2006-06-01
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The first comparison that comes to mind is the one between
the two “official” tristimulus data sets, published in 1976
(“ColorChecker 1976”) and 2005 (“ColorChecker 2005”),
shown in Table 1a. In order to compare the two sets on the
same basis, we have chosen to convert the xyY Ill-C (1976)
coordinates to the L*a*b* D50 color space used for the most
recent reference. From xyY, one can readily determine XYZ
values, then use a Chromatic Adaptation Transform (CAT), in
this case the Bradford matrix discussed in Section 5.2, to
convert the XYZ coordinates between Illuminant C and
Illuminant D50, and finally compute the proper L*a*b*
values. The use of a CAT is required since we do not have the
spectral data corresponding to the xyY coordinates. While
using a CAT can introduce an error, this error has less of an
effect than if it was simply added to the inherent difference
between the data sets; see Section 6 for more information.
The second comparison, shown in Table 1b, is between the
“ColorChecker 2005” data set and the “BabelColor Avg.”.
The third comparison, Table 1c, is between the
“ColorChecker 2005” set and tristimulus data derived from a
spectral reference file of the ColorChecker (ProfileMaker
2004). This file is provided by GretagMacbeth as part of their
ProfileMaker software package; the measurement date shown
in the file is “2/5/2004”. The fourth comparison, Table 1d, is
between the “BabelColor Avg.” and “ProfileMaker 2004”
data sets.
The color differences in Table 1 are computed using both
CIELAB and CIEDE2000. CIEDE2000 is the most recent
color difference formula recommended by the Commission
Internationale de l'Éclairage (CIE). Like the CIE94 and CMC
color difference formulas which came after CIELAB, it
strives to improve the match between the perceived color
difference and the computed difference values. CIEDE2000,
similarly to the CIE94 and CMC formulas, includes weighting
functions for lightness, chroma and hue. However, it
introduces an extra term which combines chroma and hue
with the goal of improving the performance for blue colors
(for hue angles – the h* in the L*C*h* presentation format –
around 275 degrees). It also associates a scaling factor to a*
for low chroma colors, to improve the formula performance
near the illuminant. Many users have confirmed that
CIEDE2000, while still not perfect, does achieve its goal of
improving the match between computed difference numbers
and perceived difference
5
.
In Table 1a, we see a noticeable difference between the
“ColorChecker 1976” and “ColorChecker 2005” data sets,
whereas the difference is quite small when comparing the
2005 data with either the “BabelColor Avg.” or the
“ProfileMaker 2004” sets in Tables 1b and 1c. The 1976 data
may have been deemed sufficiently precise at a time where the
chart was mostly used to visually judge the quality of silver-
based films, and not used to make precise digital
measurements as we do now.
As per GretagMacbeth Web site, the 2005 ColorChecker data
“is intended to be an average measurement of all ColorChecker Charts”.
The fact that, on average, this data set cannot be visually
differentiated from either the “ProfileMaker 2004” or the
“BabelColor Avg.” data sets makes it difficult to select the
best one. There is no detailed information on where the 2005
data comes from; it may be an average from one, or from
many production lots. There is even less information on the
origin of the ProfileMaker reference file but its good match to
the other data sets indicates it is also an average of some sorts.
As for the data compiled by BabelColor, the match to the
other two data sets is quite good, especially considering the
mix of experimental conditions imposed by many users using
different instruments. Overall, the similarity of the three data
sets points to some outstanding long term production
consistency.
Readers interested in seeing spectral graphs for each patch, as
well as information on spectral and L*a*b* variance, can
download the “ColorChecker_RGB_and_spectra.xls”
spreadsheet from the BabelColor Web site (see Ref. 3).
3. RGB coordinates of the ColorChecker
The R’G’B’ values of the ColorChecker for four common
RGB spaces, Adobe, Apple, ProPhoto and sRGB, are shown
in 8-bit format in Table 2, and in 16-bit format in Table 3.
Table 3 is a more precise version of Table 2, with more
significant digits per value. The 16-bit values can be used
mainly in programming environments, such as MATLAB,
since there is no color picker that yet offers 16-bit resolution.
You should be aware that, for computing efficiency reasons,
Photoshop processes 16-bit file as if 15-bit and resaves the
file as 16-bit; the displayed color numbers are thus divided by
two from the 16-bit values.
In Tables 2 and 3, the tables labeled “ColorChecker 2005”
show the L*a*b* D50 values provided by GretagMacbeth.
You will notice two columns with sRGB in their title in
Table 2; the one labeled “sRGB (GMB)” contains the values
provided by GretagMacbeth, while the “sRGB” column was
derived from L*a*b* D50 using the procedure presented in
Section 5. The other R’G’B’ values of the “ColorChecker
2005” table were derived in a similar manner. It should be
emphasized that for ProPhoto, a D50 based RGB space, there
is no need to perform a chromatic adaptation transform when
starting with L*a*b* D50 and that there is minimal
“conversion process-induced” errors (see Section 6).
All R’G’B’ values of the “BabelColor Avg.” tables were
obtained with the spectral reflectance average of 20 charts, the
space Illuminant spectral distribution, and the 2-degrees
Standard Observer. In other words, they were not obtained
using a chromatic adaptation transform, and do not comprise
the errors this transform may introduce.
It is interesting to note in Table 2 that the “sRGB (GMB)”
cyan patch is measured to be within the sRGB gamut, with an
R’ value of 8, while this coordinate is clipped to zero when
derived from the L*a*b* data (as can be seen in the “sRGB”
column of the “ColorChecker 2005” table). The cyan is
similarly clipped in the “BabelColor Avg.” tables.