CRD Color Rendition Demonstrator

The CRD is a valuable educational and communication tool designed for demonstrating the dramatic visual color effects of different light qualities on identical color prints or samples.

The Color/Light Relationship

All "color" begins with the light source. A colored print or object is not, of itself, "colored." The pigments or dyestuffs in colored materials selectively absorb or reflect certain wavelengths of the light source, thereby illuminating it.

A "red" apple, for example, has natural pigmentation which absorbs most of the green and blue wavelengths from a white light source, reflecting the red energy toward our eyes. Our eyes detect that energy and transmit a signal to our brain which identifies it as what we have learned to be "red." If the light source's red energy is reduced, the red of the apple will also be reduced.

Color Is Light

The Color Rendition Demonstrator dramatizes such effects by presenting identical prints or other colored materials under three spectrally different light sources: fluorescent cool-white store light, 5000K fluorescent noon sunlight and incandescent home light. With the CRD, for example, package designers can evaluate the aesthetic appearance and color harmony of package materials as they might appear at the point of sale under store light, at the point of use under home light or under full-spectrum daylight conditions.