Color — Foundational Reference
Overview
This section covers the scientific and theoretical basis for color in design systems — not what any specific system does, but why color systems are structured the way they are. An agent that understands these foundations can reason about color decisions rather than pattern-matching from examples.
Sources
| Source | URL | License tier | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| W3C WCAG 2.2 | www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/ | Tier 1 — W3C Document License | Explicitly licensed. W3C Document License permits reproduction with attribution. Cleared. |
| Google Material — Color Science | material.io/blog/science-of-color-design | Tier 2 — public Google documentation, no explicit license | Official blog post by Google authors describing the HCT color space underlying Material Design. Synthesis-acceptable. |
| APCA Easy Intro | git.apcacontrast.com/documentation/APCAeasyIntro | Tier 2 — public GitHub documentation, no explicit license | Published by Andrew Somers (Myndex Technologies) as public APCA documentation, clearly intended for developer/designer use. Synthesis-acceptable. |
| OKLab — Björn Ottosson | bottosson.github.io/posts/oklab/ | Tier 3 — public research post; code MIT; prose has no explicit license | Code (formulas, C++ implementation) is explicitly MIT + public domain. Article prose has no copyright notice and no explicit license. Content is synthesis of mathematical concepts (OKLab color space, perceptual uniformity properties) — not verbatim reproduction. Cleared as Tier 3 synthesis with attribution. |