Color science is the

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

study of

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

including

lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...

and

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

; measurement of light and

; the

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

, psychophysics, and

modeling A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

of color vision; and

color reproduction Color reproduction is an aspect of color science concerned with producing light spectra that evoke a desired color, either through additive (light emitting) or subtractive (surface color) models. It converts physical correlates of color percept ...

History

Organizations

International Commission on Illumination The International Commission on Illumination (usually abbreviated CIE for its French name, Commission internationale de l'éclairage) is the international authority on light, illumination, colour, and colour spaces. It was established in 1913 a ...

(CIE) * Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) * Inter-Society Color Council (ISCC) *

Society for Imaging Science and Technology The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) is a professional society (a type of research and education organization) in the field of photography. Founded in 1947 as the Society of Photographic Scientists and Engineers (SPSE), it is head ...

(IS&T) *

International Colour Association The International Colour Association (''Association Internationale de la Couleur (AIC)'', or ''Internationale Vereinigung für die Farbe'') is a learned society whose aims are to encourage research in all aspects of colour, to disseminate the kno ...

(AIC) * Optica, formerly the Optical Society of America (OSA) *

The Colour Group The Colour Group (Great Britain) is a registered charity based in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1940 as in interdisciplinary society concerned with all aspects of colour, such as its measurement, perception, and reproduction. It organis ...

Society of Dyers and Colourists The Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC) is an international professional society, with headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, specializing in colour in all its manifestations. Founded in 1884, it was granted a Royal Charter of Incorporati ...

(SDC) *

American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists AATCC—the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists— is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit professional association that provides test method development, quality control materials, educational development, and networking for textile and a ...

(AATCC) * Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) *

ACM SIGGRAPH ACM SIGGRAPH is the international Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques based in New York. It was founded in 1969 by Andy van Dam (its direct predecessor, ACM SICGRAPH was fo ...

* Vision Sciences Society (VSS) * Council for Optical Radiation Measurements (CORM)

Journals

The preeminent scholarly journal publishing research papers in color science is '' Color Research and Application'', started in 1975 by founding editor-in-chief Fred Billmeyer, along with Gunter Wyszecki, Michael Pointer and Rolf Kuehni, as a successor to the '' Journal of Colour'' (1964–1974). Previously most color science work had been split between journals with broader or partially overlapping focus such as the ''

Journal of the Optical Society of America The ''Journal of the Optical Society of America'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of optics, published by Optica. It was established in 1917 and in 1984 was split into two parts, A and B. ''Journal of the Optical Society of America A'' P ...

'' (JOSA), '' Photographic Science and Engineering'' (1957–1984), and the ''Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists'' (renamed '' Coloration Technology'' in 2001). Other journals where color science papers are published include the '' Journal of Imaging Science & Technology'', the '' Journal of Perceptual Imaging'', the '' Journal of the International Colour Association'' (JAIC), the '' Journal of the Color Science Association of Japan'', ''

Applied Optics ''Applied Optics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by The Optical Society three times a month. It was established in 1962 with John N. Howard as founding editor-in-chief. The journal covers all aspects of optics, photonics, imagin ...

'', and the ''

Journal of Vision ''Journal of Vision'' is an open access online scientific journal specializing in the neuroscience and psychology of the visual system. It publishes primary research from any discipline within the visual sciences. Submissions go through pre-public ...

''.

Conferences

* Congress of the International Color Association * IS&T Color and Imaging Conference (CIC) * SIGGRAPH * International Symposium for Color Science and Art

Selected books

*
3rd ed. (2000)
* * *
2nd ed. (2005)
* *
1st ed. (1997)
* * * * * * {{science-stub Image processing Visual perception Psychophysics Branches of psychology Color Measurement