Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare the brightness and vividness of color on different-colored backgrounds. The stimuli were 173 patches of colors lying within the Practical Color Co-ordinate System (PCCS). The backgrounds were three achromatic colors: white, mid-gray, and black. Each color patch was pasted on mounts colored each of the background colors, making 519 combinations. Participants evaluated the stimuli on scales of bright to dark (brightness) and vivid to dull (vividness) using the Visual Analog Scale app on an iPad. They viewed the stimuli in a D65 standard light source booth in a dark room. The brightness and vividness scores for the three background colors were compared using Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons for each color. It was found that, for both brightness and vividness scores, there were considerably smaller differences between a white and a black background than between a black and a gray background or a white and a gray background. Color bias was shown, with significant differences arising compared to the PCCS tone. Brightness and vividness evaluations were correlated; thus, they were integrated using Principal Component Analysis. The loading of the first principal component was 0.826, and this new integrated dimension was termed “Brilliantness.”