News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by layer8 on Saturday November 19, 2022 @06:49PM (#33676328)
Interestingly, neither the web page nor the previous threads address that the colors in the book might have changed/faded over the centuries, depending on the dyes used. The pages probably didn’t get significant light exposure, but heat and chemical factors might have had an impact. And, of course, the photos might not be completely color-accurate.
Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by dahart on Saturday November 19, 2022 @08:11PM (#33676998)
> heat and chemical factors might have had an impact

Pretty much guaranteed by the fact the pages are yellow, presumably paper acidity? When I wrote my thesis, it was supposed to be on acid-free paper and archival, but I snuck in some color printed pictures, and boy did that not work out so well. 20 years later and the pages are yellow and the colors are fading.

> the photos might not be completely color-accurate

It’s hard to imagine how the web version could be accurate at all, I wouldn’t count on it, and none of the blogs nor the book mention their methodology. Even with a lot of knowledge and care, you need to know the illumination conditions (spectra of the lights) and the camera used, and the color space it was encoded into, and your display device has to be calibrated.

The best way to reproduce the colors might be to follow Boogert’s recipes for the paint, which I think is what he documented?

Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by layer8 on Saturday November 19, 2022 @08:40PM (#33677174)
Yes, I tried to be cautious in my implications, but I suspect the colors in the photos to be substantially different from what they originally were. I’d be curious if the original colors could be reconstructed by analyzing the dyes, but of course with 800 pages (I don’t know how many color patches) that could be a lot of work.
Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by kadoban on Sunday November 20, 2022 @12:25AM (#33678567)
> The best way to reproduce the colors might be to follow Boogert’s recipes for the paint, which I think is what he documented?

That's back far enough that following the recipes is bound to be _hard_.

Chemicals and pigments and such go by different names, are produced in different processes and formulations, and some are extremely hard to get due to someone noticing that it rots your genes or whatever.

Maybe whatever pigments are used in watercolors aren't affected by this much, but I bet at least some are.

It'd should be fun to try though, for a certain kind of person.

Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by theCrowing on Sunday November 20, 2022 @04:27AM (#33679585)
There are some pigments we wouldn't use anymore like ground up mummies for yellow.
Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by kadoban on Sunday November 20, 2022 @02:06PM (#33684081)
Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by mncharity on Saturday November 19, 2022 @09:22PM (#33677458)
Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by Villodre on Saturday November 19, 2022 @11:00PM (#33678094)
That was in my mind for the entire length of the article, and I readily went to the comment sections expecting it to be addressed. I saved, from a previous job and just for curiosity's sake, a Pantone colour book that I was told wasn't usable any more because it was several decades old and the pigments would have faded or changed from the original tones.
Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by froh on Sunday November 20, 2022 @03:45AM (#33679403)
maybe that question of pigment persistence is interesting but just not relevant in discussing the book?

maybe the interesting aspect is the perseverance of the author and their systematic and thorough approach and their desire to create a complete work over all watercolor pigments?

Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by ilkkal on Sunday November 20, 2022 @06:44AM (#33680182)
To me this is the weirdest thing about Pantone the company, their products etc: so much trouble to try to make sure that for a fleeting moment some knick-knack produced half a world away looks like it did on the designer’s expensive monitor. Then, time happens.

Is the world better off than if we just eyeballed it?

Re:271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 80... by Mandatum on Sunday November 20, 2022 @03:49PM (#33685123)
They definitely aren’t. Pantone books expire after 18 months or so. Color accuracy is near hell at the best of times and even today we’re dependent on humans to validate matching. Printers don’t rely on digital tools for this because they require constant calibration.