How anisotropy of CIELAB color space affects the separation effect: an experimental study

Parametric effects on the evaluation of threshold chromaticity differences using red printed samples

Results from different authors showed deviations of radial orientation in the a^*-b^* plane (tilt) for the major axes of chromaticity-discrimination ellipses centered around the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) red color center [Color Res. Appl.3, 149 (1978)CREADU0361-2317], which are not considered by most of the current advanced color-difference formulas (e.g., CIEDE2000). We performed a visual experiment using red printed samples in order to test the influence of the separation between samples (gap) on the mentioned tilt. Our results confirm a counterclockwise tilt of fitted a^*-b^* ellipses with a magnitude of approximately 36° for samples with no separation, which is similar to that detected by other authors, and a reduction of the mentioned tilt owing to the separation of the samples. We detected a tilt of approximately 22° for samples with a black gap of 0.5 mm and a tilt of approximately 25° for samples with a white gap of 3 mm. Notably, the uncertainty of previous values given by the corresponding credibility intervals of 95% posterior probability is approximately ±8° of the mean values. Finally, we study the performance of the most widely used color-difference formulas in the graphic arts sector using our current experimental results, and conclude that the performance of the CAM02-SCD and CAM02-UCS color-difference formulas is significantly better than that of the CIEDE2000 formula.