Metamerism
a 90‑minute seminar
by Charles Poynton, PhD
at SID Display Week, Mon May 4, 2026, 16:00–17:30 PDT
Classic colour science is based upon an assumed “standard observer” (eg. CIE 1931). Many individual observers depart significantly from the average; in moderate or extreme cases this departure is known as colour vision deficiency (CVD), occurring in about 8% of males. Many deployed and emergent displays have narrowband (“spiky”) spectral power distributions (SPDs). Narrowband display primaries are associated with wide colour gamut, a characteristic that is usually beneficial. However, as primary SPDs get narrower, the risk increases that CVD observers will experience objectionable colour shifts. We explore this phenomenon of observer metamerism. We also touch on two other kinds of metamerism: illuminant metamerism (relevant to LED illumination), and camera metamerism (where a camera senses colour differently than a human observer). The latter two issues are significant for virtual production (using LED wall displays). ∎