Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-color-4] Do gradients/animations using lab/lch colors interpolate in the Lab colorspace? (#4647)

I would like to contribute my two cents to this discussion.

Firstly, I would encourage us to focus on the very basics. Defining how to interpolate between values in different colour spaces with a number of edge cases might seem necessary and even beneficial/forward-thinking in a small context, but stepping back, colour on the web has never changed it's interpolation method based on how it was defined. I don't think creating a complex set of rules based on multiple variables is going to help anyone; implementers, developers, or designers. If demand arises for all of these context-specific interpolation methods, someone is bound to write a library for it. (Incidentally, I've written a tool to do colour management with a variety of colour spaces for exactly this reason; nothing really exists to do this on the web)

I have been a web developer for much longer than I have been learning about colour science, but I can assure you everything I have learnt has made it more abundantly clear that misconceptions are the norm and that appeals to authority have no place in this discussion. Understanding what I do now, many 'best practices' now have fairly evident holes in them.

The most absolutely critical thing is that interpolation happens in a linear colour space whenever possible without causing issues for legacy. Of course there are many ways this might get implemented, but I'm _strongly against_ the idea of interpolating colour in a colour space which is not a linear transformation from XYZ as a spec-level decision, _especially_ by default.

One benefit in using a single interpolation model everywhere (linear interpolation in the linear working space) is that it is easy to understand and implement, applicable everywhere, and doesn't generate the edge-cases that these 'perceptually uniform' spaces do. Convert all your colours to the working space and do the standard math which has been established for decades.

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Received on Tuesday, 28 July 2020 16:33:34 UTC