A method for simulating paint mixing on computer monitors
Ferdinand Carabott, Garth Lewis & Simon Piehl, School of Fashion and Textiles,
Central St Martins, The London Institute
ABSTRACT
Computer programs like Adobe Photoshop can generate a mixture of two compute
colours by using the Gradient control. This blends one colour into another.
However if we create a gradient in Photoshop using yellow and blue, the middle
colour is neutral grey, not the green one would expect with paint colour. This
study examines why programs like Photoshop are unable to produce paint or pigment
mixtures, and offers a solution using Photoshops existing tools. The article
will discuss how a library of colours, simulating paint mixtures is created
from 13 artists colours. The mixtures can be imported into Photoshop as a colour
swatch palette of 1248 colours and as 78 continuous or stepped gradient files,
all accessed in a new software program Chromafile. In addition, a stand-alone
computer interface has been designed to allow automatic colour recall. Eleven
hues plus black and white are shown at either end of the interface; clicking
on any two colours generates a fourteen step mixture. The colours simulate subtractive
colour mixing. The educational applications of this work range from the simple
interface to a sophisticated colour course. Graphic designers, illustrators,
animators; textile, fashion and interior designers, architects, painters and
computer artists will find Chromafile a useful tool, bridging the disparate
disciplines of analogue and digital colour. I will present the new colour software,
and a poster illustrating the development of the software and comparing pigment
colour with computer colour.
