explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1882: Color Models

2017-08-28T20:02:12Z

Yandoodan: I am kinda sure about the need to project into 4-D space, but unsure about the 4th-D causing the color space to change all the time. It sounds neat, though. Anybody know something about this?

{{comic
| number = 1882
| date = August 28, 2017
| title = Color Models
| image = color_models.png
| titletext = What if what *I* see as blue, *you* see as a slightly different blue because you're using Chrome instead of Firefox and despite a decade of messing with profiles we STILL can't get this right somehow.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall is describing how his level of understanding of colors has changed by age. The chart starts with two tracks of understanding color.

In grade school he learned about the primary colors, and the very simple model of colors, as shown in the left track. Mixing of color solids, as in painting (or finger painting being probably the earliest exposure to color mixing), is intuitive for a child. The process is subtractive, and the more colors you mix the darker and closer to black you get. Color is seen by the eyes when light bounces off the solid colors and becomes light of different wavelengths that the eye can then see. However at this level, things just "look" like different colors without understanding light's role.

The right track is mixing of color light, as in prisms and light waves, where mixing colors is additive and the more you mix the lighter and closer to white you get. But this is without a real understanding of light bouncing off surfaces, and is limited to an understanding of different colors of light and how they mix. The first exposure in grade school is usually by shining white light through a prism to separate it into the different visible colors.

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opponent_process opponent color model] connects these two models, by explaining how different wavelengths of light are absorbed by different rods and cones in the eyes.

The "complex multidimensional gamut" mentions two more models: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_color_space CIE 1931] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space L*a*b*]. These are more detailed models based on the opponent color model, which precisely define how a particular color maps to the different channels that our eyes see.

However, understanding how the eye sees color ''still'' isn't enough, because not every device can display all the colors your eye can see. Your laptop might have a different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamut color gamut] than your phone, and if you printed the page out, you might see yet another color. To handle this issue, web browsers use "color profiles", so that an image can be tagged with the color space it uses and the browser can handle it appropriately. Unfortunately, browsers do this inconsistently and not very well. The title text expands on this joke, implying that the reason for the "unknowable" answer above is that everyone's browser shows colors slightly differently.

The "hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold" is probably a joke. A "Klein manifold" is a Klein bottle. Randall is here projecting a "abstract multidimensional gamut" onto an even more complicated surface, presumably in order to eliminate the errors in color rendering caused by previous attempts to eliminate the errors in color rendering. The Klein bottle has to be projected into 4-D space for this to work, and it would otherwise intersect with itself. As the 4th dimension is time, the color space would probably change all the time. This seems to actually be "a thing" in that you could do it, but not a "thing" in that nobody has done it. A "Klein Quantum" is a bicycle.

Eventually it appears Randall has given up, hoping he won't have to deal with the difficulty in describing and understanding the concept of colors.

The title text indicates that, despite the complexity and thoroughness of color models, the most common software on Earth can't get it right.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Needs arrows like a flowchart}}

:Evolution of my understanding of color over time:

:Grade school
:|
:| "Color" is...
:| ...three primary colors mixed together
:| ...a rainbow, and each color is a wavelength
:| ...unknowable ("maybe what ''I'' see as blue, ''you'' see as...")
:| ...three-ish primary colors mixed together (RGB/RYB/CMYK)
:| ...a mix of infinite wavelengths filtered through three eye pigments
:| [something about the opponent color model]
:| ...an abstract multidimensional gamut (CIE 1931, L*a*b*, etc)
:| ...an abstract multidimensional gamut filtered through inconsistently-implemented device color profiles
:| ...a hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold? Is that a thing?
:| ...hopefully somebody else's problem.
:|
:Now

{{comic discussion}}

1882: Color Models

2017-08-28T19:56:28Z

Yandoodan:

{{comic
| number = 1882
| date = August 28, 2017
| title = Color Models
| image = color_models.png
| titletext = What if what *I* see as blue, *you* see as a slightly different blue because you're using Chrome instead of Firefox and despite a decade of messing with profiles we STILL can't get this right somehow.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall is describing how his level of understanding of colors has changed by age. The chart starts with two tracks of understanding color.

In grade school he learned about the primary colors, and the very simple model of colors, as shown in the left track. Mixing of color solids, as in painting (or finger painting being probably the earliest exposure to color mixing), is intuitive for a child. The process is subtractive, and the more colors you mix the darker and closer to black you get. Color is seen by the eyes when light bounces off the solid colors and becomes light of different wavelengths that the eye can then see. However at this level, things just "look" like different colors without understanding light's role.

