Self-luminous color and object color

Humans can perceive two types of color. The color of a self-luminous object is called self-luminous color , and the color of an illuminated object is called object color .

A self-luminous object may be natural, such as the sun, or artificial, such as computer displays, incandescent light bulbs, mercury lamps, and the like.

Object color is the color reflected from an illuminated object, and is comprised of both the light reflected from the object's surface as well as light reflected and scattered from beneath the object's surface.

Compare:Understanding Color/What is color?