About

Mathematics of Colour is a long-form, interactive web essay on the mathematics, physics, biology, history, and technology of colour, written for mathematically literate readers. It follows a single narrative arc — light, the eye, colour matching, colour spaces, perception, technology, and the research frontier — where each idea sets up the next.

The essay is built in the spirit of Bartosz Ciechanowski's work: interaction that is part of the argument rather than decoration. Where a claim can be checked by dragging a control, there is a widget to drag. Everything is designed to print cleanly, to work without colour alone, and to remain legible in both light and dark themes.

It is written and built by Luca Pignatelli, and is in active construction. Start with the series hub, which lists every post in reading order.

Colophon

Static site generated with Astro; interactive widgets are React islands so that pages without a widget ship no JavaScript. Mathematics is typeset with KaTeX. The type is Source Serif for prose and Inter for controls and readouts. There are no trackers, no analytics, and no cookies — the only thing stored on your device is your explicit dark-mode preference.