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That the nomenclature and standards of color science are in an extremely unsatisfactory condition is manifest to practically all workers in this field. It is the purpose of the present report to take an initial step towards remedying this state of affairs. That the result cannot be final as regards either nomenclature or standards is a natural consequence of the pioneer character of the effort.

The terminology which is proposed in the following pages represents an endeavor to crystallize the consensus of usage among experts, but where experts disagree and extant terms are vague, it has been deemed wise to introduce certain innovations. While the recommendations of this report are tentative, it is hoped that their careful consideration will assist in the clarification of ideas and the eventual unification of nomenclature. It is desired that all interested persons present their objections directly to the Committee, with a view to the resolution of possible disagreements. Every relevant idea will thus be thrown into the “melting pot” and the final product should be maximally satisfactory to all concerned.

In addition to its attempt to outline a clear terminology, the following report endeavors  to summarize in usable form the best available psychophysical data relating color to its stimulus conditions,  to formulate or to define certain standard color stimuli—or intensity distributions of radiant energy (or allied quantities),  to outline briefly the principal methods of color measurement and  to establish fundamentally the relations between their respective scales. A detailed analysis of the techniques and terminologies of the special methods together with a discussion of the best instruments available, or proposed, for applying them, are reserved for a later report.


 * The numbers within brackets in the text and footnotes refer to books and papers listed in the appended bibliography. The full face numbers are the serial bibliography numbers while succeeding numbers in ordinary type represent the pages in the given book or article to which reference is specifically made.

The incompleteness and imperfection of the data and methods of color science are only too apparent to the Committee, which