
Color Tool - Tomte
http://colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/ColorTool.php
======
Daub
This tool looks like it employs the Munsell color space, invented by Albert
Munsell, one of the Demi-gods of color science. Munsell was a painter, and a
pretty good one. He was frustrated by the arbitrary naming of artists paints,
so he set out to develop a perception-based system of his own. It was based on
two principles: ‘smallest perceivable difference’ and ‘pair-wise comparison’.
Using this, and hundreds of test subjects, he mapped perceptual color space.
Until then, it had been assumed it was spherical. He showed it for what it
really was: lumpy and uneven. Also, fundamentally non-Euclidean. A true
pioneer.

~~~
diiq
Munsell's amazing! This similar to Munsell, but where his space was based on
specific, literal sample colors, this one is based on a mathematical model --
but the experiments to determine that model were remarkably similar to his!

The core model is CIE L _a_ b
_:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIELAB_color_space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIELAB_color_space)

The a_ and b* parameters of that model are not totally intuitive, though;
luckily, the same space expressed in polar coordinates has parameters that map
really well to the same hue, chroma, and lightness that Munsell organized
with.

~~~
Daub
I have used Lab space in Photoshop a bit. You are right... it is a relative to
Munsell. Lab has one or two very particular uses in color adjustment. For
example... as lightness is completely separate to chromacity, it is a very
agreeable space for lightness and saturation adjustments.

It is also great for demonstrating to students how the perceptual Lightness
value of a hue differs to the lightness value indicated by a desaturation in
simple RGB space.

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apignotti
To use this tool on modern Chrome you can use our CheerpJ Applet Runner
extension: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cheerpj-applet-
run...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cheerpj-applet-
runner/bbmolahhldcbngedljfadjlognfaaein)

Runs legacy Java applets fully client side with no plugin.

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diiq
I built a similar LCH space explorer, which doesn't require Java:

[http://palette.sambleckley.com/](http://palette.sambleckley.com/)

I use it pretty often; it's easy to ensure accessible contrast, etc, when L
values are consistent.

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RIMR
Firing up Netscape Navigator on my Macintosh right now.

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crazypython
I use [http://colorizer.org](http://colorizer.org).

~~~
Daub
This is a nice tool. It has a great range of color spaces. However, the
problem I have with it and similar tools is the schemes. These so-called
harmonic combinations have a long history, but are almost entirely unsupported
by science. Certainly, many high-order images such as paintings and movies
employ basic RYB compilatory pairs (red/green, yellow/purple etc), but beyond
that their arrangements ate fairly arbitrary.

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8ig8
You may need to fire up Netscape to get this applet working.

> Internet Explorer or Netscape: The Color Tool needs Apple's "Mac Runtime for
> Java"

~~~
code_duck
The system requirements are indeed a time capsule of their own. Internet
Explorer 6, Netscape 7, and Mozilla 1.4 (I miss that browser! Reminds me of
Phoenix too, plus other lost browsers - Galeon, for one).

The Mac version "requires a PowerPC with 32 MB of RAM and Mac OS 7.6.1 or
later."

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eddieh
Is the source code for this available? I couldn't find anything on the site or
by looking through [https://code.nasa.gov](https://code.nasa.gov) or
[https://opensource.gsfc.nasa.gov](https://opensource.gsfc.nasa.gov)

~~~
vbezhenar
It's very easy to decompile Java bytecode unless it's obfuscated. Not sure
about legal aspects, but technically if you need source code, it's almost
there.

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polyterative
using lightness-normalized colors for my web designs improved the overall
balance a lot

