Color is a representative fusion discipline where technology, art, science, and design meet.
『Color Design Textbook』 is Korea's first comprehensive color theory book that covers both academic depth and practical application of color.
This book is a revised edition of the "Color Design Textbook," which has established itself as an essential reference in color research, education, and design for the past decade. It fully reflects the official Korean standard terminology of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2025, presenting a future-oriented and internationalized color standard.
Beginning with the question, "What is color?", it faithfully organizes color-related terminology and describes the basic concepts of color in general, the historical development of color, and its future direction.
In particular, it contains the author's research and field experience accumulated over 30 years, including color terminology, visual perception principles, color naming systems, color psychology, universal design, color harmony theory, history of color research, color standards and management, and digital color.

Color is an interdisciplinary field that brings together technology, art, and other specialized fields.
Even if you start out in engineering, you must learn art, and even if you start out in art, you must study engineering to reach the interdisciplinary study of color.
Thomas Young did it, Maxwell did it, Helmholtz did it.
Ostwald studied painting under the Impressionist painters, and Munsell studied color engineering and created a colorimeter.
And they all became legends in the world of color.
Therefore, artists must study science and mathematics, and natural scientists must have a deep understanding of art.
Although there are many difficulties, we can also understand each other and develop our own fields through interdisciplinary research.
--- p.4, from the “Introduction”

Color is not something that can be felt only by seeing it with your eyes or experiencing it directly.
Anyone who has ever experienced color visually can also perceive color through sound or other stimuli.
This is called the color-tone phenomenon due to synesthesia.
The phenomenon of chromatic perception refers to the ability to associate a color with another sensation or stimulus that accompanies the experience of color even after the color has disappeared. It was mentioned by pioneers in color research such as Newton and Goethe.
--- p.21, from “Chapter 1 Color and Colors”

Color names convey the name and color of a color, but more importantly, they convey emotions as well.
For example, when we say the color rose, we are conveying not only the simple color of rose, but also the emotional image contained in the associations and linguistic meaning of rose.
In this way, color names convey emotions and also show the culture of a region, ethnicity, or group.
The number of colors classified in daily life is usually around 20-30, and if classified professionally, it is around 300.
--- p.86, from “Chapter 3 Color Names”

Color symbolism is a concept applied to the use of color as an expression of various cultures from an artistic and anthropological perspective.
In general, colors represent certain specific meanings.
Although it is common to each country, its meaning can be completely different depending on national traditions and customs.
We can see that there are many established color symbols in color preferences, religious meanings, feudal hierarchy, and grades.
This is Frank H. Manke, President of the International Association of Color Consultants (IACC).
Mahnke's six stages of color experience: stage 1 biological response, stage 2 collective unconsciousness, stage 3 conscious symbolization association, stage 4 regional influences and mannerism, stage 5 artistic trends, and stage 6 personal relationships.
It often has completely different meanings across time and region. When red is used in traffic signals, it means prohibition or caution, but on birthdays and Christmas, it means celebration.
The use of colors to consciously convey meaning in place of language is called symbolism.
--- p.147, from “Chapter 4: Color Psychology”

Color systems encompass all the study of the three elements that deal with color: light source, object, and receptor.
Color studies is a vast world of knowledge, with an endless chain of knowledge links, more so than any other field.
The field of color, which has been studied continuously throughout history, extends to art, philosophy, physics, chemistry, psychology, physiology, ophthalmology, neurology, optometry, and even computer science.
There have been many studies over the centuries, all stemming from three questions: What in light shows the diversity of colors? What determines the color of an object? How do humans perceive color?
By the late 20th century, interest and research in color science had shifted to a third, human-centered question: "How do humans perceive color?" or, in other words, "How do we create images in our brains when we see objects?"
Our ancestors considered both aesthetic and scientific aspects in their vision and sense of color.
European prehistoric cave paintings, as well as ancient temples, houses, and tombs, are all decorated with color, and they clearly show the purpose and method of color use that continues to this day.
The red, yellow, brown, and black used in the Altamira cave paintings and the late Paleolithic murals of Spain are also examples of our ancestors' vision and sense of color.
--- p.262, from “Chapter 6: History of Color”

The beginning of color measurement began with Newton.
In a graph that represented color combinations as two-dimensional colors, Newton divided the spectrum into seven primary colors and placed them around a circle.
And we calculated the result of mixing two or more primary colors as if we were measuring the center of two or more color positions.
Newton's spectral reproduction and experiments mixing different types of light provided the basic idea for color measurement in a spectrophotometer.
Newton wrote about light and color in Opticks in 1704, indicating the need for color analysis and color measurement.
“If we wish to analyze any color, we can do nothing else than to consider how the rays of the sun are divided and mixed by reflection, refraction, or other causes, or else to know what kinds of rays of light are composed in what proportion to make the color.”
--- p.386, from “Chapter 9 Color Management”

Digital color management is now evolving beyond the simple engineering of measurement and correction into a transdisciplinary platform connecting people, the environment, creation, and culture.
Future research will open new horizons encompassing real-time, distributed, and intelligent color networks, biometric and culturally-based color databases, and the social implications of color, including ethical and copyright issues.
All these changes remind us that color is not just something we 'see', but something we 'feel' and, furthermore, something we 'connect'.
This is the prelude to a new color civilization in which digital color transcends technology and becomes a core language of art, culture, and communication.

--- p.505, from “Chapter 10 Digital Color”