A GENERIC APPROACH TO COLOR MODELING

Color modeling defines the relationships between colorants, their mixt ures, and their resulting spectral and colorimetric properties. A ''co lorant'' can refer to a dye, pigment, or ink, as well as chromatic lig hts used in various display technologies. Computer colorant formulatio n systems are an embodiment of the color modeling of materials such as textiles, plastics, and paint. Color management systems for imaging a pplications exploit color models of CRT displays, photographic materia ls, and printers. The literature on modeling material and imaging syst ems tends to be segregated. In the process of teaching color modeling, common methodologies and theories hale emerged leading to a ''generic '' approach. All of these systems can be modeled using two basic stage s. The first stage consists of defining a spectral description where c olorants and their mixtures can be described using linear algebra. The second stage defines the relationship between ''user controls'' and t he scalars associated with the linear description of each colorant whe re the user control may be digital counts, volumetric or gravimetric c oncentration. The commonalities between characterizing the colorimetry of computer-controlled CRT displays and computer colorant formulation are presented. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.