPu96rl5ADX77VfTbivXU7wx8UqnNpm9iSya7yikHfybnkTroWZqvCysVrwEG0YtB2U5GV32SXB69v6kOQIW9d5LuR3FYHjp-InteETLW1uFgeoukL9D4/s320/Penrose+Annual.jpg" width="231" /></a></div>
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<i>The cover from the <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073183793;view=1up;seq=6">second issue of Penrose Annual</a></i></div>
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So I read though a few issues. The second issue of the Penrose Annual (1896) had an article on the history of three-color printing which is prophetic in view of this blog post:</div>
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<i>The three-color process had to undergo the same experiences and difficulties as every new invention. At first one man claimed to have invented quote a new thing, then several others arose and claimed the first right of invention for this; and at last everyone got to know that the new invention was nothing but the old thing known years and years ago, thus confirming the old proverb "there is nothing new under the sun."</i></div>
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(This may be true, but I believe that I was the one who first said this old proverb, I mean, ecclesiastically speaking.)</div>
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I did a rudimentary search of the early issues of the Penrose Annual. The first few had articles on printing with three colors. The earliest article I found that referred to more colors was an article comparing the three-color and four-color processes in the 1898 issue. I quote: "<i>the litho printer is taught to produce his ten or twelve color print</i>". Oh! I guess expanded gamut lithographic printing was commonplace in 1898!</div>
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Gary goes on to chastise me for my poor research techniques, and also for my prodigious collection of patents:</div>
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<i>Most patents, frankly, are worthless. It is not that difficult to locate the "prior art" of some enterprising photolithographer (often in the Penrose Annual).</i><br />
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Of course, over the course of several emails back and forth, Gary felt the need to demonstrate some further prior art. He found a patent for expanded gamut photography that was filed in 1950 in Great Britain: <i>Improvements relating to multicolour photographic reproduction</i>, by Joseph Arthur Ball. I dunno how I managed to miss this one. Pretty lazy of me, really.<br />
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Apparently he felt the need to outdo himself -- I mean this is a competition, after all -- and played the trump card: <i>Process of photomechanical reproduction of colors and the resultant article</i> (Charles Zander) which was filed at the US Patent Office in 1905. This is a four-color photographic process, which may not sound all that impressive since printing uses four inks. But his process was with four chromatic pigments: magenta red, lemon yellow, emerald green, and ultramarine blue.<br />
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So. I concede. Gary won.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Robin Myers</span></b></div>
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As if this weren't enough, another good friend, Robin Myers, had his own commentary on my research:</div>
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<i>Your latest post on wide gamut printing is very interesting, but it exposes a flaw in performing historical searches using the Internet alone. The Internet is a wide pool, but for historical information, mostly shallow.</i></div>
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Boy, have I been called out on the carpet!</div>
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Robin is an archeo-bibliophile and collector of old books. He thanked me for not calling him a pack rat. Robin is also the proprietor of <a href="http://chromaxion.com/index.html">Chromaxion</a>, a repository of color information. If that were not enough, he is the author of <a href="http://rmimaging.com/index.html">SpectraShop</a>, a color acquisition program that I have actually used.<br />
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After reading my recent blog, Robin pulled out his copy of <i>Dictionary of Color</i>, published in 1930 by Maerz and Paul. This book was one of many efforts that attempted to provide official definitions of color names by way of color patches. (Earlier color-naming books were from Albert Munsell (1915), Robert Ridgway (1912), Milton Bradley (1895), Johann Ferdinand Ritter von Schönfeld (1794), and A. Boogert (1692). Boy, that sounds like grist for a future blog post!)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDwcV2Fxgq0HEOFz9yqRXrHLTNAtEUrmImfRabvzhIJFcQiWbm005CpH2XwYA9zWBxOAnfGIOw7Em-qNpdCeWIXd4TWj2Lr287EcHGXlEGia1ywiUFngfn7OE5D3tszb7j0zNBfk6OwY/s1600/Maerz+and+Paul%252C+combined.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1106" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDwcV2Fxgq0HEOFz9yqRXrHLTNAtEUrmImfRabvzhIJFcQiWbm005CpH2XwYA9zWBxOAnfGIOw7Em-qNpdCeWIXd4TWj2Lr287EcHGXlEGia1ywiUFngfn7OE5D3tszb7j0zNBfk6OwY/s400/Maerz+and+Paul%252C+combined.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Available to pack rats through <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Color-Maerz/dp/B0014LYBSG">Amazon</a></i></div>
