This is because tool builders originally created their software tools for graphics workstations of the 1970s (at PARC, NYIT, MIT, etc.) / desktop computers of ~1990 (e.g. Adobe Photoshop), and on such slow hardware it was impractical to use better models. Also, the early tool builders were not color scientists, but computer programmers with an amateur understanding of human vision.
It’s inexcusable that designers are still using such poor tools today. Hooray for historical inertia!
I personally use my own custom software for many design tasks, and I can tell you from personal experience that better color models make a dramatic improvement. But my methods are currently highly technical and idiosyncratic and closer to experiments than polished tools for non-programmers.
Since the “proof” here involves low-level changes to design tools that have had millions of man-hours of work put into them and don’t provide end-user-accessible hooks into their low-level guts, it isn’t easy for me to “prove” anything to you via Hacker News comment: your “proof” would basically need to be a rewrite from scratch of these complex tools, and I haven’t yet spent the several years of implementation work it would require.
It is a long-term goal of mine though to make a series of products. Knock on wood.
If you want to see real-world examples, some professional color-grading software aimed at film production (for instance Apple’s Final Cut Pro) uses the IPT model. Even in Adobe tools, there is certain limited support for CIELAB, which is not perfect but far better than RGB. Here’s a book about it http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321356780 .... unfortunately these all still have shitty user interfaces for interacting with colors, but it’s better than nothing.
In the physical world, artists and designers have been using the Munsell Book of Color in various incarnations for >100 years with great success. You can buy your own for $1000: http://www.pantone.com/munsell-book-of-color-matte-edition
You might just as well say “Great you folks decided to use positional notation, but I’m happy with my Roman numerals”, or “Great you folks found bézier curves, but I’m happy with my straight-line-segment paths”, or “Great you discovered electric motors, but I’m happy with my windmills and draft animals”, or whatever.
Sure, there’s nothing ”wrong” with using shitty archaic tools. It’s just ineffective.
This is because tool builders originally created their software tools for graphics workstations of the 1970s (at PARC, NYIT, MIT, etc.) / desktop computers of ~1990 (e.g. Adobe Photoshop), and on such slow hardware it was impractical to use better models. Also, the early tool builders were not color scientists, but computer programmers with an amateur understanding of human vision.
It’s inexcusable that designers are still using such poor tools today. Hooray for historical inertia!