What does the

Q: I've been Googling my brains out, and I can't seem to find an explanation for what the G.E. stands for.

A: Morning, The GE standard was a scale created by the company General Electric to rate the "Color" or "Brightness" of paper. However, this scale is not typically used anymore because it offered a few drawbacks vs the new standards of color measure. The new standards include CCT Correlated Color Temperature, CRI Color Rendering Index. And then the new scale used to measure the brightness/whiteness of plain paper is CIE Chromaticity Diagram. C.I.E. Chromaticity Diagram The C.I.E. (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage, the International Commission on Color) diagram is based on the idea that mixing varying proportions of three hypothetical primaries (not necessarily red green and blue) can create the sensation in the human observer, of any color of light. The three "primary" colors are dubbed "X," "Y," and "Z." If we are merely concerned about color and not about brightness, we can specify just the relative strengths of these three colors, denoted by x, y and z. Since x + y + z must add up to 1 (i.e. 100%) just providing x and y is sufficient to specify lamp color; the z value is implied. Lamp color can then be represented on a two-dimensional plot of x and y. All possible colors then fall under a "guitar-pick" shaped triangle in which the perimeter encompasses spectrally pure colors (seen in nature only in rainbows and prisms) ranging from red to blue. Moving toward the center "dilutes" the color until it ultimately becomes "white". Specifying the x,y coordinates locates a color on the color triangle. The color points traversed by an incandescent object as its temperature is raised can be plotted on the CIE Chromaticity diagram as the "Blackbody curve" and occupies the central white region. Two lamps whose x,y co-ordinates fall one above the Blackbody curve and one below could have the same CCT. However, the one above will appear slightly greener, and the one below slightly pinker. This is why two lamps having the same color temperature can still show differences in color as seen by the human eye. Color is complex; attempting to describe the lamp color with just one number (or even with two numbers) does not provide total information on how different materials will appear under that light. So in short, GE stands for General Electric because they created the scale at first. Here is a snip from the Internal Paper Company. International Paper recently announced to its North American customers that its entire range of uncoated freesheet papers for imaging, commercial printing, envelopes and forms would be improved to a new standard of whiteness and brightness. The company is also transitioning the way it describes its products from the old GE brightness standard to the CIE whiteness scale. In the U.S., brightness is the traditional measured value that appears on most reams of paper. "The GE brightness measures only a portion of reflected light," said Hartman. "It was originally designed to quantify pulp bleaching, and for the lack of another method it was adopted to measure paper brightness." Whiteness was developed as a single value to describe the appearance and appeal of paper. It is more accurate than brightness with regard to the human perception of shade. Enjoy!

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