Color coding system
Color coding systems (also known as color ordering systems) are material or mathematical systems that assign a clear symbolism to a light or body color .
Color swatch collections
Color catalogs are collections of color samples . They show the individual colors (as a shade or as a coloring agent ) by means of material samples, as a spread on different substrates, as a print or as plastic coloring . Often, such systems have been added to such systems to make them easier to understand between supplier and customer, and they are linked with comparative color names. Such color order systems serve to illustrate those colors that can be realized with the technology shown . This makes it easy to visually assess colors . In the real sense, only samples of the same type can be used, for example printing pigments on print samples.
Color order systems must meet certain conditions:
- The color samples are mostly classified according to perceived variables, such as hue , color saturation or brightness .
- The number of materially executed color samples should be as large as possible. Catalogs with 20 to 40 color tones, each with five to ten levels of brightness and saturation, result in a range of 500 to 4000 color samples.
- The color samples should be visually equally spaced .
- The color samples should be described numerically or alphanumerically in the form of tristimulus values or by ordering tables.
The best known color order systems (color catalogs)
However, color mixing systems such as Pantone are not color order systems in the narrower sense, because they are not classified according to perceptual sizes. The Lab color space cannot be represented consistently with color samples and is therefore not a color classification system. A clear metrological characterization of the samples in color catalogs is possible through the connection to the CIE system .
Color bodies
In abstract systems, color locations are clearly identified by alphanumeric characters, whereby the colors do not have to be physically contained. Such systems range from a simple color wheel to a three-dimensional order of the color bodies .