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CIE 1931 color space

either of two color spaces defined by the CIE in 1931

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ374617 ↗
Source-derived summary

In 1931, the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) published the CIE 1931 color spaces which define the relationship between the visible spectrum and human colour vision. The CIE color spaces are mathematical models that comprise a "standard observer", which is a static idealization of the color vision of a normal human. A useful application of the CIEXYZ colorspace is that a mixture of two colors in some proportion lies on the straight line between those two colors. One disadvantage is that it is not perceptually uniform. This disadvantage is remedied in subsequent color models such as CIELUV and CIELAB, but these and modern color models still use the CIE 1931 color spaces as a foundation.

The CIE developed and maintains many of the standards in use today relating to colorimetry. The CIE color spaces were created using data from a series of experiments, where human test subjects adjusted red, green, and blue primary colors to find a visual match to a second, pure color. The original experiments were conducted in the mid-1920s by William David Wright using ten observers and John Guild using seven observers. The experimental results were combined, creating the CIE RGB color space. The CIE XYZ color space was derived from CIE RGB in an effort to simplify the math.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “CIE 1931 color space” is either of two color spaces defined by the CIE in 1931. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through color, space and either, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1931—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1931. For this dossier, color, space and either is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “either of two color spaces defined by the CIE in 1931” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q374617. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1931.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “CIE 1931 color space” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.