It is well known and understood that the appearance of colours changes under certain lighting conditions. Sometimes colours used together in a design can change in unexpected ways. For example, a grey colour may remain neutral under certain lighting conditions, while another lighting condition may turn the appearance of this colour to red or green.
In ColourSys you can see a simulation of your colour chips under different lighting conditions. This means you can see how the 100% colours in your design will behave under different lighting conditions, without the need to print anything.
ColourSys supports the simulation of colours under the following light sources:
- D50
- A (Tungsten Filament)
- F2 (Cool White Fluorescent)
- F7 (Daylight Fluorescent)
- F11 (TL84)
- F12 (Ultralume, TL83)
Note: The lighting simulation will only appear if the Chip Type selected is Technical.
Activating the lighting simulation in your colour file
- Go to View > View Settings.
- Select Technical mode in the Chip Type drop down menu.
- Activate the Lighting Simulation option at the bottom of the window and choose a light source from the drop down menu.
In the active colour file, the lighting simulation will be shown as a second colour chip on the right hand side of the original colour.
Note: Colour chips must have reflectance data for the lighting simulation to work. If a chip does not have reflectance data (for example, if the colour was chosen from a standard colour picker), the lighting simulation for that chip will be blank.
The lighting simulation is intended to be viewed under D65 light, as are all AVA colour managed prints. This allows you to see the appearance of the chips under D65 lighting and any other selected lighting conditions simultaneously.