Harald Liebedank Küppers - an obituary

Harald Küppers in his colour collection estate, which he bequeathed to TU Dresden in 2019.

Harald Küppers passed away on 31.01.2021. Professionally, he was the owner of a repro company for decades; privately, he devoted every available moment to the subject of colour. He wrote hundreds of articles in trade journals and newspapers, developed didactic materials, held teaching positions, held patents in multi-colour printing, wrote books and did research on colour. He was chairman of the department of reproduction technology in the Bundesverband Druck, a member of the board of trustees in the Deutsches Farbenzentrum e.V., worked in national and international colour standards committees, ...surely this list is incomplete... in short: Küppers was fully committed to the subject of colour and his work had a lasting impact on the printing industry.

During a walk (as he vividly describes it in his memoirs), he suddenly had a colour model in front of his eyes with which one intuitively and simply understands subtractive CMY colour mixing and additive RGB colour mixing at the same time: the "Rhomboeder model". The model is descriptive, clear and convincing. However, exact colour values or spectra cannot be determined with the Rhombohedron model. It is a visual model - not a mathematical model. Nevertheless, Küppers was convinced until the end of his life that his colour theory was the definitive one - better than CIELAB and others. In this sense, he was belligerent and belligerent until he was over 90.

Clear and concise words belonged to the edgy character head, which he used in his numerous books. Küppers did not hide behind scientific-sounding empty words and technical vocabulary. This descriptive language allowed me a vivid understanding of colour, and opened the door to this interesting, mysterious and fascinating subject.

Harald Küppers was also a role model in the pursuit of chosen paths, the perseverance, the clarity, the explicitness.

I was allowed to meet Mr Küppers twice in person and both times I was very moved by this personality. His passing is a clear loss for the world of colour. Where do people like this still exist?

Holger Everding


Image: Harald Küppers at the TU Dresden amidst his collection of paint, which he bequeathed to the TU in 2019.

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