Colour Science & Perception
what the eye settles, and what it cannot
Generator

An edge at 4:2:2, and the colour it arrives as

Above, the row as it was sent and as it arrives after the two chroma planes are averaged 2 samples at a time. Below, the colour difference at each sample. The worst is ΔE00 = 25.88, at a luma step of 0.058 across the edge — an edge of nearly equal luminance. Nothing is wrong with the codec: it discards the differences the eye resolves worst, and this edge is made of nothing else.
An edge at 4:2:2, and the colour it arrives as. Above, the row as it was sent and as it arrives after the two chroma planes are averaged 2 samples at a time. Below, the colour difference at each sample. The worst is ΔE00 = 25.88, at a luma step of 0.058 across the edge — an edge of nearly equal luminance. Nothing is wrong with the codec: it discards the differences the eye resolves worst, and this edge is made of nothing else.

Drawn at its defaults, in ink, profiles and delivery. It takes 5 options, and the essays below show what each placement asks of it.

Called by 1 essay

the blast radius of changing it

What it takes to deliver it

Colour thrown away on purpose

Every video format in use discards three quarters of its colour information and keeps all of its luminance, because the eye resolves fine colour detail badly. On an edge that carries luminance the loss is exactly zero. On an edge of nearly equal luminance it is a colour difference of forty-three, and the two edges are the same edge to the codec.

All 155 generators · what each essay asks for instead