Book Review

measurement follows nicely, filled with wisdom about meas-

Colour Engineering: urement errors that will be accessible and valuable to engi-
Achieving Device-Independent Colour neers. In Chapter 3 (on colorimetry and color difference)
edited by Phil Green presents the defining equations for colorimetry,
including CIELAB, CMC, BFD, CIE94, and CIEDE2000.
Phil Green and Lindsay MacDonald
Here, the less-used CIELUV receives only a single com-
Wiley-SID Series in Display Technology
ment, and unfortunately for continuity, the CIELUV delta-
Chichester, United Kingdom E formula (Eq. 3.18) appears without definitions for the
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. quantities in the equation. Ronnier Luo’s Chapter 4 on CIE-
2002. $120.00 (458 pp.) CAM97s is awe-inspiring, particularly in the cleverness of
ISBN 0-471-48688-4 the inverse transform; I haven’t seen all the steps spelled out
in any previous book. (But, apropos of my note above, CIE-
CAM02 doesn’t need so much cleverness.) Peter Rhodes’s
Reviewed by Michael H. Brill chapter on color notation systems is useful and straightfor-
Datacolor ward. Chapters 6-8 and 10 on device characterization by
Lawrenceville, NJ Green, Roy Berns and Naoya Katoh, and Tony Johnson are
straightforward and build on the colorimetry material from
Editors Phil Green and Lindsay MacDonald announce an the previous chapters. Green’s chapters 6 and 10 share with
important goal in the Preface to Colour Engineering: “To his chapter 3 an uncommon clarity and unified vision. Dawn
provide a specialist text that brings together key develop- Wallner introduces ICC profiles in Chapter 11, but the
ments in colour management technology and findings from treatment is abbreviated and Wallner refers to her web-
the colour engineering research community.” At the first an- based book for more explanation. Marc Mahy’s Chapter 12
nual SID/IS&T Color Imaging Conference (CIC) in 1993, on gamut determination is a cautionary note on how compli-
Jim King from Adobe had called for such a synthesis – and cated the relationships can be, and Jan Morovic’s Chapter 13
for a new field, color engineering. In subsequent years, the on gamut mapping shows how rendering intents can be
annual CIC acted as midwife to King’s new field, and the brought to bear on more civilized gamuts than some of the
then-approaching tenth CIC was a convenient time to sum- ones noted by Mahy. Chapter 14, by Kevin Spaulding and
marize the field. In 18 peer-reviewed chapters, the book Edward Giorianni, address color-management solutions
proceeds from basic colorimetry through virtually every adopted by Kodak, and Chapter 15 (by James King) does the
subfield of color management, through ICC, CIE, and ISO same for Adobe. Topical chapters follow on digital cinema
standards, and even has chapters on color management at (by Wolfgang Lempp and Leonardo Noriega) and on digital
Kodak and Adobe. image libraries (by Sabine Süsstrunk). Finally, David
Is the work a “specialist text,” as the editors desired? McDowell summarizes color-management activities of
It certainly has the breadth and depth of coverage needed printing-related standards-bodies.
in such a text. The chapters are organized (approximately) The field of color engineering in general, and ICC-
in order of increasing specialization, and the editors removed speak in particular, badly needs a dictionary. The editors did
some redundancy in the various chapters’ coverage. How- not commit to such a dictionary, but Jack Holm et al. offer
ever, some of the later chapters presume specialized knowl- in Chapter 9 (on digital photography) a glossary of 16 terms
edge that is not conferred by earlier chapters (especially in for their chapter that will help throughout the book. The
printing technology and in computer implementation). glossary is selected from CIE Publication 17.4 and related
Also, the chapters are a bit uneven in tone: Marc Mahy’s ISO publications. Already from the definition of color ren-
chapter on color gamuts has the flavor of mathematical dering, we can see why writing a lexicon is not for the timid.
research, and other chapters are more like software manu- Architects (including computer architects) are comfortable
als. Finally, the work is a time capsule as of 2002, and some with color rendering as “mapping of image data repre-
of it is already a bit obsolete (such as CIECAM97s, which is senting the colorimetric co-ordinates of the elements of a
now eclipsed by the more tractable CIECAM02). Here are scene or original to image data representing the colorimet-
some highlights, by chapter: ric co-ordinates of the elements of a reproduction.” But
Arthur Tarant’s introduction on light and color is self- where does that leave color rendering by light sources, the
contained and accessible to an engineering undergraduate original purview of the CIE? Despite such difficulties, we
(even to one who didn’t learn Java in high school). Danny need a dictionary of ICC-speak, particularly to demystify its
Rich’s discussion of instruments and methods for color many acronyms.

Journal of the SID 12/1, 2004 119

 I hear that Green and MacDonald plan to publish a
corrected, updated edition of Colour Engineering. The idea
of an updated time slice seems a bit of an oxymoron, but
more power to these editors! Meanwhile, engineers who
want to become color engineers will find in this book a
unique compendium of the necessary tools of the trade,
more polished than a conference proceedings but less so
than a full-blown text. In our era of quickly evolving com-
puter-based solutions and slowly evolving documentation,
the book is a necessary stake in the ground.

120 Brill / Book Review