dispersion (In French dispersion) statistical variable. display colorimeter (In French colorimètre pour moniteur) see colorimeter

directional, specularly (In French spéculaire) possible property of incident and emergent light rays; opposite: diffuse.

direct digital proof (In French épreuve numérique directe) test printout for various purposes: definition or check of contract color reproducibility (within the framework of ICC color management – see DDCP), print reproducibility (screen proof with authentic print screening), color design (design proof) or layout (e.g. arrangement of packages/labels on the print sheet, representation of register lines etc.).

DIN, German Institute for Standardization (In French organisme allemand de normalisation) German standard setting body; for the fields of light and color, several standards committees (FNF, FNL, NPF) are responsible; the development of the standards proposals is the responsibility of the technical associations and industry organizations, e.g. BAM, bvdm, ECI.

digital printing (In French impression numérique) group of printing processes which work without a fixed print form; used instead of conventional printing inks, electrophotographic toners (powder-like, only “liquid” for the HP indigo press), inkjet inks (with dyes or pigments, on a solvent or water basis or UV-curing) or transfer materials. Digital printing supplements high-circulation and static printing processes in their uneconomic areas. digital/electronic photography (In French photographie numérique) photographic process which uses a digital image…

diffuse (In French diffus) scattered; property of light rays that are reflected/remitted from a more or less matt or rough surface; opposite: directional. Spectrophotometers that are used on high-gloss or curved surfaces (plastic foils, metals, leather, stained glass etc.) have a spherical scanning head (integrating sphere) in which the light to be measured is first scattered and then measured at an angle of 0° or 8° above the surface (geometries di:0°, di:8°).

diffraction and refraction (In French diffraction et réfraction) with respect to the spectral colors, the following laws apply: 1. When light is diffracted at edges, cracks and optical lattices, red is diffracted more than blue (e.g. light dispersion in color meters, color holograms). 2. When light is refracted as it passes into transparent solids/liquids/gases of other densities, blue is refracted more than red (dispersion spectrum, e.g. prism, rainbow).

dichromatopsia (In French dichromasie) color vision deficiencies in which only 2 of the 3 types of retinal cone work normally.

DIC Scale Japan Color (In French standard colorimétrique DIC) counterpart to the Euroscale, developed by the Dainippon Ink Corporation (DIC) for the Asian market; was taken into account in the colorimetric definition of the worldwide ISO scale 2846-1:2006.

DHD, Digital High-Definition filmless high-resolution cinema recording and editing process; suitable ICC programs carry out color corrections for entire cinema films and allow decentralized, color-identical copying for worldwide distribution; the first DHD film was “Rainbow” (USA, 1995).

dfwg, German Society of Color Science and Application Mirror committee for the CIE divisions 1 (Vision and Color) and 8 (Image Technology), whose members from industry and research work on the dissemination and improvement of color measurement, colorimetric research results and new application procedures.

DeviceN color space type supported from PostScript 3 and PDF 1.3 upwards, which allows arbitrary combinations of color channels in composite files (PostScript, PDF) and in In-RIP separations, thus preventing the subsequent output of the color separation files being reduced to the 4 process color extracts CMYK. Frequent cases in practice: 5 or 6 Pantone hexachrome colors, CMYK plus 2 special colors, black plus 1 spot color – that is, typical color impositions on modern…

device/native color space (In French espace colorimétrique natif) color space whose color channels result from the technical circumstances of the color analysis (RGB photography/scan) or color synthesis (CMYK printing).

(device) profile linking/connecting (In French liaison de profils) regulation or procedure within the framework of gamut mapping for linking two device profiles with each other through a PCS or directly (DeviceLink). In this process, a rendering intent that prescribes the manner of this gamut mapping is also always used.

(device) profile creation, (color space) targeting (In French création de profil) the calculation of an ICC profile from metrologically recorded characterization data.

device profile (In French profil de périphérique) ICC profile that is available in a device color space (input and reproduction: RGB; output: CMYK) and characterizes a concrete device or class of device.

device-independent reproduction/processing (In French traitement indépendant du matériel) ICC profile-based workflow scenario in which the image and graphics data are processed, saved and passed on in a process-neutral color space format (large RGB working color space, less frequently TIFF-LAB), in order to be able to represent the output in any possible medium (print in various printing processes, electronic media, presentation) with maximum color rendering quality; at the same time, device-independent reproduction is a precondition for…

Deutsches Farbenzentrum, German Color Center central institute for color in science and design with its main office in Berlin; representative for all professions that deal with color.

deuteranopia (In French deutéranopie) color vision deficiency; red receptor failure, magenta-cyan confusion.

deuteranomaly (In French deutéranomalie) color vision deficiency; red receptor weakness, magenta-cyan metamerism.