COLOR SPACE
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1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Back in 1933, my wife and I were having a big fight.
Wife. (very loud) You’re color blind. You don’t know the difference between chartreuse and mauve. You said that magenta was red in front of my friends.
Phil. (shouting) We are not getting a Ferrari just because you like the red color.
We got so loud that the neighbors called the color police.
The color police showed up from Central Headquarters of the CIE. They brought three buckets of paint – red, green, and blue. They told us to be quiet so the neighbors could get some sleep. Then they started painting on the living room walls. I went to the kitchen to calm down and listen to the radio.
The next weekend, my wife explained it to me. Here it is.
2. COLOR CHART
Wife. Look at this wall. The one with blue, red, and in between colors painted on it.
001. Blue-Red
Phil. (still belligerent) What happened to green?
Wife. One thing at a time. Let’s just start with two colors.
Phil. OK. I see the wall. I saw better painting at the street art show.
Wife. They called it a color CHART. They made it with paints that are mixed together exactly the same way every time. They said that everybody has copies of that very same chart or can make one if they buy the same paints.
Phil. What’s so important about that?
Wife. That’s the most important part. It’s a “standard chart”. It’s always made the same way with the same paint. Everybody’s chart looks exactly the same. Lots of people are now walking around with that standard chart in their purse.
Phil. (Trying to show that he can ask smart questions. His wife has two college degrees.) So what?
Wife. I take that chart to the Sears Roebuck mail order store – point to a color –order a sweater in that color – the clerk marks her chart in the same spot – mails it out – and you get back a nice mauve sweater for Thanksgiving.
Phil. (Tries to act nonchalant) Big deal. How many more sweaters can I wear?
Wife. Look from left to right. Notice that they put on more blue paint as you go from left to right. Then they put on more red paint as you go from bottom to top. That organizes the chart to help you find the color that you want. They said that 60 years from now Adobe and Microsoft were going to paint charts in different ways just to confuse people. However, the color police feel that at least one chart that was standard should be described so that new charts could be compared to it.
Phil. (Still trying to overcome inferiority complex because wife has two college degrees.) Are you going to tell me where green is?
Wife. On the wall next to it. They did the same thing with red and green. Again, don’t forget that those charts are made with standard paint so that they always come out the same way and everyone can get copies of them or make their own copies. They gave me a few to take to the mall when I go shopping. That’s the most important thing about these charts.
002. Green-Red
Phil. (Thinks he is going to show how smart he is.) I don’t see a blue and green chart on a wall.
Wife. It’s on the floor That chart is also made with standard paint so that it always come out the same and everyone can get copies of the chart or make their own copies.
003. Green-Blue
Phil. (Sarcastically -- he doesn’t know when to give up) I don’t see that chartreuse color you and your friends like so much. Did they paint it on the roof?
Wife. It’s in the middle of the room.
Phil. (Defensively) I don’t see any color in the middle of the room.
Wife. Of course not. They could not paint on air. Just look at this photo I took of the charts
004. Composite
Phil. I suppose that you can buy charts which contain the chartreuse which is in the middle of an empty room
Wife. You’re beginning to get it. Here is a picture which they showed me.
005. Color Book
3. THE NUMBERS GAME
Phil. I need a rest from all of this. Let’s go rest in the bedroom.
Wife. Later. We can always skip supper. Up to now, they have described a “standard chart” which always looks the same no matter which one you look at. If you’re partially color blind, the chart will look different. However, it’s still the same standard chart because it is always made with the same paint. We can even discuss color with partially color blind people by just pointing to the same spot on the standard chart.
Phil. Lets get to the numbers. I understand numbers. I had to teach you algebra in high school.
Wife. First let me tell you that the color police said that they don’t have to break up fights in the mall any more. It’s because everyone carries that standard color chart in their purse and the sales people all have copies.
Phil. Stop stalling. Get to the numbers. I understand numbers.
Wife. They are going to improve the charts even more. It is going to have numbers printed on it. When they print up these new charts, every number will always be in the same place. Of course, every color will also still be standard. The whole chart will be standard – numbers and colors will always be in the same place because they made it that way. They are going to call the whole thing a “color space”.
Phil. Why “space”? It’s just colors.
Wife. I asked them that. They just waved their hands around the living room and kept saying, “This is space – isn’t it -- and there are all the colors. We painted the colors in this space. You can look around for the color you want by the way we painted red, green, and blue. You can measure the distance between colors so that you can tell how far apart they are. Therefore, this is a color space.” Do you have a better name for it?
Wife. This is what a blue-red chart would look like with the numbers printed on it. Don’t forget, it is called a space after the numbers get on it.
006. Blue-Red + numbers
Phil. What good will it do?
Wife. People won’t even have to carry the chart around in their purse any more. They just have to tell the lady at the mall that they want the skirt in the window in color number (66,187,104) and they bring it to you.
Phil. Go through that again
Wife. Here’s another example. We can just bring three numbers to the Ferrari dealer instead of telling him what color we want or marking up the old chart.
Phil. Ha. Ha. Then the dealer mails three numbers to Mr. Ferrari and he ships back a red Ferrari in just the shade of red that you want.
Wife. Exactly. We will pay for it out of my salary for the next twenty years. I will let you drive it if you drop the sarcasm.
Phil, (Inferiority complex about college degrees is turning into total panic.) How the hell can three numbers get a color?
Wife. Don’t start hollering again. Just look at the little circle I drew on the space above. Look straight down and you get 191. Look straight to the left and you get 170. That will happen every time when you pick out that color because the space is standardized. Colors are always in the same place and numbers are always in the same space. Then when you tell someone those numbers, they write it down in their purse. When they get to the store, the sales person just uses her space chart to do it in reverse. They look up from the number on the bottom and across from the number on the left. Then they see exactly the same color that you picked out.
Phil. I’m beginning to get it.
Wife. There’s just two things I didn’t understand. They kept saying that there were 256 numbers but the space only goes to 255. Also why didn’t they just use zero percent to 100 percent.
Phil. I can answer that. After computers are invented, they will call “zero” a number. They went from zero to 255, because that’s how computers are going to count.
Wife. Let’s go rest.
4. CONCLUSION.
They had kids instead of the Ferrari