COLOR IMAGE EVALUATION METHOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a color image evaluation method that can evaluate a 'fog' among background noises in a color image in excellent correlation with human subjective evaluations. SOLUTION: This method includes a step (S1) where a non-image part of an image being an object to be measured, ideally a color value of an image recording medium itself in a part without a color material is measured, a step (S2) where the color value is color information consisting of three or four values including luminance information and chromaticity information of the object to be measured, in the case of expressing a color of a color hard copy, e.g. an expression L*, a*, b* in the Lab color representation system in the CIE 1976 is used, and a difference between the color value of the object to be measured and the color value (L*0, a*0, b*0) of the recording medium itself is obtained, and a step (S3) where an evaluation value expressing dirt due to the fog of the non-image part is calculated by a function f (dL*, da*, db*) in which dL*=L*-L*0, da*=a*-a*0, and db*=b*-b*0 are used for variables.