High Dynamic Range and Wide Gamut Color on the Web

DRANK

IntroductionThe initial commercial application of Color Science (principally colorimetry, rather than color appearance modelling) to the reproduction of color was concerned with surface colors such as painted or printed objects, lit by a single illuminant. The achievable luminance range was thus constrained to the luminance of a perfect diffuse reflector (practically, an unprinted sheet of good paper) at the high end, and the densest printed or painted black that could be achieved without the paper tearing or deforming, at the darkest end. This produced luminance ranges from as low as 20:1 to as high as 90:1 (Fairchild, p.399 [[Fairchild-CAM]]). The achievable Chroma range was also limited by the vibrancy of mass-produced paints and inks, and the prohibitive cost of using additional spot colors to extend the gamut.Self-luminous displays, in that commercial environment, were primarily used at low luminances for soft proofing of an eventual printed product, and were intended to replicat…