Color Ordered A Survey of Color Systems from Antiquity to the Present

Since antiquity, people have searched for a way to understand the colors we see-what they are, how many there are, and how they can be systematically identified and arranged in some kind of order. How to order colors is not merely a philosophical question, it also has many practicalapplications in art, design, and commerce. Our intense interest in color and its myriad practical applications have led people throughout history to develop many systems to characterize and order it. The number of color order systems developed throughout history is unknown but ranges in thehundreds. Many are no longer used, but continue to be of historical interest. Despite wrong turns and slow progress, our understanding of color and its order has improved steadily. Although full understanding continues to elude us, it seems clear that it will ultimately come from research inneurobiology, perception and consciousness. Color Ordered is a comprehensive, in-depth compendium of 165 systems, dating from antiquity to the present. In it, Rolf Kuehni and Andreas Schwarz present a history and categorization of color systems, describe each one using original figures and schematicdrawings, and provide a broad review of the underlying theory. Included are a brief overview of color vision and a synthesis of the various systems. This volume is a unique and valuable resource for researchers in color vision, and visual perception, as well as for neuroscientists, art historians,artists, and designers.

Rolf G. Kuehni is a color scientist at North Carolina State University and author of Color Space and Its Divisions.
Andreas Schwarz teaches color perception, order, and design at Wuppertal University, and Art and English at Stadisches Madchengymnasium Essen in Germany. He is the author of Die Lehren von der Farbenharmonie (1999).

Preface. 1. The Universe of Human Color Experience2. Linear Systems3. Color Diagrams and Color Circles4. From Two to Three Dimensions5. Psychological Color Systems6. Psychophysical and Neurobiological Color Diagrams and Solids7. Connecting Empirical Perceptual Data with Psychophysical Scales8. Physical Order9. Technical Color Systems10. Miscellaneous Systems I (disk mixture, psychophysical, cubes, colorant mixture)11. Miscellaneous Systems II12. Color Order Systems: Categorization, Color Mixture, and Perceptual ExperienceAlphabetical and Chronological Listing of Entries. General Literature on the Subject of Color Order: A Select Bibliography. Glossary. Subject Index.