chromaticity/hue shift (In French décalage de la couleur) phenomenon consisting in the fact that when one of the three color attributes hue, brightness or chromaticness changes, chromaticity also changes. There is only one case in which chromaticity does not change, namely when the change in brightness is not due to a change in hue and/or chromaticness. Application: color selection tool in Adobe Creative Suite.

chromaticity shift (In French virage) changes in the chromaticity coordinates in the course of the drying of printing ink; while wet and dry color densities differ due to the diminishing wet gloss alone, with wet and dry colorimetric values the influence of the oxidation or wetting reactions or evaporation and penetration, which are characterized by changes in the solids concentration or structure, have to be added.

chromaticity coordinates/locus [Pl. loci] (In French coordonnées de chromaticité) description of the colorimetric properties of a printing ink with the help of colorimetric values (vector coordinates in the color space).

chromaticity chart/diagram (In French diagramme de chromaticité) two-dimensional section through a color solid at a level of equal brightness. Only the hue parameters (CIExyY chromaticity chart) or chrominances (a*;b* chromaticity chart from CIELAB) are shown in this view.

chromaticity (In French chromaticité) family of color stimuli which differ only through their brightness, i.e. hue and chromaticness remain constant. In a cut through a color space parallel to the lightness axis the colors of one chromaticity always show the same distance from the lightness axis at each lightness level and thus always the same chromaticity coordinates.

chromatic stimulus simulation (In French simulation des stimuli chromatiques) experimental arrangement (light spots, gyratory color mixer) with which primary colors can be proportionately changed and additively blended in order to test a person’s color sense (e.g. for permits for certain professions such as printer and graphic designer, but also architect, bus driver, electrician, textile and fur good quality inspector).

chromatic dispersion (In French dispersion chromatique) dispersion of a light ray into its spectral components through diffraction on a lattice or through refraction at the boundary surfaces as it passes through a prism; application: monochromator in spectral densitometers in order to be able to isolate the wavelengths contributing to the color stimulus.

chromatic/regular color separation (In French composition chromatique) conventional CMYK color separation process in which all four colors are involved in the representation of each chromaticity coordinate in all tone areas, resulting in high overall total ink coverage (up to 400%) and thus drying problems; K is only used to support the dark image parts (“skeleton black”) because the chromatic printing inks provide only inadequate details when C+M+Y are printed together. chromatic/regular color separation modifications; slight…

chromatic adaptation (In French adaptation chromatique) at a color temperature deviating from 5000 K, a c.a. is automatically activated in monitor hardware calibration and other color management programs, e.g. the simple Bradford and von Kries transformations or the more complex CAT02 adaptation (CIECAM02).

chromatic aberration (In French aberration chromatique) an aberration in optical systems in which color fringes are formed on the edges of objects in the image.

chromatic (In French chromatique) the technically correct term for “colored” (coloré) opposite: achromatic.

chroma[ticness] chroma coordinate C* in the intuitive LChab coordinate system (brightness/chromaticness/hue angle) of the CIELAB color space; difference between a hue and its equally bright achromatic stage; not to be confused with saturation S* = C*/ L*.

chroma synonym for chromaticness; original designation for the “value C” in the Munsell color ordering system. Chroma Cosmos 5000 Japanese color ordering system comprising 5000 color specimens, according to the Munsell principle.

charge-coupled device (In French dispositif à couplage/transfert de charge) device consisting of light sensitive semiconductor diodes arranged line-wise or matrix-wise; application: scanners, video and color measuring cameras; replaced by CMOS sensors on account of the slow charge displacement and susceptibility to overexposure in digital photography and spectrophotometry.

ceramic inks and toners (In French encre céramique) printing inks and color agents which are printed either directly (screen, tampo printing) onto a ceramic surface (tiles, porcelain) or indirectly (screen, sheet-fed gravure printing) onto a transfer paper. With transfer paper, the reverse order of the covering ink films must be taken into account. In general, the subsequent burning-in of the glaze leads to a strong color drift (burning-in drift), which can only be predicted with…

CCR, complementary color reduction (In French réduction des couleurs complémentaires) process of achromatic composition: restriction of under color removal UCR and gray component replacement GCR on the blend colors R, G and B, which are complementary to C, M and Y; reduction of two chromatic colors each in the blackish drift range of their complementary colors.

CAUS Color Association of the United States.

camouflage color (In French couleur de camouflage) color shade or halftone-like mixture of several color shades which allows the color surface to merge visually with the environment.

calibration (In French calibrage) resetting of the target values of a device, either according to manufacturer’s specifications or according to a standard. In color management, calibration with reproducible basic settings is a precondition for successful characterization in color space and the subsequent application validity of the created ICC profiles. In the hardware calibration of monitors, the setting of the target value and characterization are combined into one step.