Error measures are needed for optimizing display parameters. Most of t
he existing error measures are inappropriate since they correlate poor
ly with the perceived impairment of the reproduced images. The reason
is that these measures, often distance measures, do not or do not suff
iciently incorporate properties of the human visual system. We therefo
re present a perceptual error measure that uses the distance in a perc
eptual space spanned by the sampling and interpolation artifacts perio
dic structure and blur, to predict the impairment of sampled and inter
polated images. It is shown how the sensorial strengths of periodic st
ructure and blur that are along the axes of this perceptual space can
be determined from the image. In addition, we demonstrate that after t
he perceptual error measure is calibrated to a particular observer, it
can predict experimentally determined subjective image quality of sam
pled and interpolated colour images, and may thereby be used to optimi
ze display parameters.