Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
The receptors in the human eye for red green and blue light can distiguish about ten million colors. Digital displays can do even better: with eight bits (256 levels) each, computers and TVs are able to display 256^3 = 16.7 million colors. No wonder it is difficult to choose which color to use for a logo on printed paper or how to color a manufactured item.
Each color in the spectrum visible by humans has a specific wavelength, beginning at the low end with violet (380-450 nanometers), blue (450-495 nm), green (495-570 nm), yellow (570-590 nm), orange (590-620 nm), and red (620-700 nm). Wavelengths shorter than violet are ultraviolet, and longer than red are infrared, both of which are invisible to the human eye. But the colors of the rainbow do not comprise all visible colors. For example, pink, a mixture of red, violet and blue light, brown, a combination of red, yellow and green light, magenta, which is red and blue mixed together, are are perceived through the complex ways in which our eyes and brain interpret light. Black, of course, is the absence of light, and white is a combination of all visible wavelengths.
Masters, old and modern, mixed pigments to create just the colors they wanted to depict. Experimenting with different combinations and proportions of pigments to achieve the exact hue, saturation, and brightness they want, they create colors that do not exist in the spectrum of the rainbow.
As difficult as it is to achieve the desired color, it is just as difficult to describe it, once it is created. And even if one manages, to one’s own mind, to describe a color well, another person may understand the words completely differently and have a different idea of the indicated color. For example, biblical scholars have been arguing since Talmudic times about what color the word ‘tchelet’ denotes (Exodus 25:4). Woven into religious and priestly garments, the dye, obtained from a specific type of sea snail, is supposed to be the blue that is depicted in the Israeli flag, but nobody knows for sure whether this is what the Bible referred to.
After making a color by mixing several pigments, then adding a bit of this pigment, then a bit of that, it is nearly impossible to reproduce the identical color. The artists’ idiosyncratic method of creating colors, makes it difficult to verify the exact same amounts of pigments that were used to produce the color. Based on the artist‘s intuition, it was totally subjective.
It was an American company, Pantone, that created a common language of color that was objective and quantifiable. It has since become the internationally recognized color standard for publishers, designers, and the fashion world.
Source: George Szpiro. Standardization, Excerpt, preliminary book chapter
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As an artist in several media (oils, watercolor, pen and ink, and ceramics to name a few) I can completely agree with the points made on the subject of mixing pigment. Especially in watercolor, I find mixing just the right color when going back and trying to touch up an area is close to impossible (unless you've got a little area on your pallet with a bit of that very color left over). The struggle is real.
In sorting yesterday I came across these 4 stamps. They all appear - to me - to be the same stamp, but at least 2 different colors. Are they in fact different? Have they aged differently? Is there just more/less ink? Different printing method? These are the questions that immediately come to mind.
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@JClouseau
Turning the stamp to show the back side sometimes help to determine the printing process and maybe the color.
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This is very true, and why I use a Color Gauge to help me out!
Also Jclouseau check the perforations of these stamps they should all be 11x10.5 but if you find 11x10 you've got a good stamp!
The first one could be 11x10 also sometimes there is overinking or underinking.
I believe there was a SOR thread on that at some point, but I guess it has been lost to the hard to search abyss!
-Ari 
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@Ari,
Looks like they're all perfed 10.5 / 11
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"In sorting yesterday I came across these 4 stamps. They all appear - to me - to be the same stamp, but at least 2 different colors. Are they in fact different? Have they aged differently? Is there just more/less ink? Different printing method? These are the questions that immediately come to mind."
@JClouseau - there may even be four shades, but the saturation of the pigment may also play a role. What's more, this stamp was printed in huge numbers over several years, and it is likely that every now and then new ink needed to be mixed. Even if there is a standardised recipe, slight differences may occur. I've noticed that lately when I bought extra paint for renovating a room, and tried to skimp by using up an old pot. Good thing the wall needed two coats of paint anyway.
I should not be surprised if the same color impression can be achieved by a variety of pigment mixes, and I suppose the only way of achieving a somewhat precise distinction would mean using a spectrometer.
Martin
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Here is some scientific data about color. No wonder color is so hard to define.
