The preliminary experiments were carried out for investigating the effect of lightness of achromatic background (white, grays, and black) on color appearance attributes (lightness and colorfulness) of some colored fabrics. A series of achromatic backgrounds at eight levels of lightness was provided. Each test color was viewed against these backgrounds and the perceived lightness and colorfulness were evaluated by using the pair comparison method. The results indicated that the lightness of achromatic background affects perceived lightness and colorfulness. The lightness of tests colors increases when surrounded by dark-backgrounds while a consistent trend was not noticed for perceived colorfulness. The results from visual assessment were compared with the predicted results by the CIECAM97s model. The predictions of the model were in agreement with the perceived lightness by visual assessment but there was not any correlation between the results of model and visual assessmentfor colorfulness. In the second part of the experiments, a colorimetric match of samples on different backgrounds was carried out by visual judgments as well as implementation of color appearance models in reverse mode. Results front visual trials were significantly different from those predicted by the models. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.