Editing Natural Color System (section)

{{Short description|Proprietary perceptual color model}}

[[File:Animation of the NCS Colour System.gif|right|thumb|240px|Animation showing the NCS 1950 standard color samples in the NCS color circle and hue triangles.]]
[[File:Opponent colors.svg|right|thumb|240px|The NCS color model is based on the three pairs of elementary colors ([[white]]–[[black]], [[green]]–[[red]], and [[yellow]]–[[blue]]), as defined by [[color opponency]].]]
[[File:Flag of Sweden.svg|thumb|240px|The colors of the [[Flag of Sweden|Swedish flag]] are officially established to be NCS 0580-Y10R for the shade of yellow, and NCS 4055-R95B for the shade of blue]]

The '''Natural Colour System''' ('''NCS''') is a [[Patent|proprietary]] [[perception|perceptual]] [[color model]]. It is based on the [[opponent process|color opponency]] hypothesis of [[color vision]], first proposed by German physiologist [[Ewald Hering]].<ref>{{Cite book|title = Outlines of a Theory of the light sense|last = Hering|first = Ewald|publisher = Harvard University Press|year = 1964|location = Cambridge Mass.|editor-last = Hurvich|editor-first = L.M.|orig-year = 1878, Zur Lehre vom Lichtsinne, Wien|editor-last2 = Jameson|editor-first2 = D.}}</ref> The current version of the NCS was developed by the [[Swedish Colour Centre Foundation]], from 1964 onwards. The research team consisted of [[Anders Hård]], [[Lars Sivik]] and [[Gunnar Tonnquist]], who in 1997 received the [[International Colour Association|AIC]] Judd award for their work.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|title = NCS Natural Colour System - from Concepts to Research and Applications. Part I and II.|last1 = Hård|first1 = A.|date = 1996|journal = Color Research and Application|last2 = Sivik|first2 = L.|pages = 180–220|volume = 21|last3 = Tonnquist|first3 = G.|doi = 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6378(199606)21:3<180::AID-COL2>3.0.CO;2-O}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.aic-colour.org/judd.htm|title = International Colour Association}}</ref> The system is based entirely on the [[Phenomenology (psychology)|phenomenology]] of human perception as opposed to [[color mixing]]. It is illustrated by a color atlas, marketed by NCS Colour AB in Stockholm.