Visual appearance can be one of the most critical parameters affecting customer choice therefore it needs to be quantifiable to ensure uniformity and reproducibility. A starting point in assessing the appearance of a consumer product might be the measurement of its colour. The description of its total appearance, however, cannot be achieved by the definition of colour alone; other attributes of the object contribute to the overall appearance and these might include gloss, translucency and surface texture, as well as the environment in which the object is seen.

CIE Division 1 organized at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle Paris, France the symposium "Visual Appearance" to report and discuss the interactions between these various components that provide a framework to describe and measure visual appearance. The interactions between the various components are complex. Physical parameters are related to the objects in scenes and these in turn are influenced, at the perception stage, by the physiological response of the human visual system and, in addition by the psychological aspects of human learning, pattern, culture and tradition.

By dealing with the optical properties of materials under the four headings of colour, gloss, translucency and texture it is possible for measurements to be made: It is recognised that these measures are not necessarily independent; colour may influence gloss, colour will certainly influence translucency, and texture is probably a function of all three of the other measures.

The Proceedings of this two-day Symposium includes invited papers and contributed papers as well as the material of the poster session. The topics of the papers spanned from theoretical review to application papers, even the description of measuring set-ups and instruments. A summary of the round-table discussion is also included in the Proceedings. It was decided that a follow-up symposium will be organized in 2-3 years time.

The Proceedings contains the text of all the presented 45 papers.

The publication consists of 263 pages with 273 figures and 23 tables.