Color management is rocket science

Let's start real science of color. These are obvious and basic but different from schoolboy's study like 'primary colors' or 'color wheel.'

Study 1: Surface roughness

Materials:
- A piece of color plastic, like Lego.
- A piece of sandpaper.

Method:
Rub the plastic piece with sandpaper. Wash the plastic piece and remove dust.

Observation:
The rubbed surface of the piece becomes whitish.

Conclusion:
The color of material depends on surface roughness.

This fact means color management should manage surface roughness. And the surface of keycap's top side is generally mat.

Study 2: Translucent

Materials:
- A piece of plastic sheet. Thin (under 0.5 mm). Not black, not transparent.
- A felt pen. Black.
- A paper. White.

Method:
Daub the half area of the underside of the test piece by the pen. Put the test piece on the paper.

Observation:
You can distinguish the daubed area from upside.

Conclusion:
Opaque plastic transmits light in some degree.

Keycap is thin plastic.

Study 3: Metamerism

Materials and instruments:
- A bowl of salad.
- A cheap LED light.

Method:
Look at the salad under the sun. Subsequently, look at the salad under the light of the LED.

Observation:
Under the light of the LED, the salad looks bad.

Conclusion:
The color of material depends on light source.

This fact means color management should manage light source. Such instruments is too expensive for personal use.

Color management starts from understanding these difficulties. It is rocket science.