ISO/IEC 17823:2024
(Main)Information technology — Office equipment — Vocabulary for office colour equipment
Information technology — Office equipment — Vocabulary for office colour equipment
This document provides definitions for colour terms used with office equipment, in particular for use with colour scanning and printing devices that have digital imaging capabilities, including multi-function devices. This document is not intended to replace terms and definitions published in documents or user interfaces issued or created by manufacturers.
Titre manque
General Information
Relations
Buy Standard
Standards Content (Sample)
International
Standard
ISO/IEC 17823
Second edition
Information technology — Office
2024-07
equipment — Vocabulary for office
colour equipment
Reference number
© ISO/IEC 2024
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on
the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below
or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Classification and alphabetical index of terms .12
4.1 Classification of terms . 12
4.2 Alphabetical index . 12
Annex A (informative) Classification of terms .13
Annex B (informative) Primary colours and typical input in various devices versus market
segments .15
Bibliography . 17
Index . 19
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are
members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical
committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity.
ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations,
governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types
of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/
IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).
ISO and IEC draw attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the
use of (a) patent(s). ISO and IEC take no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any
claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO and IEC had not
received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers
are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent
database available at www.iso.org/patents and https://patents.iec.ch. ISO and IEC shall not be held
responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
In the IEC, see www.iec.ch/understanding-standards.
This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 28, Office equipment.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO/IEC 17823:2015), which has been technically
revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— new terms and definitions have been added;
— references have been updated.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards
body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and
www.iec.ch/national-committees.
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
iv
Introduction
Technical colour terms have been published in various fields of standards such as colour photography,
graphic technology printing and computer graphics. However, no standard colour terms have been published
for office equipment.
As a result, misunderstandings between users and colour office equipment providers can occur when terms
are interpreted differently.
The purpose of this document is to provide terminology for use by office equipment providers to help
customers use their colour equipment effectively.
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
v
International Standard ISO/IEC 17823:2024(en)
Information technology — Office equipment — Vocabulary
for office colour equipment
1 Scope
This document provides definitions for colour terms used with office equipment, in particular for use with
colour scanning and printing devices that have digital imaging capabilities, including multi-function devices.
This document is not intended to replace terms and definitions published in documents or user interfaces
issued or created by manufacturers.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
colour balance
adjustment of colour channel gains or processing
3.1.1
grey balance
set of tone-values for cyan, magenta and yellow that are expected to appear as an achromatic grey under
specified viewing conditions (3.12.11) when printed using the specified printing conditions
Note 1 to entry: There are three practical definitions and one theoretical definition for grey:
a) practical definitions:
1) colour having the same CIELAB a* and b* values as the print substrate;
2) colour that has the same CIELAB a* and b* values as a half-tone tint (3.16.2) of similar L* value
printed with black ink;
3) functional (linear or nonlinear) combination of both.
b) theoretical definition:
1) colour that the CIELAB a* and b* values both equal to 0.
[SOURCE: ISO/TS 10128:2023, 3.4, modified — Note 1 to entry has been modified.]
3.2
black
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
3.2.1
composite black
black printed with multiple colourants (3.9)
3.2.2
pure black
black generated only in black colourant (3.9) in a printing device
3.2.3
rich black
black generated by a mixture of black colourant (3.9) and other colourants in a printing device
3.3
calibration
set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between values of quantities
indicated by a measuring instrument or measuring system, or values represented by a material measure or
a reference material, and the corresponding values realized by standards
[SOURCE: ISO 14807:2001, 3.11]
3.4
colour appearance
aspect of visual perception through which an object is perceived to have a colour with certain attributes
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E:2020, 17-22-058]
3.4.1
brightness
attribute of a visual perception according to which an area appears to emit, transmit or reflect, more or less light
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020, 17-22-059]
3.4.2
colourfulness
attribute of a visual perception according to which the perceived colour of an area appears to be more or less
chromatic
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-845:2020, 845-22-072, modified — Notes to entry have been removed.]
