The color appearance shifts of woven fabrics induced by the optical blending of colored yarns

This study investigated the effect of individual yarn colors and their blending on the color appearance of woven fabrics by comparing them with solid colors. Woven fabrics often obtain their colors through blends of different colored yarns. When the blends are seen from far enough away, the individual yarn colors are optically mixed in our eyes and perceived as a new solid color that is not actually present. To examine this optical color mixing effect, red, yellow, green, and blue yarns were woven together to produce 36 fabrics in a wide range of colors, the values of which were measured spectrophotometrically. The spectrophotometric values were generated as solid color images on a calibrated cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor. Then the fabrics were scanned and the scanned images were displayed beside their corresponding solid color images on the CRT monitor to assess their differences in lightness, colorfulness, and hue. The results showed that, although the fabrics and their corresponding solid colors had identical CIELAB color values, they appeared significantly different in terms of all lightness, colorfulness, and hue. It was found that the lightness differences of fabrics from solid colors vary with the overall L*, C*, and h° of the fabrics, the colorfulness differences vary with the L*, C*, and h°, and the number of yarn colors in the fabrics and the hue differences vary with the h°. Based on these effects, color appearance models to predict the perceived lightness, colorfulness, and hue of woven fabrics were developed.