All colour-space conversions (RGB, HSL, HSV, CMYK, XYZ, CIELAB, LCH, OKLab, OKLCH) use the sRGB colour space with a D65 reference white point, and standard published formulas. CMYK is an uncalibrated device approximation, not a print-industry-accurate conversion — real press output depends on ink, paper and an ICC profile.
Colourwise uses CIEDE2000 (Sharma, Wu & Dalal, 2005) as its primary perceptual distance metric for nearest-colour matching, similar-colour ranking and comparisons. It is the most perceptually-validated CIE distance formula in wide use. A simpler Euclidean distance in OKLab is used internally for directional colour refinement, where a well-behaved coordinate space to step through matters more than absolute perceptual accuracy.
Descriptive categories — pastel, muted, vivid, earth tone, jewel tone, undertone, tone depth — have no single industry-agreed threshold. Colourwise's thresholds are its own documented, versioned methodology, calibrated against the seed catalogue. A future recalibration will bump the methodology version rather than silently changing results.
Contrast ratios and WCAG pass/fail levels are calculated directly from the WCAG 2.2 relative luminance and contrast ratio formulas — these are mathematically defined standards, not estimates.
Mood, cultural, historical, interior, fashion and branding claims are written by Colourwise's editorial process from well-established, broadly-documented conventions or widely-cited historical facts. Each claim carries its own provenance and is written with qualified language ("often", "traditionally", "may") rather than presented as universal fact, unless it is a mathematically calculated or clearly established technical statement.
Every technical value on Colourwise describes a screen (sRGB) colour. Paint, fabric, print and other physical materials will not exactly match — lighting, finish and manufacturer formulation all affect how a colour actually appears in person.
Culture, religion and folklore are treated as high-sensitivity evidence domains. Every claim states the specific country, region, community, denomination or tradition it applies to, and its period, rather than describing a belief as universal or a whole religion or continent as uniform. Folklore, superstition and later symbolism are labelled as such, not presented as settled fact, and genuinely contested or actively changing meanings are marked rather than smoothed into one answer. See the "Changing and contested meanings" section on the Culture hub.
Colourwise's editorial process may use software automation and AI to assist with research triage, drafting, classification and quality checks — this does not remove editorial responsibility for what is published, and unreviewed drafts are never presented as approved content. Colourwise does not currently offer a user-facing AI feature, and no personal information is sent to an AI supplier. Generated or materially AI-assisted text still carries the same accuracy, sourcing and qualified-language standards as the rest of this page.