3.4.3
highlight colour
adjustment of colour channel gains or processing
3.4.4
metamerism
phenomenon perceived when two specimens have the same colour under the lighting of an illuminant, but
different spectral reflection and transmission curves
[SOURCE: ISO 4618:2023, 3.154]
3.4.5
vividness
attribute of colour used to indicate the degree of departure of the colour from a neutral black colour
3.5
colour difference
perceived dissimilarity between two colour stimuli
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020, 17-22-041]
3.6
colour encoding
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
3.6.1
colour palette
fixed set or range of available colours that can be selected
3.6.2
full colour
representation of colours with 3-channel or more, and each channel has 8-bit or more information
Note 1 to entry: Each channel may have 12-bit or 16-bit. In "commercial printing", there are multi-channel colour
reproductions such as “Cyan(C), Magenta(M), Yellow(Y), black(K), Orange(O) and Green(G)”.
3.6.3
indexed colour
palette colour
colour selection scheme in which the colour index is used to retrieve colour values from a colour table
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 8632-1:1999, 4.1.62, modified — The term "palette colour" has been added.]
3.6.4
metallic colour
colour associated with polished metal, the brightness (3.4.1) of which varies with the angle of the incident
light and the viewing angle
Note 1 to entry: Typically, metallic colour cannot be reproduced well by mixture of device process colours (3.6.7).
3.6.5
multi colour
multi-colour
additional colour(s) other than device process colours (3.6.7), used in printing process that enhance(s) colour
image quality
Note 1 to entry: Typically, complementary colours of process colours such as red, green, violet are used to expand
colour gamut (3.7.2).
Note 2 to entry: Sometimes light colourants (3.9) such as light cyan, light magenta, light black or grey are used to
improve image granularity and colour gamut in highlight.
3.6.6
named colour
colour with associated colour expression specification
3.6.7
process colour
colour that is the outcome of a colour separation operation
Note 1 to entry: A process colour typically requires one or more printing units and process inks to be reproduced.
Note 2 to entry: It is typically cyan, magenta, yellow, black for four-colour printing.
[SOURCE: ISO/TS 19303-1:2020, 3.10, modified — Note 2 to entry has been added.]
3.6.8
special colour
specific colour of single colourant (3.9) designated, that cannot be reproduced by mixture of device process
colours (3.6.7)
3.6.9
spot colour
colour of single colourant (3.9), identified by name, the printing tone-values of which are specified
independently from the colour values specified in a colour coordinate system
[SOURCE: ISO 12639:2004, 4.1.10, modified — The word “colour” is added.]
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
3.7
colour management
communication of the associated data required for unambiguous interpretation of colour content data, and
application of colour data conversions, as required, to produce the intended reproductions
[SOURCE: ISO 15076-1:2010, 3.1.11, modified — Notes to entry have been removed.]
3.7.1
characterization
process of relating device-dependent colour values to device-independent colour values
Note 1 to entry: Adapted from ISO 12637-2:2008, 2.7.
3.7.2
colour gamut
volume, area or solid in a colour space (3.8), consisting of all those colours that are either one of the following:
a) present in a specific scene, artwork, photograph, photomechanical, or other reproduction;
b) capable of being created using a particular output device and/or medium
Note 1 to entry: In reproduction and media applications, only the volume or solid in colour space is regarded as colour
gamut. In applications such as signal lighting, the colour gamut is an area.
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020, 17-32-007]
3.7.3
colour gamut boundary
surface determined by a colour gamut's (3.7.2) extremes
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC TR 29186:2012, 3.3]
3.7.4
gamut boundary descriptor
GBD
overall way of approximately describing a colour gamut boundary (3.7.3)
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC TR 29186:2012, 3.4]
3.7.5
gamut mapping
mapping of the colour space (3.8) coordinates of the elements of a source image to colour space coordinates
of the elements of a reproduction to co
...
