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Updated: Jul 30, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
Colors of maximal saturation
1College of Optometry, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.
Abstract:
The spectrum locus on the CIE Chromaticity Diagram represents monochromatic stimuli which have been exposed to a dark adapted fovea. Some of these colors can be made to appear more saturated by chromatic adaptation. The colors both inside the spectrum locus and the supersaturated colors outside are bounded by a four-sided boundary line which constitutes the locus of colors of maximal saturation. An attempt has been made to show how this quadrilateral is related to the fundamental colors and to a zone theory of color vision.
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