Joint Effects of Chroma and Value on Spatial Balance of Color Pairs

Abstract

Previous research has shown that for two areas of color to appear spatially balanced, small areas of high chroma (saturation) balance larger areas of low chroma. For colors of different value (lightness), subjects prefer a narrow band of either the light or the dark color, avoiding equal areas when values differ. Theories of color balance [1,2] treat both value and chroma; therefore, the purpose of the present research was to study spatial balance of stimuli that varied in both aspects. Value and chroma were varied in equal Munsell steps (Experiment 1), and in approximately equal perceptual units (Experiment 2), because value has a much smaller just noticeable difference (jnd) than chroma. In Experiment 1, both value and chroma affected balance in patterns very similar to their effects when varied alone. In Experiment 2 chroma alone affected balance. Munsell's theory fit the data better than Moon and Spencer's, but neither adequately described the complex way value affects balance on a neutral gray background.