A novel method to evaluate the closeness of two colors

Abstract

In order to reproduce an image on different color reproduction apparatus, it is important to match their color appearance. Most of the color difference metrics are suggested to use when the color differences are relatively small. We would need a new metric, which can well express large color differences. We assume each color has several “corresponding colors”, which give the impression or the appearance to be identical or very close. If those colors form a trend-line, it would be possible to evaluate how far a given color is from its trend-line instead of direct comparison. We conducted an experiment to find the trend-lines, and it turned out that the behaviour showed similar trends as the constant hue loci. Then we tried to find the “closest” color on the trend-line with the reference color off trend-line. The selected colors on the trend-line would be applicable to use as an intervening color. Our results indicated that the intervening color is not always the closest point from the reference color.