Glossary
720p – A 16:9 aspect ratio of 1280 x 720 pixels in progressive non-interlace mode. Total pixels
of 921,600
1080p – A 16:9 aspect ratio of 1920 x 1080 pixels in progressive non-interlace mode. Total
pixels of 2,073,000
3LCD – Abbreviation for 3 Chip Liquid Crystal Display
Additive Primaries – Red, green and blue light. When all three additive primaries are combined
at 100% intensity, white light is produced.
Additive RGB color space – A colorimetric color space having three color primaries (generally
red, green and blue) such that CIE XYZ tristimulus values can be determined from the RGB color space values
by forming a weighted combination of the CIE XYZ tristimulus values for the individual color primaries.
Black – The absence of all reflected light; the color that is produced when an object absorbs
all wavelengths from the light source. When 100% cyan, magenta, and yellow colorants are combined, the
resulting color, theoretically, is black. In real world applications, this combination produces a muddy gray
or brown.
Blue – One of three additive primaries
Chromaticity coordinates – Coordinates that specify position in a chromaticity diagram. The
chromaticity coordinates of a stimulus are derived from its tristimulus values by taking the ratio of each
of the tristimulus values to their sum.
Chromaticity diagram – A diagram that represents the unit plane (the plane defined by the
equation X+Y+Z=1) in a tristimulus space. The location of a stimulus with a particular set of tristimulus
values on a chromaticity diagram represents its direction from the origin of the space ignoring its
distance.
CIE – Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage. An international organization that recommends
standards and procedures for light and lighting.
Colorimeter – Instrument for measuring colorimetric quantities, such as the tristimulus values
of a color stimulus.
Color Brightness – Measurement of color output from a projector. The higher the Color
Brightness the more vivid and realistic the color. Also known as Color Light Output.
Color Filter Wheel – Mechanical device consisting of 3 or more color filters used in 1-chip
projection systems
Dichroic mirror – Optical device used in a 3 path projection system to divide light into
multiple beams. Each dichroic mirror is tuned to reflect specific wavelengths of light while allowing other
wavelendths to pass through. For example, a dichroic miror may reflect red light but allow blue and green
light to pass through.
Color Gamut – The range of different colors that can be interpreted by a color model or
generated by a specific device.
Color Light Output – IDMS 15.4 standard for the measurement of color output from a projector.
Also known as Color Brightness.
Color Space – An geometric representation of colors in space, usually of three dimensions
describing the way colors can be represented as tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or
color components (e.g. RGB and CMYK are color models) with sRGB, Adobe RGB 1998 and Pro Photo RGB as color
spaces.
Color Wheel – Color theory tool used by creative professionals
Complementary colors – Two color stimuli that can be additively mixed to produce an achromatic
color.
Contrast – The level of variation between light and dark areas in an image.
Cones – Photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye responsible for color vision.
Cyan – One of the process ink colors for printing.
CMY – Subtractive colors of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.
CMYK – A color model used in 4-color offset printing.
DLP – Abbreviation for Digital Light Processing.
Gamut Mapping – Converting the coordinates of two or more color spaces into a common color
space.
Green – One of three additive primaries
ICDM – Abbreviation for International Committee for Display Metrology
IDMS – Abbreviation for Information Display Measurements Standard. Also known as the
International Display Measurement Standard. For download visit:
http://icdm-sid.org/
IDMS 15.4 – Standard for Color Light Output
Hue – The basic color of an object, such as "red," "green," etc. Defined by its angular
position in a cylindrical color space, or on a Color Wheel.
ICC – International Color Consortium, industry body responsible for the ICC profile
specification and color management architecture.
Ishihara – A test for color blindness
K – Black Ink used in mass production photomechanical printing processes, used to represent
black in the CMYK acronym to avoid confusion with blue's "B" in RGB.
Kelvin (K) – Unit of measurement for color temperature.
Lumen – A measure of the total "amount" of visible light emitted by a source.
Lux – One lumen per square meter.
Magenta – One of the process ink colors for printing.
Munsell Color System – Widely used system for describing the color appearance of samples. The
Munsell system uses matching against a set of samples and interpolation between them to arrive at a
designator for the appearance of a given test sample.
Pixel – A small "picture element" that contains red, green and blue information for color
rendering
RGB – Additive primaries of Red, Green and Blue, also describes a color model.
Red – One of 3 additive primaries
Resolution: – Measurement of how finely an image is resolved by the number of pixels.
sRGB – Color space originally designed for the web.
Subtractive Primaries – Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. When all three subtractive primaries are
combined at 100% on white paper, black is produced.
Saturation, Chroma, Colorfulness – Saturation Colorfulness and Chroma are related but distinct
concepts referring to the perceived intensity of a specific color. Colorfulness is the degree of difference
between a color and gray. Chroma is the colorfulness relative to the brightness of another color that
appears white under similar viewing conditions. Saturation is the colorfulness of a color relative to its
own brightness.
SID – Acronym for The Society of information Display
http://www.sid.org/
Spectrophotometer – Instrument measuring the intensity or transmitted light as a function of
wavelength or color.
Spectroradiometer – Instrument measuring the spectral power distributions of
illuminants.
SVGA – Super Video Graphics Array, the number of pixels a projector is capable of displaying in
a standard 4:3 aspect ratio of 800 Horizontal, 600 Vertical totaling 480,000 pixels.
SXGA & SXGA+ – Super XGA, standard screen resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. SXGA was common on
standard monitors, but provided a 1.25:1 aspect ratio, compared to the more common 1.33:1 (4:3) ratio. SXGA+
was a 1400x1050 resolution, which is an exact 1.33:1 ratio with total pixels of 1,470,000
Tri-stimulus Colorimetric – A set of techniques for predicting color matches by equating a
given stimulus with the amounts of three specified primaries that would be required to match it. The amounts
of three primaries that would be required to match the stimulus are the tri-stimulus values of that stimulus
for that set of primaries.
Tristimulus Values – Amounts of three primary lights that, when mixed additively, will match a
given light to a given observer.
UXGA – Ultra Extended Graphics Array is 1600 pixels horizontally by 1200 pixels vertically
(1600 x 1200). This amounts to a total of 1,920,000 pixels on the screen in a 4:3 aspect ratio.
WXGA – Wide XGA, a wide screen resolution of 1280x800 in a 16:10 aspect ratio with a total
number of pixels of 1,024,000.
WUXGA – Wide Ultra XGA, a wide screen resolution of 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 pixels in a 16:10
aspect ratio
XGA – Extended Graphics Resolution, the number of pixels a projector is capable of displaying
in a standard 4:3 as aspect ratio of 1024 Horizontal, 768 Vertical totaling 786,000 pixels.
Yellow – One of the process ink colors for printing.
White Brightness – Measurement of White Light Output of a projector without regard to
color.