However, the quantitative reason for this is unclear. By contrast, the display color on a monitor is represented by an additive mixture of the three primary Red, Green and Blue phosphors that are used to coat the screen and emit light by themselves we recognize a color by the light that enters our eyes directly. For example, the color on printed paper is represented by a subtractive mixture of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, and we recognize the color by the light that bounces off the print. As previously noted, surface and self-luminous colors result from different generating mechanisms. Three possible causes have been considered for this phenomenon. However, the color appearances of objects with the same colorimetric values on a monitor and a paper are mostly mismatched 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, even under conditions where not only the tristimulus values of the targets but also those of the surrounding environment and observation environment are identical 11, 12, 13. Such a phenomenon is called “metamerism,” which is the foundation of color science and technology. Theoretically, the color appearances of lights that have equal colorimetric values should match regardless of their spectral distributions. In colorimetry, a color is numerically expressed by tristimulus values that can be calculated using the color matching functions (CMFs), the spectral power of a luminaire for self-luminous color, or the spectral reflectivity of an object and illumination for the surface color. Conversely, self-luminous color refers to the color created by the devices’ own lights, such as Liquid Crystal (LC) Display, Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED), and CRT displays. Surface color refers to the color that is created by a reflected light that bounces off an object, such as colors on paper, wood, and fabric. Our results can be considered to be of great significance not only for color science, but also for the color industry.Ĭolors are broadly classified as surface and self-luminous colors. We experimentally demonstrated that there is no essential problem in cross-media color matching by generating isomeric pairs. However, metameric color matching fails for most participants, indicating that differences in the spectral distributions rather than the different color-generating mechanisms themselves are the reason for the color matching failure between different devices.

The results show that isomeric color matching between self-luminous and surface colors can be performed for all participants. Then, we experimentally verified whether such color matching can be performed. In the present study, we created isomeric color-matching pairs between self-luminous and surface colors by modulating the spectral distribution of the light for surface colors. However, the reason for this failure remains unclear. In fact, previous research has reported that metameric color matching fails among diverse media. These are completely different mechanisms, and thus, surface color and self-luminous color cannot be matched even though both have identical tristimulus values. By contrast, self-luminous color results directly from an emitting light, such as a Liquid Crystal (LC) display. Surface color results from a reflected light bounced off a material, such as a paper.

Self luminous red