Ask HN: Good book on color theory for programmers

2 points by pathsjs 3 years ago | 0 comments

I am looking for a book on color science which covers all the usual topics - the basics of perception, physics of color, color spaces, luminance, white balance, color histograms and so on - but that is targeted to programmers.

By this, I mean that I would like to understand how one would implement various algorithms (say, color space transforms) and also cover a bit of the more technological aspects, for instance what are ICC profiles and how to use them.

What could be a good suggestion?

brudgers 3 years ago |

Take a color course at your local community college art class.

Sixteen weeks and you will have hands on experience.

Because design isn't in a book...and don't get me wrong, I love books.

The problem is that understanding color requires seeing color and until you've spent five or six hours mixing a twenty four step color wheel from primaries, the differences among the colors are words and labels not hand to eye coordination.

ICC profiles are simple.

There's a standard color space.

The printer has an ICC profile that correlates its physical output (using a specific type of paper and a specific set of inks) to that standard color space.

The monitor has an ICC profile that correlates its physical output to that color space (under specific viewing conditions).

Thus there is a consistent correlation between monitor + viewing conditions to printer + paper + ink.

That doesn't mean what you see is what you get.

It means that if you add more magenta in Photoshop, you get more magenta in your print by the same amount as the last time you added more magenta.