The right track is mixing of color light, as in prisms and light waves, where mixing colors is additive and the more you mix the lighter and closer to white you get. But this is without a real understanding of light bouncing off surfaces, and is limited to an understanding of different colors of light and how they mix. The first exposure in grade school is usually by shining white light through a prism to separate it into the different visible colors.

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opponent_process opponent color model] connects these two models, by explaining how different wavelengths of light are absorbed by different rods and cones in the eyes.

The "complex multidimensional gamut" mentions two more models: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_color_space CIE 1931] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space L*a*b*]. These are more detailed models based on the opponent color model, which precisely define how a particular color maps to the different channels that our eyes see.

However, understanding how the eye sees color ''still'' isn't enough, because not every device can display all the colors your eye can see. Your laptop might have a different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamut color gamut] than your phone, and if you printed the page out, you might see yet another color. To handle this issue, web browsers use "color profiles", so that an image can be tagged with the color space it uses and the browser can handle it appropriately. Unfortunately, browsers do this inconsistently and not very well. The title text expands on this joke, implying that the reason for the "unknowable" answer above is that everyone's browser shows colors slightly differently.

The "hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold" is probably a joke. A "Klein manifold" is a Klein bottle. Randall is here projecting a "abstract multidimensional gamut" onto an even more complicated surface, presumably in order to eliminate the errors in color rendering caused by previous attempts to eliminate the errors in color rendering. This seems to actually be "a thing" in that you could do it, but not a "thing" in that nobody has done it. A "Klein Quantum" is a bicycle.

Eventually it appears Randall has given up, hoping he won't have to deal with the difficulty in describing and understanding the concept of colors.

The title text indicates that, despite the complexity and thoroughness of color models, the most common software on Earth can't get it right.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Needs arrows like a flowchart}}

:Evolution of my understanding of color over time:

:Grade school
:|
:| "Color" is...
:| ...three primary colors mixed together
:| ...a rainbow, and each color is a wavelength
:| ...unknowable ("maybe what ''I'' see as blue, ''you'' see as...")
:| ...three-ish primary colors mixed together (RGB/RYB/CMYK)
:| ...a mix of infinite wavelengths filtered through three eye pigments
:| [something about the opponent color model]
:| ...an abstract multidimensional gamut (CIE 1931, L*a*b*, etc)
:| ...an abstract multidimensional gamut filtered through inconsistently-implemented device color profiles
:| ...a hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold? Is that a thing?
:| ...hopefully somebody else's problem.
:|
:Now

{{comic discussion}}

1882: Color Models

2017-08-28T19:50:48Z

Yandoodan:

{{comic
| number = 1882
| date = August 28, 2017
| title = Color Models
| image = color_models.png
| titletext = What if what *I* see as blue, *you* see as a slightly different blue because you're using Chrome instead of Firefox and despite a decade of messing with profiles we STILL can't get this right somehow.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall is describing how his level of understanding of colors has changed by age. The chart starts with two tracks of understanding color.

In grade school he learned about the primary colors, and the very simple model of colors, as shown in the left track. Mixing of color solids, as in painting (or finger painting being probably the earliest exposure to color mixing), is intuitive for a child. The process is subtractive, and the more colors you mix the darker and closer to black you get. Color is seen by the eyes when light bounces off the solid colors and becomes light of different wavelengths that the eye can then see. However at this level, things just "look" like different colors without understanding light's role.

The right track is mixing of color light, as in prisms and light waves, where mixing colors is additive and the more you mix the lighter and closer to white you get. But this is without a real understanding of light bouncing off surfaces, and is limited to an understanding of different colors of light and how they mix. The first exposure in grade school is usually by shining white light through a prism to separate it into the different visible colors.

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opponent_process opponent color model] connects these two models, by explaining how different wavelengths of light are absorbed by different rods and cones in the eyes.

The "complex multidimensional gamut" mentions two more models: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_color_space CIE 1931] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space L*a*b*]. These are more detailed models based on the opponent color model, which precisely define how a particular color maps to the different channels that our eyes see.

However, understanding how the eye sees color ''still'' isn't enough, because not every device can display all the colors your eye can see. Your laptop might have a different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamut color gamut] than your phone, and if you printed the page out, you might see yet another color. To handle this issue, web browsers use "color profiles", so that an image can be tagged with the color space it uses and the browser can handle it appropriately. Unfortunately, browsers do this inconsistently and not very well. The title text expands on this joke, implying that the reason for the "unknowable" answer above is that everyone's browser shows colors slightly differently.

