chromaticity
Quick Summary
Chromaticity refers to the quality of a color, independent of its brightness. In optics, it's a key component of how we perceive color. The tristimulus system quantifies color by measuring how much of three primary colors—red, green, and blue—are needed to match a given color.12
These measurements can be plotted on a chromaticity diagram, where the x and y values together define the chromaticity of a sample. This diagram helps visualize the spectrum of visible colors. A related optical phenomenon is chromatic aberration, which is color distortion in images viewed through lenses, caused by the variation of the refractive index of glass with wavelength.234
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