The receptors in the human eye for red green and blue light can distiguish about ten million colors. Digital displays can do even better: with eight bits (256 levels) each, computers and TVs are able to display 256^3 = 16.7 million colors. No wonder it is difficult to choose which color to use for a logo on printed paper or how to color a manufactured item.
Each color in the spectrum visible by humans has a specific wavelength, beginning at the low end with violet (380-450 nanometers), blue (450-495 nm), green (495-570 nm), yellow (570-590 nm), orange (590-620 nm), and red (620-700 nm). Wavelengths shorter than violet are ultraviolet, and longer than red are infrared, both of which are invisible to the human eye. But the colors of the rainbow do not comprise all visible colors. For example, pink, a mixture of red, violet and blue light, brown, a combination of red, yellow and green light, magenta, which is red and blue mixed together, are are perceived through the complex ways in which our eyes and brain interpret light. Black, of course, is the absence of light, and white is a combination of all visible wavelengths.
Masters, old and modern, mixed pigments to create just the colors they wanted to depict. Experimenting with different combinations and proportions of pigments to achieve the exact hue, saturation, and brightness they want, they create colors that do not exist in the spectrum of the rainbow.
As difficult as it is to achieve the desired color, it is just as difficult to describe it, once it is created. And even if one manages, to one’s own mind, to describe a color well, another person may understand the words completely differently and have a different idea of the indicated color. For example, biblical scholars have been arguing since Talmudic times about what color the word ‘tchelet’ denotes (Exodus 25:4). Woven into religious and priestly garments, the dye, obtained from a specific type of sea snail, is supposed to be the blue that is depicted in the Israeli flag, but nobody knows for sure whether this is what the Bible referred to.
After making a color by mixing several pigments, then adding a bit of this pigment, then a bit of that, it is nearly impossible to reproduce the identical color. The artists’ idiosyncratic method of creating colors, makes it difficult to verify the exact same amounts of pigments that were used to produce the color. Based on the artist‘s intuition, it was totally subjective.
It was an American company, Pantone, that created a common language of color that was objective and quantifiable. It has since become the internationally recognized color standard for publishers, designers, and the fashion world.
Source: George Szpiro. Standardization, Excerpt, preliminary book chapter
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re: Why is color so hard to identify
As an artist in several media (oils, watercolor, pen and ink, and ceramics to name a few) I can completely agree with the points made on the subject of mixing pigment. Especially in watercolor, I find mixing just the right color when going back and trying to touch up an area is close to impossible (unless you've got a little area on your pallet with a bit of that very color left over). The struggle is real.
In sorting yesterday I came across these 4 stamps. They all appear - to me - to be the same stamp, but at least 2 different colors. Are they in fact different? Have they aged differently? Is there just more/less ink? Different printing method? These are the questions that immediately come to mind.
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re: Why is color so hard to identify
@JClouseau
Turning the stamp to show the back side sometimes help to determine the printing process and maybe the color.
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re: Why is color so hard to identify
This is very true, and why I use a Color Gauge to help me out!
Also Jclouseau check the perforations of these stamps they should all be 11x10.5 but if you find 11x10 you've got a good stamp!
The first one could be 11x10 also sometimes there is overinking or underinking.
I believe there was a SOR thread on that at some point, but I guess it has been lost to the hard to search abyss!
-Ari
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re: Why is color so hard to identify
@Ari,
Looks like they're all perfed 10.5 / 11
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re: Why is color so hard to identify
"In sorting yesterday I came across these 4 stamps. They all appear - to me - to be the same stamp, but at least 2 different colors. Are they in fact different? Have they aged differently? Is there just more/less ink? Different printing method? These are the questions that immediately come to mind."
@JClouseau - there may even be four shades, but the saturation of the pigment may also play a role. What's more, this stamp was printed in huge numbers over several years, and it is likely that every now and then new ink needed to be mixed. Even if there is a standardised recipe, slight differences may occur. I've noticed that lately when I bought extra paint for renovating a room, and tried to skimp by using up an old pot. Good thing the wall needed two coats of paint anyway.
I should not be surprised if the same color impression can be achieved by a variety of pigment mixes, and I suppose the only way of achieving a somewhat precise distinction would mean using a spectrometer.
Martin
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