I am looking for a book on color science which covers all the usual topics - the basics of perception, physics of color, color spaces, luminance, white balance, color histograms and so on - but that is targeted to programmers.<p>By this, I mean that I would like to understand how one would implement various algorithms (say, color space transforms) and also cover a bit of the more technological aspects, for instance what are ICC profiles and how to use them.<p>What could be a good suggestion?
Take a color course at your local community college art class.<p>Sixteen weeks and you will have hands on experience.<p>Because design isn't in a book...and don't get me wrong, I love books.<p>The problem is that understanding color requires seeing color and until you've spent five or six hours mixing a twenty four step color wheel from primaries, the differences among the colors are words and labels not hand to eye coordination.<p>ICC profiles are simple.<p>There's a standard color space.<p>The printer has an ICC profile that correlates its physical output (using a specific type of paper and a specific set of inks) to that standard color space.<p>The monitor has an ICC profile that correlates its physical output to that color space (under specific viewing conditions).<p>Thus there is a <i>consistent</i> correlation between monitor + viewing conditions to printer + paper + ink.<p>That doesn't mean what you see is what you get.<p>It means that if you add more magenta in Photoshop, you get more magenta in your print by the same amount as the last time you added more magenta.