Munsell Color Conversion

[Bullethead 12]

Howdy All-

 

As you might know, one of my jobs is making video games. As such, yesterday I suddenly had a need to convert Munsell paint colors to computer-friendly values. After an exhaustive search, I finally managed to get a program to do this. First annoyance was that up until a few years ago, there were such things available for free, but since X-Rite bought Munsell, that's gone away :(.

 

The 2nd annoyance was that the program I got (the only one at a reasonable price) has a death clock in it. A new version comes out on 1 Jan and it stops working on 31 Dec, but you pay full price regardless of when in the year you buy it. There is NO WARNING of this policy before you buy it, so I'm quite miffed. Because I bought it yesterday, I only have 49 days left to use it.

 

Therefore, in order to get what I feel is my fair value for the money I spent, I'm asking everybody to send me your Munsell numbers (and the paint's official name). I'll convert them all to computer-friendly formats and upload the resulting palette at the end of the program's life as a skinner's resource. Either reply to this thread or PM me. The program converts between Munsell, RGB, L*a*b*, and CMYK. I'll list all these in the file I'll eventually upload.

 

The program in question is called CMC. You can get it at http://www.wallkill.com. It's only $10 for the basic package, so it's really not that big a wallet hit (the only similar programs cost like $100!). However, it's the principle of the thing.

 

BTW, for them as don't know, an important note about converting colors...... I'm no expert on this myself, having just learned about it yesterday while briefly scanning wiki, but I think I have the general idea down, so here goes.

 

The Munsell color system is based on how the human eye perceives colors of light reflected off real objects, which is quite different from how computer monitors display colors. Thus, lighting effects will give different computer values for the same Munsell description. As such, you have to specify one of the standard CIE illuminants when doing conversion. I'll be using D65, which apparently is the standard one used these days for daylight conditions.

 

You might not know it, but RGB also contains a gamma component. Even with the same illuminant, a change in the gamma will give different RGB values for a given Munsell. Gamma, however, has no effect on CMYK values. So, when converting to RGB, I'll be using the default gamma of 2.2, which is apparently the standard that goes along with daylight conditions.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

What is it you are planning to convert BH?

[Bullethead 12]

What is it you are planning to convert BH?

 

Color specifications.

 

Suppose you're a skinner and you want to make an accurate skin for any game--airplanes, tanks, ships, whatever. You want the colors on your skin to be as close as possible to the paint on the real object. For this, you need the specifications of the colors in whatever format your graphics program uses: RGB, L*a*b*, or CMYK, etc. To get this, you have several options:

• search the internet and steal somebody else's computer-friendly color specification, hoping they did their research; or
• experiment with different colors in your graphics program until you get something you like, but always know it's just a guess, or
• try to convert the real-world color specification into the appropriate computer-friendly format.

What I'm offering to do for you is the 3rd option. Munsell is a real-world paint color description system (although these days it's also finding its way into webpage design). Many historical paints of interest to skinners have Munsell specifications, which are fairly easy to find online but which are useless in their natural state to skinners because no graphics program uses Munsell values to make color.

 

So, what you do is, find the Munsell specification for the color(s) you're interested in and give them to me. I will use my program to translate these Munsell values into other color specification systems, at least one of which will be useable by your graphics program.

 

My program translates back and forth between Munsell, CIE XYZ, L*a*b, RGB, and CMYK. It can start with any one and give all the others. But I figure its primary use to skinners is translating Munsell into RGB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Color specifications.

 

Suppose you're a skinner and you want to make an accurate skin for any game--airplanes, tanks, ships, whatever. You want the colors on your skin to be as close as possible to the paint on the real object. For this, you need the specifications of the colors in whatever format your graphics program uses: RGB, L*a*b*, or CMYK, etc. To get this, you have several options:

• search the internet and steal somebody else's computer-friendly color specification, hoping they did their research; or
• experiment with different colors in your graphics program until you get something you like, but always know it's just a guess, or
• try to convert the real-world color specification into the appropriate computer-friendly format.

What I'm offering to do for you is the 3rd option. Munsell is a real-world paint color description system (although these days it's also finding its way into webpage design). Many historical paints of interest to skinners have Munsell specifications, which are fairly easy to find online but which are useless in their natural state to skinners because no graphics program uses Munsell values to make color.

 

So, what you do is, find the Munsell specification for the color(s) you're interested in and give them to me. I will use my program to translate these Munsell values into other color specification systems, at least one of which will be useable by your graphics program.

 

My program translates back and forth between Munsell, CIE XYZ, L*a*b, RGB, and CMYK. It can start with any one and give all the others. But I figure its primary use to skinners is translating Munsell into RGB.

 

Wow!...have you mentioned this to OBD?

[Bullethead 12]

Wow!...have you mentioned this to OBD?

 

I'm sure they already have such a gizmo that's fancier than mine. But us skinners are tightwads still smarting from buying the graphics editor, which we had to justify by finding other uses for. So, since I bought a gizmo, I'm making it available to other skinners.

 

Go find me some Munsell specs for historical paints :).

[Wodin 0]

OT...Bullethead I have an idea for a game if you fancy casting your eyes at it at some point...involves WW1 airwarfare

 

Just an idea though...have know programming no how...have thought about teaching myself so I could develop this idea...but it would probably take me ten years!!

Edited December 23, 2010 by Wodin

[Rod476 0]

Hi, I just joined to say that a very old (circa 1999) but very useable beta version of the aforementioned Munsell Conversion program is still available here:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20020809130910/standards.gretagmacbeth.com/cmc/munsell.exe

 

I've only tried it under Windows XP, but it worked fine for Munsell to RGB and vice versa. Best of all it's free and there's no death clock :)

Edited January 11, 2011 by Rod476

[Bullethead 12]

Thanks for the info, Rod.

 

As for my promise to post the RGB values, I only had 1 taker on my offer and I've already sent him what he wanted. If anybody else wants to see it, let me know and I'll post it.

[Olham 164]

I would like to get the CMYK or RGB values for a Methuen tone - can your converter deal with them?

 

It is: Methuen 26D8/E8

[rjw 48]

Thanks for the info, Rod.

 

As for my promise to post the RGB values, I only had 1 taker on my offer and I've already sent him what he wanted. If anybody else wants to see it, let me know and I'll post it.

 

 

HI BH!

 

Your offer seems very generous. As to why you have not had any requests, I am puzzled. I'm only just looking into skinning and presumed that all the skins in OFF are accurate colour skemes, am I wrong? If I'm wrong, I would suspect that the OFF development team would benefit from your effort.

Can you shed any light on the OFF skins colour schemes? I might learn something from this.

 

Best Regards;

[Bullethead 12]

I would like to get the CMYK or RGB values for a Methuen tone - can your converter deal with them?

 

It is: Methuen 26D8/E8

 

Howdy Olham-

 

I'm afraid I can't convert Methuen to anything, nor do I think there are programs that do it. Methuen is very aggravating in that regard.

[Olham 164]

Yeah, I thought so - thank you anyway.

[guyfawkes76 0]

Bullethead,

Do you still have the converter?

If you do I would appreciate if you could convert the following Munsell Colour into a standard RGB (and the other formats while you're at it).

 

7.7PB 2 / 10

 

This is the official blue of the Canadian Military Engineers and I'm looking to define it in formats we can use in normal graphics programs.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Chimo