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World Wide Gamma

Published 09 May 2008, 07:25 PM

An experimental tool post to crowdsource the average 'gamma value' for the world wide web. To learn more about gamma you can read the FAQ and also the FQA by Charles Poynton.

Instructions
1. Use '+' and '-' buttons to make the corresponding patches above the buttons lighter or darker.
2. Create a visually equal spaced gray ramp from black on the left to white on the right. That is the jumps in lightness between neighbors should be roughly equal and the ramp should be getting progressively lighter.
3. Click on the 'Plot' button to see your results(black) plotted versus the world wide gamma(red).


Notes
Yes this is actually getting an estimate of the World Wide Gamma at the same time that it is getting an estimate of the average lightness scaling of humans. The analysis will require some assumptions. Similarly the optional comments page after the results are plotted will be useful for further analyzing the data so if you have a few extra seconds please fill it out. Finally, once the data stabilizes some I will just provide it in tabular form as well. The actual World Wide Gamma is a moving target but the data will be informative for understanding nominal display properties for the web.

Note that users of older versions of Safari (ie 1.3.2) have reported that this post is not interactive, but it has been tested with newer versions of Safari (ie 3.1.1) and the post is functional.

Posted By GiordanoBeretta | 3 Comments | Trackbacks | Permalink
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Comments

Nice idea to figure out the transform which maps all individual adjustments to a single form. I have two suggestions: 1. Don't use adjacent fields in order to get more independent adjustments for the different fields and to avoid lateral contrast for the inner patches. 2. Use anchor points which are different from the background elements. This will reduce the range but it seems to me that the apparent distance of the max/min elements is different than between elements within the range of the background elements. You might want to look at the results of an experiment of mine at http://www.uni-mannheim.de/fakul/psycho/irtel/poster/twk99.pdf which contains data supporting my suggestions.
# Sunday, May 11, 2008 11:38 AM by hirtel
Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I have downloaded the linked paper and will review it in detail. One of the nice things about using the web for focused visual experiments is that it quickly yields data, feedback and helpful suggestions. After posting this late Friday afternoon we've received hundreds of completed experiments and dozens of comments in the optional comment box. I will try to post some samples comments and questions about this later today. Thanks again.
# Monday, May 12, 2008 03:02 PM by Nathan Moroney

My adjustments was quite off the "world wide gamma" like an S instead of a straight line. I adjusted the patches to get the most smooth transition I could between black and white and also the most aesthetically pleasant to me. So I guess aesthetical perception might also be a significant parameter that affects the resulted "world wide gamma"...

# Wednesday, August 06, 2008 09:51 AM by SoToS

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