LAB Color Space and Values | lab range
Likegeographiccoordinates–longitude,latitude,andaltitude–L*a*b*colorvaluesgiveusawaytolocateandcommunicatecolors.What’sthehistoryofL*a*b*?Inthe1940’s,RichardHunterintroducedatri-stimulusmodel,Lab,whichisscaledtoachievenearuniformspacingofperceivedcolordifferences.WhileHunter’sLabwasadoptedasthedefactomodelforplottingabsolutecolorcoordinatesanddifferencesbetweencolors,itwasneverformallyacceptedasaninternationalstandard. Thirty-oneyearslater,theCIEpublishedanupdatedversionofHunter’sLab:CIELab....
Like geographic coordinates – longitude, latitude, and altitude – L*a*b* color values give us a way to locate and communicate colors.
What’s the history of L*a*b*?In the 1940’s, Richard Hunter introduced a tri-stimulus model, Lab, which is scaled to achieve near uniform spacing of perceived color differences. While Hunter’s Lab was adopted as the de facto model for plotting absolute color coordinates and differences between colors, it was never formally accepted as an international standard.
Thirty-one years later, the CIE published an updated version of Hunter’s Lab: CIELab. The correct way to pronounce it is “see-lab”, or “L-star, a-star, b-star,” but some applications and instruments simply call it L, A, B, or Lab.
What does L*a*b* stand for?Regardless of the which color space name you call it, it’s important to know what L*, a*, and b*stand for.
L*: Lightness a*: Red/Green Value b*: Blue/Yellow ValueAs an example, see figures 17...