International
Standard
ISO/IEC 17823
Second edition
Information technology — Office
equipment — Vocabulary for office
colour equipment
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
Reference number
© ISO/IEC 2024
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on
the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below
or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Classification and alphabetical index of terms .12
4.1 Classification of terms . 12
4.2 Alphabetical index . 12
Annex A (informative) Classification of terms .13
Annex B (informative) Primary colours and typical input in various devices versus market
segments .15
Bibliography . 17
Index . 19
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are
members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical
committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity.
ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations,
governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types
of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/
IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).
ISO and IEC draw attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the
use of (a) patent(s). ISO and IEC take no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any
claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO and IEC had not
received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers
are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent
database available at www.iso.org/patents and https://patents.iec.ch. ISO and IEC shall not be held
responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
In the IEC, see www.iec.ch/understanding-standards.
This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 28, Office equipment.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO/IEC 17823:2015), which has been technically
revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— new terms and definitions have been added;
— references have been updated.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards
body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and
www.iec.ch/national-committees.
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
iv
Introduction
Technical colour terms have been published in various fields of standards such as colour photography,
graphic technology printing and computer graphics. However, no standard colour terms have been published
for office equipment.
As a result, misunderstandings between users and colour office equipment providers can occur when terms
are interpreted differently.
The purpose of this document is to provide terminology for use by office equipment providers to help
customers use their colour equipment effectively.
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
v
International Standard ISO/IEC 17823:2024(en)
Information technology — Office equipment — Vocabulary
for office colour equipment
1 Scope
This document provides definitions for colour terms used with office equipment, in particular for use with
colour scanning and printing devices that have digital imaging capabilities, including multi-function devices.
This document is not intended to replace terms and definitions published in documents or user interfaces
issued or created by manufacturers.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
colour balance
adjustment of colour channel gains or processing
3.1.1
grey balance
set of tone-values for cyan, magenta and yellow that are expected to appear as an achromatic grey under
specified viewing conditions (3.12.11) when printed using the specified printing conditions
Note 1 to entry: There are three practical definitions and one theoretical definition for grey:
a) practical definitions:
1) colour having the same CIELAB a* and b* values as the print substrate;
2) colour that has the same CIELAB a* and b* values as a half-tone tint (3.16.2) of similar L* value
printed with black ink;
3) functional (linear or nonlinear) combination of both.
b) theoretical definition:
1) colour that the CIELAB a* and b* values both equal to 0.
[SOURCE: ISO/TS 10128:2023, 3.4, modified — Note 1 to entry has been modified.]
3.2
black
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
3.2.1
composite black
black printed with multiple colourants (3.9)
3.2.2
pure black
black generated only in black colourant (3.9) in a printing device
3.2.3
rich black
black generated by a mixture of black colourant (3.9) and other colourants in a printing device
3.3
calibration
set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between values of quantities
indicated by a measuring instrument or measuring system, or values represented by a material measure or
a reference material, and the corresponding values realized by standards
[SOURCE: ISO 14807:2001, 3.11]
3.4
colour appearance
aspect of visual perception through which an object is perceived to have a colour with certain attributes
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E:2020, 17-22-058]
3.4.1
brightness
attribute of a visual perception according to which an area appears to emit, transmit or reflect, more or less light
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020, 17-22-059]
3.4.2
colourfulness
attribute of a visual perception according to which the perceived colour of an area appears to be more or less
chromatic
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-845:2020, 845-22-072, modified — Notes to entry have been removed.]
