DEC colours

From: Tom Jennings <tomj_at_wps.com>
Date: Fri Nov 19 17:27:42 2004

On Fri, 2004-11-19 at 09:15, John Allain wrote:

> > And paints also derive effects -- often NOT subtle --
> > depending on their depth, literally -- thickness; partially
>
> Properly administered paint doesn't allow transmission
> to the layer beneath it.

Huh? It's often done on purpose. You obviously haven't been to a
low-rider, hot-rod, or import-scene event [automobile]... :-) It's
practically a field of study, and it's certainly an industry.

> Guess I'm just partial to what NASA does. Throw down a few reference
> colors next to the thing, take a color photograph, and postprocess the
> reference colors to what they should be.

Umm, I'm not sure which NASA you're talking about, but the one that put
the earliest landers on Mars (single photo-diode mechanically scanned
camera with switchable filters to build a color image) has an entire
chapter in the coffeetable book about color subjectivity, and that there
is no "real" or "correct" color correction for earth vs. mars human
observers.

> Where do you
> get the reference colors in the first place? Guess one of us has to find
> a vendor for the three swatches to mail to requesting parties.

Obviously the bottom line is "close enough". I can picture the paint
salesmammal sitting in the conf room with DEC marketing and engineers
looking at color swatches, NASA nowhere to be found. I seriously doubt
DEC gave a sh*t about color precision past some point, no manu does,
it's simply impractical, and no one but the back room geeks are looking
anyways, and they ain't writing the checks.

The places I've worked that painted objects did them in batches so at
least all the parts of an assembly match; an item made in year 0 and
year 0 + N may in fact not precisely match.

I think DEC was more concerned with the innards than the outwards.
Received on Fri Nov 19 2004 - 17:27:42 GMT