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Use the Chromascope online
What is the Chromascope? The Chromascope is a digital tool, developed for colour education on a perceptive base. It consists of three main parts: - A module for tuning the colours where the user optimalise the colour representation on the actual screen or projector where the tool shall be used. - A swach module where the user set up her own swatches on visual criteria’s in series or in scales. - A task module where the user can do colour studies, either in pre-defined assignments, or with personal defined tasks and experiments. The Tuning Module All screens and projectors can give different representations of given RGB values. In traditional calibration of monitors a photo spectrometer is used to measure the transmitted colour. The measured value is compared with a set of reference colours. The calibration generates a set of data to be installed to make the monitor able to show colour in the most correct way. This process is repeated for the in-put (scanners, camera etc) and the output (printers, plotters etc). The “calibration” – or tuning module in the Chromascope approaches this problem from a different angel. The perception itself, is the outpoint for the tuning. The elementary colours as defined by Ewald Hering are set from the users point of view. This tuning is a condition for the choice of colour to act according to the graphic symbols in the other modules. Different monitors will give the perceptive same experience of colours from the same input-values, when they are tuned according to this module. The swatch module When pre- prepared colours are wanted, this module make it possible to build swatches before the start of experimentation with combinations and interaction. This is a common procedure in other programs where colour is involved too. What makes this module special is the way the visual result relates to the Perceptive elementary colours and to the NCS graphic symbols. The swatches can be built as scales or series, and the closest NCS notation is given for each colour, together with the RGB values and an indicator of lightness. The ways gradients are treated in this module are different from any other program where the steps are generated from a “straight line” through the RGB space. In the Combiscope the scales follow the perceptive transition described in the colour symbols of the NCS hue circle and nuance triangle. Scales or series with equal hues, equal whiteness, chromaticness blackness etc, or with equal nuance, can be established on purely perceptive base. The task module This is an area of interactive modules for colour studies from basic to rather advanced level. The colours can be prepared in the producing module, or can be produced directly in the different workshops. In some assignments the graphic and the assignments are given. In the more open Ateliers, the user builds his own forms and graphic for personal investigation or proposals. In the basic workshops the user can investigate well-known phenomena’s like simultaneous contrast, afterimages, visual transparency etc. The interaction of colour as described from Josef Albers ex. can be studied in some of these tasks. In other there will be possibilities to look into Ittens seven contrasts etc. Some of the workshops deal more directly with the influence of different colour components like hue, nuance, chromaticness etc, on the visual result in a composition. The form expressions and the content, or “the meaning” related to colour could be studied in almost unlimited variations. The more open workshop called the Atelier makes it possible for the user in specially developed techniques to draw, arrange and modify forms and work integrated with the use of colour. This is the area of free compositions, sketches, proposals and investigations of any kind. Conclusion The Chromascope is a user-friendly tool in the colour education, without being an entertaining oriented product with ready-made solutions. It does not make “analogue” colour teaching unnecessary. Quite the opposite, some basic understanding of the perceptual way to approach colour may be needed, and courses in NCS will be an advantage. The gain if the Chromascope is the possibility to save time demanding procedures liker mixing pigments and painting in the studies of visual phenomena. Almost endless possibilities make it engaging to investigate colour in many variations and work with perception without being limited by the production! To avoid this being a play, the real advantage of the Combiscope is the possibility to notate in the NCS symbols discoveries and experiences, and thus enhance the consciousness and knowledge that may be the goal of every education within the field of colour.
Also check the NCS website concerning the Chromascope: