Perceptually Uniform Color Spaces

Comments criticize RGB and HSL for poor perceptual uniformity and recommend alternatives like CIELAB, OKLab, HCL, and HUSL for better human vision representation in visualizations and design.

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e.g WCAG NCS boronine.com allthesky.com LAB inc.cpp LCD observablehq.com hclcolor.com rgb hue color colors space lab yellow colours blue repeating

Sample Comments

Overv Dec 15, 2017 View on HN

I'm not sure. It's hard to say because RGB is a bad representation of the color semantics anyway. Try visualizing the images in HSV/HSL/LAB space instead.

eat_veggies Sep 6, 2020 View on HN

For this there are things like the Lab color space!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIELAB_color_space

rini17 Apr 13, 2020 View on HN

Then go all the way and use perceptually uniform colorspace. But that has complicated relationship to RGB used everywhere.

brookst Apr 14, 2025 View on HN

Even better, convert to HSL or CieLAB. RGB is not at all how our eyes see things.

mkehrt Jul 23, 2014 View on HN

What color space does this use? Is it HSV? You should consider moving to something more perceptually based; all these look slightly off to me.

mattdesl Sep 3, 2024 View on HN

Surely this should be using a perceptually uniform color space like OKLab rather than HSL!

AceJohnny2 Sep 3, 2014 View on HN

I've been peripherally interested in colo[u]r science for a while, and as a software guy was amazed to discover the complexities of accurately describing and computing color across a not-so-wide range of devices (my LCD screen, your LCD screen, that projector, this printer...).For example, I was looking for a way to find "perceptual distance" between colours, since the standard RGB rainbow gives more space for green than, say, yellow. Turns out there are colour spaces for that:

adtac Jan 11, 2022 View on HN

Is there a primer to colour spaces for a beginner?

malandrew Apr 14, 2012 View on HN

Why not use CIE L*ab, since that colorimetric system is based on human perception or difference?

justinpombrio Mar 16, 2017 View on HN

If you want to do something meaningful with colors, don't use RGB, and don't use HSL (which is based on RGB). These spaces are problematic. For instance, pure blue and pure green in RGB space have very different lightness. Here's a picture of the region of colors covered by RGB:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV#/media&#