A Maxwell Triangle Yielding Uniform Chromaticity Scales*

Abstract

A colorimetric coordinate system has been found by trial and error whose Maxwell triangle has the useful property that the length of any line on it is a close measure of the chromaticity difference between the stimuli represented at the extremes of the line. Such accurate chromaticity scales may be derived from this triangle merely by stepping off equal intervals on it that it has been called the “uniform-scale triangle.” The definition of the system is given, and also a comparison of experimental sensibility data with corresponding data derived from the triangle. An important application of this coordinate system is its use in finding from any series of colors the one most resembling a neighboring color of the same brilliance, for example, the finding of the nearest color temperature for a neighboring non-Planckian stimulus. The method is to draw the shortest line from the point representing the non-Planckian stimulus to the Planckian locus.