New approach to metamerism measurement on halftone color images

There is often a phenomenon depending on dominant tones which results in the end users dissatisfaction with halftone color reproduction. This phenomenon is known as “metamerism” and it is the subject of research for many scientists.The metamerism on halftone color images with different dominant tones (blue, red, green and yellow) was researched in this paper, at the light sources D50, D65 and daylight. The results of the objective and visual evaluation were presented on the basis of colorimetric measurement of the grey balance patch, by the means of MacAdam ellipsoids in three dimension CIE L*a*b* system. Both the metamerism index MI and the ellipsoid volume have also been calculated.This paper confirms that the metamerism of the halftone color images can be estimated by measuring CIE L*a*b* values of the grey balance patch and by calculating MacAdam ellipsoids.

► It is possible to determine the occurrence of metamerism in halftone color images.
► We confirmed that the color perception is in correlation with different light sources.
► We examine under what conditions the appearance of metamerism is bigger or smaller.