Proposal for an empirical approach to color reproduction

Abstract

AbstractThis article is a review of conventional approaches to color transformations between originals and reproductions, and it explores new methods and transformations made possible by point‐by‐point scanning. “Color correction” has traditionally been based on colorimetric matching between an original and its reproduction. “Corrections” have been based either on additivity and proportionality laws or on Neugebauer's equations which assume additivity of tristimulus values. These approaches were appropriate because photographic masking and early color scanners had to rely on analog methods. Digital methods were too slow. Digital processing speeds may have increased enough to allow point‐by‐point processing of the 2 X 107 points scanned in an 8 in X 10 in. original. Several workers have proposed transformations which are not colorimetric matches. Their experiments have been constrained by the need for analog processing and by conventional process characteristics. By using point‐by‐point table lookup, any transformation, including spatial as well as colorimetric, is possible. It will be interesting to study color reproduction using this new tool.