trichromatic color theory

Link to Technical information about the CIE color space at the Adobe site.

http://dba.med.sc.edu/price/irf/Adobe_tg/models/cie.htm

The CIE 1931 color space established by the Commission internationale de l'Eclairage attempted standardization of color perception. The color space model is a highly sophisticated elaboration of Maxwell’s triangle based on actual data obtained from human observers.

MAXWELL'S COLOR TRIANGLE

In Maxwell's equilateral triangle pure yellow is positioned exactly half way between red and green. Orange lies on the perimeter between red and yellow. White is at the centre. Other lighter color combinations, like sky blue, lie inside the triangle. Black is not shown because black and the darker color combinations would require a third dimension.

	RED	GREEN	BLUE	YELLOW	MAGENTA	CYAN	BLACK	WHITE
LONG	+			+	+			+
MEDIUM		+		+		+		+
SHORT			+		+	+		+

Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (better known for his four equations of electromagnetics) developed Young's work further. Maxwell (1855: 283) wrote that Youngs "triplicity" has:

no foundation in the theory of light, its cause must be looked for in the constitution of the eye; and by one of those bold assumptions which sometimes express the result of speculation better than any cautious trains of reasoning, he attributed it to the existence of three distinct modes of sensation in the retina...

James Maxwell famously projected an additive image of a tartan ribbon composed of the three fundamental colors: red, green and blue.

MAXWELL'S "THREE DISTINCT MODES OF SENSATION IN THE RETINA" MADE EXPLICIT

The highly simplified chart below shows how the eight basic colors can be generated from, what we now know to be, long, medium and short wavelength, color-sensitive cones.

James Clerk Maxwell, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.

What came to be known as the Theory of Trichromatic Vision was first proposed by the English doctor and physicist, Thomas Young (1773-1829). In On the Theory of Light and Colors (1802) he reasoned:

Since it is hardly possible to believe that each light sensitive point on the retina contains an infinite number of particles, which must all be in a position to oscillate with the respective wave in full agreement, it is therefore necessary to assume that this number is, for example, limited to the three main colours...