3.4.3
highlight colour
adjustment of colour channel gains or processing
3.4.4
metamerism
phenomenon perceived when two specimens have the same colour under the lighting of an illuminant, but
different spectral reflection and transmission curves
[SOURCE: ISO 4618:2023, 3.154]
3.4.5
vividness
attribute of colour used to indicate the degree of departure of the colour from a neutral black colour
3.5
colour difference
perceived dissimilarity between two colour stimuli
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020, 17-22-041]
3.6
colour encoding
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
3.6.1
colour palette
fixed set or range of available colours that can be selected
3.6.2
full colour
representation of colours with 3-channel or more, and each channel has 8-bit or more information
Note 1 to entry: Each channel may have 12-bit or 16-bit. In "commercial printing", there are multi-channel colour
reproductions such as “Cyan(C), Magenta(M), Yellow(Y), black(K), Orange(O) and Green(G)”.
3.6.3
indexed colour
palette colour
colour selection scheme in which the colour index is used to retrieve colour values from a colour table
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 8632-1:1999, 4.1.62, modified — The term "palette colour" has been added.]
3.6.4
metallic colour
colour associated with polished metal, the brightness (3.4.1) of which varies with the angle of the incident
light and the viewing angle
Note 1 to entry: Typically, metallic colour cannot be reproduced well by mixture of device process colours (3.6.7).
3.6.5
multi colour
multi-colour
additional colour(s) other than device process colours (3.6.7), used in printing process that enhance(s) colour
image quality
Note 1 to entry: Typically, complementary colours of process colours such as red, green, violet are used to expand
colour gamut (3.7.2).
Note 2 to entry: Sometimes light colourants (3.9) such as light cyan, light magenta, light black or grey are used to
improve image granularity and colour gamut in highlight.
3.6.6
named colour
colour with associated colour expression specification
3.6.7
process colour
colour that is the outcome of a colour separation operation
Note 1 to entry: A process colour typically requires one or more printing units and process inks to be reproduced.
Note 2 to entry: It is typically cyan, magenta, yellow, black for four-colour printing.
[SOURCE: ISO/TS 19303-1:2020, 3.10, modified — Note 2 to entry has been added.]
3.6.8
special colour
specific colour of single colourant (3.9) designated, that cannot be reproduced by mixture of device process
colours (3.6.7)
3.6.9
spot colour
colour of single colourant (3.9), identified by name, the printing tone-values of which are specified
independently from the colour values specified in a colour coordinate system
[SOURCE: ISO 12639:2004, 4.1.10, modified — the word “colour” is added.]
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
3.7
colour management
communication of the associated data required for unambiguous interpretation of colour content data, and
application of colour data conversions, as required, to produce the intended reproductions
[SOURCE: ISO 15076-1:2010, 3.1.11, modified — Notes to entry have been removed.]
3.7.1
characterization
process of relating device-dependent colour values to device-independent colour values
Note 1 to entry: Adapted from ISO 12637-2:2008, 2.7.
3.7.2
colour gamut
volume, area or solid in a colour space (3.8), consisting of all those colours that are either one of the following:
a) present in a specific scene, artwork, photograph, photomechanical, or other reproduction;
b) capable of being created using a particular output device and/or medium
Note 1 to entry: In reproduction and media applications, only the volume or solid in colour space is regarded as colour
gamut. In applications such as signal lighting, the colour gamut is an area.
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020, 17-32-007]
3.7.3
colour gamut boundary
surface determined by a colour gamut's (3.7.2) extremes
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC TR 29186:2012, 3.3]
3.7.4
gamut boundary descriptor
GBD
overall way of approximately describing a colour gamut boundary (3.7.3)
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC TR 29186:2012, 3.4]
3.7.5
gamut mapping
mapping of the colour space (3.8) coordinates of the eleme
...