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I should clarify the images above. The image on the left is a page of delightfully pretty color patches from the book that were printed with two different inks. The image at the right is from the facing page, with a grid, and names of some of the corresponding colors.<br />
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Here is what Robin had to say about Maerz and Paul:</div>
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<i>After reading your article, I decided to check a copy of “Dictionary of Color” by Maerz and Paul, published in 1930. This book was printed using many more than the standard 4 colors. ... So the techniques of printing with expanded gamuts on press were known well before the 1960’s. I suspect that they were not widely employed for economic reasons.</i></div>
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<i>The authors claimed, and indeed used, 8 chromatic inks and 8 achromatic inks. This I confirmed by spectral measurement with an i1Pro 2 and visual observation with a Beta Color Proofing Viewer II (modified to use white LED illumination). The charts were printed using 150 lpi screens (determined by a Screen Pattern Analyzer and Rescreening Key from RIT).</i></div>
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I was provided with spectra of the inks that were used, that clearly show eight different inks. Robin is nothing if not thorough.<br />
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We had an interesting discussion (not a surprise, our conversations are often interesting) about what constitutes expanded gamut printing. The world's oldest book with multi-color printing was the <i><a href="https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-FH-00910-00083-00098/1">Manual of Calligraphy and Printing</a></i>, which was first printed in China in 1633. The images were printed with up to ten different inks. Should we consider this gorgeous collection of prints to be expanded gamut printing? We decided "no". This book was block printed, and we decided that to qualify as expanded gamut, it must have halftones.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzf4PeEix2n56Nd_pJetjGkBhrkrq9Y_ZLmIY6ZbaYrERkURWVaGj6FR6CFhrnvpDh-eVjtJxqN9trHFvoSYEGUcgBVgC9KmCvChg1h-ad2E5xyBmMx72yg4Ha60LRk8TymDZJ8vEjSw/s1600/Manual+of+Calligraphy+and+Painting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="1065" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzf4PeEix2n56Nd_pJetjGkBhrkrq9Y_ZLmIY6ZbaYrERkURWVaGj6FR6CFhrnvpDh-eVjtJxqN9trHFvoSYEGUcgBVgC9KmCvChg1h-ad2E5xyBmMx72yg4Ha60LRk8TymDZJ8vEjSw/s400/Manual+of+Calligraphy+and+Painting.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>I could not find a copy of this from Amazon</i></div>
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Robin also dug up some real gems -- early books that showcased a lot of early printing beyond CMYK: <i>A Half Century of Color</i> by Louis Walton Sipley (1951), P<i>ractical Color Simplified</i> by William J. Miskella1 (1928).<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Mike Strickler</span></b><br />
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I have relied on Mike for years to help me keep one foot outside the ivory tower. He told me about another expanded gamut effort:<br />
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<i>Since you’re on about the history of ECG, I should tell you about a very rational system that was developed about 1978 by a guy I came to know in 2014, when I was hired to replace the system at Shorewood Packaging in North Carolina. The man’s name is Ken Reddick, and apparently around 1978, without any outside inspiration he decided that 4C lithography could be much improved if secondary inks could be added. </i><br />
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<i>He had 8C presses at his disposal at the Queens Litho plant in Indianapolis (later acquired by Shorewood). I believe they printed album covers at the start. Ken reasoned that if he could find strong colors in between the hues of C, M, and Y he could do something useful. He though about it for a moment and then realized that the Pantone base colors Warm Red, Pantone Green, and Reflex Blue fit the bill pretty well.</i><br />
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<i>(He was not interested in abstractions like the greatest overall gamut—he had no way of measuring this in any event—but specific needs of certain customers—and he may have had only 6 colors to start.) </i><br />
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<i>Then he separated a bunch of Pantone-like patches varying the percentages of the (max) 3 likely constituent colors, building a sort of ring-around chart, printed these, holding density and dot gain steady, chose the best matches visually, and built his lookup tables. I still have one of those color books. Given the limitations of the era—no spectro to measure color difference, no color conversion software--he succeeded wildly. Designs had to be rebuilt object by object, and there was no solution for images other than (if anyone asked for it) making touch plates conventionally. But hey, this was great stuff!</i><br />
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I guess this trounces the myth that Hallmark Cards invented the whole expanded gamut thing. Who started that silly myth, anyway!?!?<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Don Hutcheson</span></b><br />
