Useful Color Equations

The following table contains links to mathematical equations for converting among various colorimetric representations. Implementations of these may be found in the Calculators and Spreadsheets section of my site. You can see from this table that some color conversions may be accomplished by single steps, while others may require several intermediate steps to reach the final goal.

From To
XYZ xyY Lab LCHab Luv LCHuv RGB
Spectrum Spectrum to XYZ Spectrum to XYZ
XYZ to xyY
Spectrum to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
Spectrum to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
Lab to LCH(ab)
Spectrum to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
Spectrum to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
Luv to LCH(uv)
Spectrum to XYZ
XYZ to RGB
XYZ - XYZ to xyY XYZ to Lab XYZ to Lab
Lab to LCH(ab)
XYZ to Luv XYZ to Luv
Luv to LCH(uv)
XYZ to RGB
xyY xyY to XYZ - xyY to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
xyY to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
Lab to LCH(ab)
xyY to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
xyY to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
Luv to LCH(uv)
xyY to XYZ
XYZ to RGB
Lab Lab to XYZ Lab to XYZ
XYZ to xyY
- Lab to LCH(ab) Lab to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
Lab to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
Luv to LCH(uv)
Lab to XYZ
XYZ to RGB
LCHab LCH(ab) to Lab
Lab to XYZ
LCH(ab) to Lab
Lab to XYZ
XYZ to xyY
LCH(ab) to Lab - LCH(ab) to Lab
Lab to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
LCH(ab) to Lab
Lab to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
Luv to LCH(uv)
LCH(ab) to Lab
Lab to XYZ
XYZ to RGB
Luv Luv to XYZ Luv to XYZ
XYZ to xyY
Luv to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
Luv to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
Lab to LCH(ab)
- Luv to LCH(uv) Luv to XYZ
XYZ to RGB
LCHuv LCH(uv) to Luv
Luv to XYZ
LCH(uv) to Luv
Luv to XYZ
XYZ to xyY
LCH(uv) to Luv
Luv to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
LCH(uv) to Luv
Luv to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
Lab to LCH(ab)
LCH(uv) to Luv - LCH(uv) to Luv
Luv to XYZ
XYZ to RGB
RGB RGB to XYZ RGB to XYZ
XYZ to xyY
RGB to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
RGB to XYZ
XYZ to Lab
Lab to LCH(ab)
RGB to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
RGB to XYZ
XYZ to Luv
Luv to LCH(uv)
-

Other Assorted Equations

• Color differences

• Convert from the correlated color temperature of a CIE D-illuminant to the chromaticity of that D-illuminant.

• Compute the correlated color temperature of an XYZ color.

• Chromatic adaptation.

• Computing RGB-to-XYZ and XYZ-to-RGB matrices.

• Murray-Davies dot gain equation.

• Finding the best gamma from a data set.

• Spectral power distribution of a blackbody radiator.

• Spectral power distribution of a CIE D-Illuminant.