From color‐matching error to large color differences

Abstract Classical color‐matching error data have been compared in L, M, S cone response space to small and large color‐difference data to reveal their agreements and divergences. The color‐matching error data analyzed (with exception of the Brown data) and, implicitly, the Boynton–Kambe data were found to be similar, with a large ratio of S increment to L increment. Another group is formed by the Richter threshold data, small color‐difference data and the CIE94 formula fitted to the latter. This group has an S/L increment ratio of approximately one third that of the first. The Optical Society of America Uniform Color Scales and the Munsell set are on average comparable and intermediate in S/L increment ratio. Color‐matching error data, threshold and small color‐difference data as well as the formula fitted to it reveal a characteristic V shape of the cone response increment functions. It is explained as the overlay of a crispening effect onto the basic global increment function revealed in Munsell or OSA‐UCS data. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Col Res Appl, 26, 384–393, 2001