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You have not lived until you have been corrected by Don Hutcheson. Here's his contribution:<br />
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<i>The one outstanding ECG pioneer to whom you give no credit is the diminutive, be-monicled Moulin Rouge poster child, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.</i><br />
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<i>For the Moulin Rouge (and probably other clients) Lautrec hand-drew posters with a grease pencil and chalk on litho stones that were then printed with an early approximation of CMY inks. After pulling a proof, he would often add extra stones printed in custom-mixed pastel inks, until he’d achieved his desired effect.</i><br />
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<i>It’s not that Lautrec was an inventor, it’s just that, as an artist, he was using the then most common approach to color printing</i>.<br />
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IS this expanded gamut printing or not? I dunno.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Larry Goldberg</span></b></div>
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The mention of the Beta Color Proofing Viewer leads us to the next person to expose my inadequacy in the field of the history of science, Larry Goldberg. Larry runs <a href="http://www.betascreen.com/index.html">Beta Industries,</a> which was mentioned by Robin. Note that this email was the second email that I received that mentioned a rat.</div>
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<i>I thought I smelled a rat, or at least a fish.</i></div>
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<i>Mr. Kippers (his pseudonym didn't fool me for a minute) color system reminded me of a system that I actually saw, and met the inventor thereof.</i></div>
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<i>When there used to be a very good printing trade show in Long Beach, CA called the Gutenberg Festival a fellow came around with a sample of an additive color printing method.</i></div>
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<i>It used fluorescent inks and a black keyline. Newspapers, always famous for their print quality, could run cartoons in full additive color, and just keep running the black-only image if they ran out of dayglo ink.</i></div>
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<i>The inks are quite opaque, as the substrate offers no benefit. White was the result of tri-color adjacent bits.</i></div>
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<i>The guy's name was WEAKLY or WEEKLY, but my USPTO searches never produced a hit. He also had a patent that he said was the ONLY one that used the term "Dick Tracy" in describing a wrist-worn electronic signalling device. Little did he know the Apple Watch was just 30 years around the bend.</i></div>
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Larry eventually found the patent. Here is a link: <a href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/05/e5/11/7794fc94f7ee5f/US4458175.pdf">Mosaic additive reflectance color display screen</a>.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Mosaic Screen Plate</span></b></div>
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I am going to explain Weekley patent, but lest one get confused, first I need to explain Larry's comment about the Kueppers patent. Kueppers' patent combined two interesting concepts. The first concept was about using more inks than just CMYK for printing. The second concept was about creating color my placing little color patches adjacent to one another, but not touching. This is known as <i>additive printing</i>. Larry was commenting that he remembered hearing about a patent for another process that used non-overlapping patches. He wasn't claiming that this invention had much to do with going beyond CMYK. (Although, Weekley did use fluorescent versions of CMY. Odd that he didn't mention fluorescent black ink.)</div>
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Weekley's patent was an improvement to a process that was invented in 1868, called the mosaic screen plate. This is an interesting bit of history and technology.</div>
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Ducos du Hauron was a pioneer in the field of color photography. In 1862, he invented the idea of the mosaic screen plate as a way to take color photographs using black and white film. This glass plate is a set of really tiny filters of red, green, and blue. The back side of this plate was covered with a normal photographic emulsion, containing silver halide, which would normally produce a black and white photograph.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi41ZlGExSbadsAdjmQKIsZj9ZL8MvjkRsnByiqA38rMD00EbJddD1R9exFJrPkHDPzPGQi4o-jCi-n8r51wHhAZD8hzJt0nJBVdWW8l9Q_mFpudfEL-QVmSfEXuykF8yBGpVNA1e_3Glg/s1600/Mosaic+filter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="819" data-original-width="1175" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi41ZlGExSbadsAdjmQKIsZj9ZL8MvjkRsnByiqA38rMD00EbJddD1R9exFJrPkHDPzPGQi4o-jCi-n8r51wHhAZD8hzJt0nJBVdWW8l9Q_mFpudfEL-QVmSfEXuykF8yBGpVNA1e_3Glg/s320/Mosaic+filter.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Mosaic filter plate</i></div>
