Mixture and Luminosity Data for Dichromats

ABSTRACT The mixture diagram for a dichromat reduces to a single line connecting two points that represent the surviving fundamental colors. The intermediate colors match mixtures of the two fundamentals. The luminous efficiency curve can be split into its red and blue, or red and green, or green and blue components which represent the response curves. These response curves can be compared to the response curves of a normal trichromat. The curves derived for a trichromat depend upon the points chosen to represent the three fundamentals. The rationale involved in the choice of fundamentals is explained. The choice depends on (1) the shape of the spectrum locus, (2) adaptation data, and (3) the directions of the confusion lines for dichromats. The red curve derived for a trichromat in this way has two peaks, one at each end of the spectrum. The peak at the short wave end is missing in the case of deuteranopes. Otherwise, the curves in dichromats and trichromats are similar. No allowance has been made for effects of macular pigment and transmission of the media.