Diffractive color system

A method in a diffractive color system that specifies target colors that are formed by additively mixing together two or more diffractively produced primary colors, the method comprising:

• forming an application-specific group of primary color candidates, to which group primary color candidates are selected by using as a main selection criterion a luminance reached with them in application-specific illumination conditions in question;
• selecting at least two primary colors from said group of primary color candidates so that said target color is located in the color space on an area, which can be covered by additively mixing together said selected primary colors;
• and
• determining a target-color-specific mixing ratio for these selected primary colors, so that said target color is achieved in the application-specific illumination conditions by additively mixing the selected diffractively produced primary colors at said mixing ratio.

A diffractive color system that specifies target colors that are formed by additively mixing together two or more diffractively produced primary colors, wherein the target colors contained in the color system are specified

• by forming an application-specific group of primary color candidates, to which group the primary color candidates have been selected by using the luminance reached with them in the application-specific illumination conditions in question as a main selection criterion,
• in order to produce a specific target color, at least two primary colors have been selected from said group of primary color candidates in such a manner that said target color is located in the color space on an area, which can be covered by additively mixing together said selected primary colors, in which case
• a target color specific mixing ratio has been determined for the target color selected in this way, so that said target color is achieved in application-specific illumination conditions by additively mixing the selected primary colors at said mixing ratio, and
• information on the primary colors selected to produce said target color and on their mutual mixing ratios is stored.

A diffractive component, comprising:

• at least one diffractive basic area unit formed on a substrate, which basic area unit is arranged to create a target color by additively mixing together two or more diffractively produced primary colors,
• said basic area unit comprising at least two different diffractive elementary gratings producing different primary colors in at least one common detection direction,
• the primary colors being selected by using a luminance achieved with them in application-specific illumination conditions as a selection criterion,
• an area ratio of said elementary gratings corresponding to a mixing ratio of the selected primary colors, and said target color being provided by additively mixing said primary colors at said mixing ratio.