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<i>(color scientist's conception)</i></div>
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When taking a picture, the emulsion was exposed from the front side, that is, through the filters. Thus, on the back side, there were areas where the emulsion had been exposed with only red light; others where the emulsion had been exposed by only green light, and still other areas where the emulsion had been exposed with only blue light. The individual areas were thus indicative of the amounts of red, green, and blue light in the image.</div>
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The emulsion on the plate was then developed with a positive process -- areas where light hit would be white, areas with no light would be black. When the developed plate was viewed (with the filters still intact) the intensity of the light reflected through the red, green, and blue filters would be in accordance with the amount of red, green, and blue light that was in the exposing image.</div>
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I was careful in my wording before. I said that du Hauron invented <i>the idea</i> of the mosaic screen plate, for which he was awarded a French patent in 1868. As you might imagine, those mosaic filters are kinda hard to build. Here is an interesting factoid about patents: you are not actually required to <i>build </i>the invention to get a patent. All you need to do is describe it in enough detail so that "one skilled in the art" <i>could </i>build it.</div>
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The first commercially successful implementation of du Hauron's invention didn't occur until 1903, with the Autochrome Lumière. The Lumière brothers figgered out how to make this mosaic screens. They sifted potato starch grains to a uniform, microscopic size. For the logophiles in the crowd, this process is known as <i>elutriation</i>. For the people who aren't really all that fanatical about words, the process is known as <i>sifting</i>.</div>
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<i>One of the Lumiere brothers, proudly posing with the US version of their patent</i></div>
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They then dyed batches of the grains in each of the three primary colors. These grains were then mixed, and deposited, one layer deep, on a glass plate with black pitch between the particles. This mixture was pressed between glass to flatten out the grains to cover more area. Thus, they had a mosaic. It did not have a regular pattern as in my drawing above, but that didn't matter. Each grain was too tiny to see anyway. All that mattered is that the silver halide on the back side remained in register to the colored grains on the front side.</div>
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One problem with the mosaic screen plate was that the final film was rather dark. Imagine that the original exposure was with white light. The red pixels would all be bright red; the green pixels would be all green; the blue pixels would be bright blue. But when viewed under white light, two-thirds of the light that hits the plate gets wasted. Any green or blue light what hits the red filter would get absorbed by the red filter. </div>
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This is the problem that Weekley addressed through various methods. Fluorescent inks was part of that. I won't get into the rest.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Addendum to the Addendum</span></b></div>
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I want to give my sincere thanks to each of today's contestants of <i>John Doesn't Know His Mosaic Filter Plate From a Hole in the Ground</i>! All seriousness aside, I think this history stuff is pretty cool, and appreciate the additional information.</div>
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In order to at least partially redeem myself, I feel the need to challenge Weekley's comment about being the only patent with the term "Dick Tracy". I did a bit of searching and found a few that predated Weekley's patent. </div>
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<a href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/f5/f9/46/d5980d0628d459/US2790027.pdf">Telephonic unit with battery power auxilliaries</a>, April 23, 1957</div>
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<a href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/9c/77/3f/509e12654bed77/US3032651.pdf">Wrist carried radio set</a>, May 1, 1962</div>
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<a href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/5f/53/78/fbd031896ea807/US3411202.pdf">Method of manufacturing recording heads</a>, November 19, 1968</div>
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<a href="https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/82/d7/d3/23a74d1918ee81/US3453991.pdf">Apparatus for forming artistic patterns</a>, July 8, 1969</div>
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The dates listed are when the patents were granted, that is, published for all the world to see. Weekley's patent was filed in 1979, so he gosh darn shoulda known about these! Was that too harsh? Maybe I'm just jealous that none of my patents are cool enough to mention Dick Tracy.</div>
John Seymourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11350487038873935295noreply@blogger.com2