spent a lot of time working with visual displays and same number as the chapter and can be found easily and used either separately or side by side with the chapter learned quite a bit about how they work. This chapter helped to increase my understanding of the color measure-description and illustrations.
LIVING COLORS is a joy to read, but it is also a very ment of displays. There is a good discussion on the visual appearance of displays and how they relate to other media.
important manual and source of inspiration for graphic artists, interior designers, fashions designers, or anyone A discussion on the calibration of displays is also included.
with a love and curiosity about color. Chapter 8 (the last chapter), How we see colour, was written by Adrian R. Hill. I thought that this chapter was MAGENTA YGLESIAS, ASID a particularly good discussion of the human visual system. It clearly shows how the historical theories were expanded into the zonal theories of today. I liked the discussion on An Introduction to the Biology of Vision, by James color defective vision and the tests for determining if a T. McIlwain, Cambridge University Press, New York, person's color vision is defective. 1996, 222 pp. Paperback $24.95; Hardbound $60.95 I would definitely recommend this book to people interested in color and color science. If I were currently teaching a university level course in color science, I would It may seem strange that a book with only 13 pages devoted to color vision is reviewed in Color Research and definitely want to use this book as one of the textbooks. Application. That the editor chose to have this book reviewed is appropriate recognition that color exists as an ROBERT T. MARCUS integral part of vision. Visual perception has its origins, as do all sensory processes, with the physics of sensory stimuli. The next step to understand how our perceptual LIVING COLORS, The Definitive Guide to Color Palsystems function involves their biology. Therefore, a book ettes Through the Ages, by Margaret Walch and Audevoted to the biology of vision is an appropriate addition gustine Hope, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1996 to the educational arsenal. $35
In the Preface, McIlwain tells us that the purpose of his textbook is to prepare students in the essentials of the visual system before working in his laboratory. The au-Once you see the cover and layout of LIVING COLORS, you know you are going to have a lively and fun experi-thor meets this goal admirably. This book is not intended for the layman. In fact, the author specifically states that ence with color. The book and cover design, by Reuter Design is unique and essential to the use and enjoyment he assumes the reader has had an introductory course on the nervous system, and is ''. . . acquainted with the of the book. A good size, 10ะ by 10ะ square, with spiral bindings on the right and left side of the split page enables fundamentals of cellular neurophysiology and the general organisation of the vertebrate central nervous system.'' the reader to seek and find the description and color palette for each historical period.
For those possessing this background, the book will be useful and easy to follow. For those without this back-LIVING COLORS contains an eight page ''Color Terms and Historic Pigments'' section listing definitions of ex-ground, I think the book will still be of value, but may not be as easy to read. pected words, but also unusual color terms, for example, ''Egyptian Blue. A copper silicate, known to have been
The book is divided into 12 chapters, grouped into three parts. Part I covers the eye and its visual pathways. made in Egypt from at least 3,000 BC.'' This section also defines terms used in color work, for example, ''warm
Here the reader is introduced to the structure and development of the human eye, image formation, and the central and cool colors'' and succinctly describes such items as the Luscher Color Test. ''Color Terms'' is a condensed, visual pathways. In Part II, the photoreceptors (rods and cones) and how they work are discussed. This is followed but very useful dictionary.
The authors describe their book as ''a visual thesaurus up by discussions of the neural circuitry of the retina and its connection to the lateral geniculate nucleus. The final of color, covering some of the most important palettes of Western history.'' And indeed, the book takes the reader chapter in this part deals with the visual cortex. Up to this point in the book, the biological processes are dis-on a journey starting in ancient Egypt through all the major color palettes of the Western cultures ending, 80 cussed more or less independent of visual perception. However, Part III entitled ''Special Topics in Vision'' sections later, with the very contemporary ''mudtone'' palettes found in Africa and from the Pueblo Indian in builds on the foregoing chapters to help the reader better understand visual perception. North America.
Each chapter presents fascinating color illustrations of The topics in Parts I and II often read like a detailed annotated glossary. Considering the author's stated goals, paintings, sculpture, fashion, or objects of art that best represent the palette under discussion along with the his-such an approach makes sense. There are two details that are a bit disconcerting. Throughout the book various torical background text and descriptions. The appropriate palette page, or color chart, for each period carries the terms are underlined. We are not told the purpose of this