Measurement and Data Evaluation of Wood Colour and Gloss

The chapter covers the definition and measurement methods of colour and gloss parameters. The CIE chromaticity diagramChromaticity diagram is presented to understand the visualised meaning of colour hueHue, chromaChroma and saturationSaturation. The CIE L*a*b* colour coordinate system is introduced as the most widely used system in research and in the wood industry. In addition to the advantages, the weaknesses of the CIE L*a*b* system are also presented. New and simple equations are introduced to determine the hueHue, lightnessLightness and saturationSaturation parameters of wood samples. These new equations give a better assessment of dark wood samples than the standardised CIE L*a*b* colour coordinate system. Although the L*, a*, b* colour parameters are independent variables, linear correlation was found between lightnessLightness and hueHue values. This linear correlation is presented in several situations. Examples are given to prove the weakness of the total colour change as one single parameter for monitoring colour alterations. The chapter provides extended experimental results in the field of gloss measurementGloss measurement. The basic regularities of the gloss of natural and treated wood surfaces are established.