ISO/IEC DIS PRF 17823:2023(E)
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 28/WG 5
Secretariat: JISC
Date: 2023-11-282024-05-13
Information technology — Office equipment — Colour terminology —
Vocabulary for office colour equipment
FDIS stage
ISO/IEC PRF 17823:2024(en)
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication
may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO
at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: + 41 22 749 01 11
EmailE-mail: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
ii
ISO/IEC PRF 17823:2024(en)
Contents
Foreword . iv
Introduction . v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Classification and alphabetical index of terms . 13
4.1 Classification of terms . 13
4.2 Alphabetical index . 13
Annex A (informative) Classification of terms . 14
A.1 General . 14
A.2 Colour terms list for office colour equipment . 14
A.2.1 Terms that are not defined in previously published International Standards . 14
A.2.2 Terms that have conflicting definitions in previously published International Standards14
A.2.3 Terms with modified definitions for office equipment . 15
A.2.4 Terms that have definitions in previously published International Standards that are
appropriate for office equipment . 15
Annex B (informative) Primary colours and typical input in various devices versus market
segments . 16
Bibliography . 21
Index 23
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
iii
ISO/IEC PRF 17823:2024(en)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members
of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees
established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC
technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of
document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC
Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).
Field Code Changed
ISO and IEC draw attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of
(a) patent(s). ISO and IEC take no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed
patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO and IEC had not received
notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are
cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database
available at www.iso.org/patents and https://patents.iec.ch. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for
identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
In the IEC, see www.iec.ch/understanding-standards.
Field Code Changed
This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 28, Office equipment.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO/IEC 17823:2015), which has been technically
revised.
The main changes are as follows:
— — some new terms and their definitions have been added;
— — the citation of the references hashave been updated.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and www.iec.ch/national-
committees.
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
iv
ISO/IEC PRF 17823:2024(en)
Introduction
Technical colour terms have been published in various fields of standards such as colour photography, graphic
technology printing and computer graphics. However, no standard colour terms have been published for office
equipment.
As a result, misunderstandings between users and colour office equipment providers maycan occur when
terms are interpreted differently.
The purpose of this document is to provide terminology for use by office equipment providers to help
customers use their colour equipment effectively.
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
v
ISO/IEC PRF 17823:2024(en)
Information technology — Office equipment — Colour terminology —
Vocabulary for office colour equipment
1 Scope
This document provides definitions for colour terms used with office equipment, in particular for use with
colour scanning and printing devices that have digital imaging capabilities, including multi-function devices.
This document is not intended to replace terms and definitions published in documents or user interfaces
issued or created by manufacturers.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— — ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
— — IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
3.1
colour balance
adjustment of colour channel gains or processing
3.1.1
grey balance
set of tone-values for cyan, magenta and yellow that are expected to appear as an achromatic grey under
specified viewing conditions (3.12.11(3.12.11)) when printed using the specified printing conditions
Note 1 to entry: There are three practical definitions and one theoretical definition for grey:
a) a) practical definitions:
1) 1) colour having the same CIELAB a* and b* values as the print substrate;
2) 2) colour that has the same CIELAB a* and b* values as a half-tone tint (3.16.2(3.16.2)) of similar L* value
printed with black ink;
3) 3) functional (linear or nonlinear) combination of both.
b) b) theoretical definition:
1) 1) colour that the CIELAB a* and b* values both equal to 0.
[SOURCE: ISO/TS 10128:20092023, 3.34, modified — Note 1 to entry has been modified.]
3.2
black
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
ISO/IEC PRF 17823:2024(en)
3.2.1
composite black
black printed with multiple colourants (3.9(3.9))
3.2.2
pure black
black generated only in black colourant (3.9(3.9)) in a printing device
3.2.3
rich black
black generated by a mixture of black colourant (3.9(3.9)) and other colourants in a printing device
3.3
calibration
set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between values of quantities
indicated by a measuring instrument or measuring system, or values represented by a material measure or a
reference material, and the corresponding values realized by standards
[SOURCE: ISO 14807:2001, 3.11]
3.4
colour appearance
aspect of visual perception through which an object is perceived to have a colour with certain attributes
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E:2020, 17-22-058]
3.4.1
brightness
attribute of a visual perception according to which an area appears to emit, transmit or reflect, more or less
light
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020, 17-22-059]
3.4.2
colourfulness
attribute of a visual perception according to which the perceived colour of an area appears to be more or less
chromatic
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-845:2020, 845-22-072, modified — Notes to entry have been removed.]
