Determining Color Difference Using the CIELAB Model?

Posted by Cliff on Sunday February 17, 2002 @10:30AM from the calculating-the-visible-distance-between-two-colors dept.

Colour Blind asks: "I am working for a not-for-profit organization developing a website for kids. I am attempting to develop a method for testing if two colours (as defined by R, G, and B values [0-255]) are adequately different to be visible on top of each other. So far I have tried many things but this is the one that, by all accounts, should work: I have converted from RGB to (CIE)XYZ using a 3x3 matrix transformation. From here I have used three more equations to convert to CIELAB colour. I have then calculated the distance between the two colours in question in CIELAB colour space. The results are not correct: there are pairs of colours that are quite far from visible that yield the same difference as colours that are plainly acceptable for visibility. Any suggestions?"

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Solutions by thecarson · 2002-02-17 10:35 · Score: 0, Offtopic

HolyColor does just this. Check it out, but it's only for Linux.
Usenet? by Lord+Omlette · 2002-02-17 10:47 · Score: 0, Offtopic

groups.google.com

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[o]_O
I am confused by wessideg · 2002-02-17 10:49 · Score: 0, Offtopic

I too fail to see the use of posting such a story on a site of this nature. But it does sound interesting.