Colour isn't in the world — it's in your brain. Explore why two physically different spectra look identical, why 8% of men can't distinguish red from green, and how cinema colour grading works.
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Colour perception, CIE colour spaces, metamerism, and display science
Colour science simulations model the interaction between electromagnetic radiation, the human visual system, and digital display technology. CIE 1931 chromaticity-diagram visualisers map all visible colours to XYZ tristimulus coordinates derived from the cone-cell spectral sensitivity functions, showing how colour perception is three-dimensional despite the continuous spectrum of light.
Metamerism simulators show how two objects with different spectral reflectance curves can appear identical under one light source and different under another — the core challenge for paint matching, textile dyeing, and display calibration. Colour-vision-deficiency simulators transform images to simulate deuteranopia, protanopia, and tritanopia. These tools serve designers, vision scientists, and display engineers who need to reason precisely about colour.
Each simulation in this category is built with accuracy and interactivity in mind. The underlying mathematical models are the same ones used in academic research and professional engineering — just made accessible through a web browser. Changing parameters in real time and observing the results is one of the most effective ways to build intuition for complex scientific and engineering concepts.
Topics and algorithms you'll explore in this category
Common questions about this simulation category
Every Color Science simulation here runs free in your browser, letting you experiment with each interactive Color Science model — the CIE xy chromaticity diagram and the full visible spectrum — without installing anything. Adjust wavelengths, illuminant settings and observer parameters to observe real-time colour matching and gamut boundaries, and learn Color Science online at your own pace, whether you are a designer, a vision researcher or a curious student. Color science is the rigorous foundation behind every screen you look at, every print you hold, and every camera sensor that captures light: understanding how human cones respond to spectral power distributions explains why two physically different lights can appear identical, and why colour calibration is essential in photography, medicine and industrial inspection.