3.4.3
highlight colour
adjustment of colour channel gains or processing
3.4.4
metamerism
phenomenon perceived when two specimens have the same colour under the lighting of an illuminant, but
different spectral reflection and transmission curves
[SOURCE: ISO 4618:20212023, 3.154]
3.4.5
vividness
attribute of colour used to indicate the degree of departure of the colour from a neutral black colour
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
ISO/IEC PRF 17823:2024(en)
3.5
colour difference
perceived colour difference perceived dissimilarity between two colour stimuli
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020, 17-22-041]
3.6
colour encoding
3.6.1
colour palette
fixed set or range of available colours that can be selected
3.6.2
full colour
representation of colours with 3-channel or more, and each channel has 8-bit or more information
Note 1 to entry: Each channel may have 12-bit or 16-bit. In "commercial printing", there are multi-channel colour
reproductionreproductions such as “Cyan(C), Magenta(M), Yellow(Y), black(K), Orange(O) and Green(G)”.
3.6.3
indexed colour
palette colour
colour selection scheme in which the colour index is used to retrieve colour values from a colour table
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 8632-1:1999, 4.1.62, modified — The term "palette colour" has been added.]
3.6.4
metallic colour
colour associated with polished metal, whosethe brightness (3.4.1(3.4.1)) of which varies with the angle of the
incident light and the viewing angle
Note 1 to entry: Typically, metallic colour cannot be reproduced well by mixture of device process colours (3.6.7(3.6.7).).
3.6.5
multi colour
multi-colour
additional colour(s) other than device process colours (3.6.7(3.6.7),), used in printing process that enhance(s)
colour image quality
Note 1 to entry: Typically, complementary colours of process colours such as red, green, violet are used to expand colour
gamut (3.7.2(3.7.2).).
Note 2 to entry: Sometimes light colourants (3.9(3.9)) such as light cyan, light magenta, light black or grey are used to
improve image granularity and colour gamut in highlight.
3.6.6
named colour
colour with associated colour expression specification
3.6.7
process colour
colour that is the outcome of a colour separation operation
Note 1 to entry: A process colour typically requires one or more printing units and process inks to be reproduced.
© ISO/IEC 2024 – All rights reserved
ISO/IEC PRF 17823:2024(en)
Note 2 to entry: It is typically cyan, magenta, yellow, black for four-colour printing.
[SOURCE: ISO/TS 19303-1:2020, 3.10, modified — Note 2 to entry has been added.]
3.6.8
special colour
specific colour of single colourant (3.9(3.9)) designated, that cannot be reproduced by mixture of device
process colours (3.6.7(3.6.7))
3.6.9
spot colour
colour of single colourant (3.9(3.9),), identified by name, whosethe printing tone-values of which are specified
independently from the colour values specified in a colour coordinate system
[SOURCE: ISO 12639:2004, 4.1.10, modified — a keythe word “colour” is added.]
3.7
colour management
communication of the associated data required for unambiguous interpretation of colour content data, and
application of colour data conversions, as required, to produce the intended reproductions
[SOURCE: ISO 15076-1:2010, 3.1.11, modified — Notes to entry have been removed.]
3.7.1
characterization
process of relating device-dependent colour values to device-independent colour values
Note 1 to entry: Adapted from ISO 12637-2:2008, 2.7.
3.7.2
colour gamut
volume, area or solid in a colour space (3.8(3.8),), consisting of all those colours that are either one of the
following:
a) a) present in a specific scene, artwork, photograph, photomechanical, or other reproduction, or;
b) b) capable of being created using a particular output device and/or medium
Note 1 to entry: In reproduction and media applications, only the volume or solid in colour space is regarded as colour
gamut. In applications such as signal lighting, the colour gamut is an area.
[SOURCE: CIE S 017/E: 2020
...
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