Results of iscc questionnaire on metamerism . ISCC Committee on Indices of Metamerism

An analysis was made of the responses of nearly 300 color scientists and industrial colorists to a questionnaire circulated in 1982 by the Inter‐Society Color Council Project Committee on Indices of Metamerism. The responses to most of the questions were far from unanimous, with a consensus that occasionally included 90–95% of the respondents, but often with a strongly dissenting minority. In most responses the following major conclusions were evident: It was not possible for most respondents to separate the concept of color match from that of metamerism; in most instances, they were willing to accept that an approximate match was enough to allow the presence of metamerism; they confused the concept of metamerism, which defines a relation between two samples, with color constancy, a property of a single sample; they accepted identity of tristimulus values plus different spectral curves as a physical definition of metamerism, but they did not feel that this definition would solve all industrial problems; they felt that new terms and definitions were needed; and they considered color difference adequate as an index of metamerism, with total color difference the best descriptor, followed in order by differences in hue and chroma, the lightness difference being unimportant. Differences among industry groups, while occasionally significant, did not contradict any of these majority conclusions.