Fundamentals of color science

Abstract

Color is a fundamental aspect of our visual experience. For this reason color capture and display technologies play a central role in computer graphics and digital imaging. Color science is the discipline that studies the relationships between the physical and visual aspects of color, with the goal of developing tools and systems that facilitate the accurate measurement, representation, communication, and control of color. This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of color science and its applications in graphics and imaging. The first part of the course will introduce the physical and visual aspects of color, and will then focus on colorimetry, colorimetric imaging, color difference metrics, and color appearance models, and color in computer graphics. The second part of the course will then provide a survey of how the insights of color science have been implemented into standards and practices in the fields of photography, computer graphics, film, and video. In addition to explaining how standards such as sRGB, REC-709, REC-2020, and ACES are designed, this part of the course will discuss best-practice workflows to achieve accurate end-to-end color-managed results. Students who take this course will come away with an understanding of both the scientific foundations of color science and its practical uses in graphics and imaging.