Determination of dyers’ perceived components of colour difference (depth, brightness and hue) between two similar colours from their spectral reflectance values

The partitioning of colour differences into Δ L * , Δ C * and Δ H * is not directly equivalent to the dyer’s method of partitioning. The dyer’s method involves separation into the components of depth (Δ D ), brightness (Δ B ) and hue (Δ H ), of which only hue difference has a qualitative (and quantitative) equivalent in the CIELAB system. Depth and brightness are important terms to dyers. Depth is related to the amount of dye taken up by a textile material and brightness to that component of colour difference that is neither depth nor hue. Brightness is best defined as the opposite of dullness, dullness being related to the amount of neutral grey present in the colour. An algorithm, called the Wardman–Smith–Farooq algorithm, has been developed to compute the dyers’ variables of Δ D, Δ B and Δ H from spectral reflectance values, enabling dyers to take full advantage of colorimetry. The algorithm is based on extensive experimental work to map surfaces of constant visual depth through the colour space and this paper describes the methodology of the calculation. The correlations of the values of Δ D, Δ B and Δ H , determined using the Wardman–Smith–Farooq algorithm with other empirical models for 117 sample pairs, are given.