Effect of orange peel attribute of automotive finishes on their blackness perception

In this paper, the perceived blackness of 10 specific automotive finishes with different levels of orange peel attribute is investigated under the diffuse illumination condition. Since the purchased ACT black panels had approximately the same colorimetric attributes, i.e., lightness, hue, and chroma, the effect of colorimetric properties on perceived blackness was minimized. Thirty nonexpert observers including 14 males and 16 females were selected to compare the blackness perception of ACT black panels. The observers’ normal color vision was already evaluated by applying the Ishihara test method. The black panels were ranked from the minimum perceived blackness to the maximum by employing the pair comparison method and performing 1800 visual assessments. Results showed that, in general, the blackness perception of panels increased with a decrease in their orange peel attributes, but the orange peel attribute is not the only factor affecting the perceived blackness of black panels. Besides, while the black panels were colorimetrically too close to each other, the panel with the lowest lightness and chroma value was assessed as the blackest sample among the ACT panels with the lowest orange peel attribute.