Performance of recent advanced color-difference formulas using the standardized residual sum of squares index

The standardized residual sum of squares (STRESS) index was used to reevaluate four experimental datasets employed during the development of CIEDE2000, the current CIE recommended color-difference formula. This index enables statistical inferences not achievable by other metrics used commonly for performance evaluation. It was found that CIEDE2000 was statistically superior at a 95% confidence level to either CIE94, the previous recommended equation by the CIE, or the simple Euclidean distance in CIELAB, DeltaE*ab. Recent formulas based on the CIECAM02 color-appearance space and chroma-compressed variants of CIELAB were also evaluated and found to have only slightly reduced performance compared with CIEDE2000. These formulas have the advantage of simplicity and easier interpretation when used for quantifying color accuracy. Finally, each experimental dataset was evaluated separately rather than weight averaged as used during the development of CIEDE2000. Significant differences were found between datasets, suggesting that combining datasets may obscure important differences and that the practice of parameter optimization during formula development using combined data is likely suboptimal.