Optimal yarn colour combination for full‐colour fabric design and mixed‐colour chromaticity coordinates based on CIE chromaticity diagram analysis

It is challenging for textile designers to achieve full‐colour effects in woven fabric using a limited set of coloured yarns. The common problems encountered during full‐colour fabric design include an insufficient number of colours and a failure to match the fabric colour with the desired colour. Using the theories of primary colours and optical colour mixing, we examine the mixed‐colour distribution of primary colour yarns on the basis of the CIE 1976 chromaticity diagram (CIE u′v′). In our experiment, dope‐dyed polyester filament yarns were selected as raw materials. Eight kinds of gradually varied weave structures and four types of primary colour combination were adopted in order to make different types of full‐colour fabric colour chart. Spectrophotometer and DigiEye colour measurement systems were selected to measure the reflectance and colour value of the fabric samples. By comparing the colour distribution of mixed fabrics in the CIE u′v′ diagram, the relationship between the primary colour combinations and the colour distribution of mixed fabrics is discussed. Of RGB, CMY, NCS, and RGBCMY combinations, only RGBCMY resulted in a relatively complete and large colour gamut. Moreover, the colour positions of mixed fabrics in the CIE u′v′ diagram were almost all distributed on or near the connecting line of the primary colour coordinates. The specific colour position of mixed fabrics in the CIE u′v′ diagram were mainly determined by the proportion of primary colours on the fabric surface. In this way, a new method for computing colour position in the CIE u′v′ diagram is introduced.