Color adaptive graphics: what you see in your color palette isn't what you get!

The color you perceive in a typical color palette is always different from the color you perceive when it is used in your color document because of simultaneous color contrast effect—a phenomenon in which humans perceive the same physical color differently against different background. The effect is particularly problematic in the visual design of information graphics, in terms of its reliability and communicative quality. This paper presents a prototype of a color adaptive graphic system where simultaneous contrast effect is automatically adjusted such that the color perceived in a palette is preserved when it is used against various background colors. Keyword: color, simultaneous contrast, color palette, visual communication, information graphics