The "hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold" is probably a joke. A "Klein manifold" is a Klein bottle. Randall is here projecting a "abstract multidimensional gamut" onto an even more complicated surface, presumably in order to eliminate the errors in color rendering caused by previous attempts to eliminate the errors in color rendering. This seems to actually be "a thing" in that you could do it, but not a "thing" in that nobody has done it. A "Klein Quantum" is a bicycle.

Eventually it appears Randall has given up, hoping he won't have to deal with the difficulty in describing and understanding the concept of colors.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Needs arrows like a flowchart}}

:Evolution of my understanding of color over time:

:Grade school
:|
:| "Color" is...
:| ...three primary colors mixed together
:| ...a rainbow, and each color is a wavelength
:| ...unknowable ("maybe what ''I'' see as blue, ''you'' see as...")
:| ...three-ish primary colors mixed together (RGB/RYB/CMYK)
:| ...a mix of infinite wavelengths filtered through three eye pigments
:| [something about the opponent color model]
:| ...an abstract multidimensional gamut (CIE 1931, L*a*b*, etc)
:| ...an abstract multidimensional gamut filtered through inconsistently-implemented device color profiles
:| ...a hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold? Is that a thing?
:| ...hopefully somebody else's problem.
:|
:Now

{{comic discussion}}

1882: Color Models

2017-08-28T19:01:19Z

Yandoodan: This explains the penultimate color model.

{{comic
| number = 1882
| date = August 28, 2017
| title = Color Models
| image = color_models.png
| titletext = What if what *I* see as blue, *you* see as a slightly different blue because you're using Chrome instead of Firefox and despite a decade of messing with profiles we STILL can't get this right somehow.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall is describing how his level of understanding of colors has changed by age. The chart starts with two tracks of understanding color.

In grade school he learned about the primary colors, and the very simple model of colors, as shown in the left track. Mixing of color solids, as in painting (or finger painting being probably the earliest exposure to color mixing), is intuitive for a child. The process is additive, and the more colors you mix the darker and closer to black you get. Color is seen by the eyes when light bounces off the solid colors and becomes light of different wavelengths that the eye can then see. However at this level, things just "look" like different colors without understanding light's role.

The right track is mixing of color light, as in prisms and light waves, where mixing colors is subtractive and the more you mix the lighter and closer to white you get. But this is without a real understanding of light bouncing off surfaces, and is limited to an understanding of different colors of light and how they mix. The first exposure in grade school is usually by shining white light through a prism to separate it into the different visible colors.

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opponent_process opponent color model] connects these two models, by explaining how different wavelengths of light are absorbed by different rods and cones in the eyes.

The "complex multidimensional gamut" mentions two more models: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_color_space CIE 1931] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space L*a*b*]. These are more detailed models based on the opponent color model, which precisely define how a particular color maps to the different channels that our eyes see.

However, understanding how the eye sees color ''still'' isn't enough, because not every device can display all the colors your eye can see. Your laptop might have a different [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamut color gamut] than your phone, and if you printed the page out, you might see yet another color. To handle this issue, web browsers use "color profiles", so that an image can be tagged with the color space it uses and the browser can handle it appropriately. Unfortunately, browsers do this inconsistently and not very well. The title text expands on this joke, implying that the reason for the "unknowable" answer above is that everyone's browser shows colors slightly differently.

The "hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold" is probably a joke. A "Klein manifold" is a Klein bottle. Randall is here projecting a "abstract multidimensional gamut" onto an even more complicated surface, presumably in order to eliminate the errors in color rendering caused by previous attempts to eliminate the errors in color rendering. This seems to actually be "a thing" in that you could do it, but not a "thing" in that nobody has done it.

Eventually it appears Randall has given up, hoping he won't have to deal with the difficulty in describing and understanding the concept of colors.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Needs arrows like a flowchart}}

:Evolution of my understanding of color over time:

:Grade school
:|
:| "Color" is...
:| ...three primary colors mixed together
:| ...a rainbow, and each color is a wavelength
:| ...unknowable ("maybe what ''I'' see as blue, ''you'' see as...")
:| ...three-ish primary colors mixed together (RGB/RYB/CMYK)
:| ...a mix of infinite wavelengths filtered through three eye pigments
:| [something about the opponent color model]
:| ...an abstract multidimensional gamut (CIE 1931, L*a*b*, etc)
:| ...an abstract multidimensional gamut filtered through inconsistently-implemented device color profiles
:| ...a hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold? Is that a thing?
:| ...hopefully somebody else's problem.
:|
:Now

{{comic discussion}}