Abstract

Colors for a two-dimensional ordered image such as a fractal map are selected by first sampling colors from a real or natural source of colors, such as a tree or a feather and storing values representing the colors in Munsell color space (the three-dimensional space defined by hue, saturation and value) in a source color file, then ordering colors by distance in Munsell color space from a seed reference color (e.g. black), thereafter storing a representation of the color whose distance is closest to the seed reference color as the first color in a storage file known as an ordered color file, using the first color as a new reference color, then sorting the remaining colors according to distance from the new reference color, and storing a representation of the color closest to the new reference color as the second color in the ordered color file. The process is recursively performed until all colors in the source color file have been ordered in the ordered color file. The ordered color file can be mapped into any ordered set, such as a fractal set which is naturally ordered, by assigning the colors of the ordered color file according to the fractal value representing the higher dimension of the fractal set. Colors lost in the color sampling process can be recovered by interpolation between discrete values in the ordered color set. Interpolation is an effective form of data compression of colors.