This book presents the most complete translation to date of Erwin Schrödinger’s work on colorimetry. In his work Schrödinger proposed a projective geometry of color space, rather than a Euclidean line-element. He also proposed new (at the time) colorimetric methods – in detail and at length - which represented a dramatic conceptual shift in colorimetry. Schrödinger shows how the trichromatic (or Young-Helmholtz) theory of color and the opponent-process (or Hering) theory of color are formally the same theory, or at least only trivially different. These translations of Schrödinger’s bold concepts for color space have a fresh resonance and importance for contemporary color theory.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the historical development of color science, told through the stories of more than 90 of the most prominent figures in the field and their contributions. The text comprises an extensive set of biographical essays about pioneering scientists in the field of color science, describing their most significant achievements and explaining how their findings influenced the general understanding of color. Grouped by historical period, each part is prefaced with a short introduction that sets the essays into context and helps the reader appreciate the background and the importance of the contributions made. Beginning with classical Greece and the works of Plato and Aristotle, the book goes on in the second part to describe the advances made by Islamic scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham between the 10th and 15th centuries. The third part covers contributions from Roger Bacon and Theodoric of Freiberg in the same period. Part four includes discussions on color formation and visual perception for a time period from about the 16th to the 18th centuries encompassing the Age of Enlightenment. This part addresses the works of nineteen pioneers including Descartes, Boyle, Newton, Goethe, Lambert, Purkynje, Runge, Dalton, Young and Chevreul. The final part is the largest section of the book and covers the most recent discoveries and contributions from pioneers born after 1800 and includes over 60 essays. Among the pioneers listed in this chapter are Nobel laureates, vision scientists including Helmholtz, and Hering, and many other notable color pioneers such as Munsell and Land. This part of the book also includes essays on contemporary figures in color science including Adams, Boynton, Crawford, Hardy, MacAdam, Ostwald and Wyszecki and reviews their contributions to this dynamic field. A useful reference for color scientists, science historians, artists and others, Pioneers of Color Science offers a fascinating insight into the development of color science and the nature of scientific advancement.

This is the first comprehensive text on the history of color theories since Halbertsma's book of 1947. Color is discussed in close connection with the evolution of ideas of light and vision. The book has chapters on the ancient Greek ideas of vision and color; on the contributions of Arabic science; on the Scientific Revolution from Kepler to Newton; on the early history of the three-color hypothesis; on the trichromatic theory and defective color vision; and on Goethe's, Schopenhauer's and Hering's theories. New understanding of the structure and functions of the retina and the brain finally results in the modern science of color vision. A History of Color has been written for ophthalmologists, optometrists and others who are interested in visual science and its history. The book requires no specialized knowledge.

During the first two decades of the nineteenth century, two of the most significant theoretical works on color since Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato della Pittura were written and published in Germany: Arthur Schopenhauer's On Vision and Colors and Philipp Otto Runge's Color Sphere. For Schopenhauer, vision is wholly subjective in nature and characterized by processes that cross over into the territory of philosophy. Runge's Color Sphere and essay "The Duality of Color" contained one of the first attempts to depict a comprehensive and harmonious color system in three dimensions. Runge intended his color sphere to be understood not as a product of art, but rather as a "mathematical figure of various philosophical reflections." By bringing these two visionary color theories together within a broad theoretical context—philosophy, art, architecture, and design—this volume uncovers their enduring influence on our own perception of color and the visual world around us.

Biography of the Austrian physicist

The Republic of Color delves deep into the history of color science in the United States to unearth its origins and examine the scope of its influence on the industrial transformation of turn-of-the-century America. For a nation in the grip of profound economic, cultural, and demographic crises, the standardization of color became a means of social reform—a way of sculpting the American population into one more amenable to the needs of the emerging industrial order. Delineating color was also a way to characterize the vagaries of human nature, and to create ideal structures through which those humans would act in a newly modern American republic. Michael Rossi’s compelling history goes far beyond the culture of the visual to show readers how the control and regulation of color shaped the social contours of modern America—and redefined the way we see the world.

This is a biography of the great scientist, Erwin Schrödinger (author of What is Life?), which draws upon recollections of his family and friends, as well as on contemporary records, diaries and letters. It aims to reveal the fundamental motives that drove him.