To bring substantial benefits of image designing for image designers and image processing professionals, this study focused on the image samples taken by digital cameras and tried to explore the influence of psychological,factors on image color preference. First, we collected 310 questionnaires to investigate the types of image that interest the people in Taiwan. The images that Taiwanese prefer were categorized seven types: People. Scenery. Artificial Environment. Plants, Animals, Still Life, and Food. Then. based on the results of this survey, total 81 images were collected. Next. six psychological factors (Color Memory, Color Comfort, Colorfulness, Color Harmony, Color Image, Concerned Area) on image color preference were identified by the Delphi method and literature review and then developed into another survey. A total of 150 people, as subjects, took this survey and gave their evaluation according to their image color preferences. Finally. using multiple regression statistics. ails study discussed the relationship between psychological factors and image color preferences. This study discovered that each psychological factor plays a different role in different image categories. For instance, Color Comfort plays the most influential role in the Scenery image. Color Harmony is influential in the Food and Plants image. Concerned Area, likewise, is important in the image categories of People, Artificial Environment, and Still Life. Based on the results of this research, it is suggested to take psychological factors into consideration when dealing with different image categories in obtaining the best color performance of images. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl. 35. 213-232. 2010: Published online 14 January 2010 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20570