A method to give an article a color appearance and an article that has a color appearance

摘要

A method of giving an article a colored appearance on at least one external surface thereof when illuminated by light, the method comprising the steps of depositing a transparent coating on said external surface and incorporating a plurality of dispersed particles within the transparent coating, said particles being selected to generate a selectable color or hue by surface plasmon resonance. The coating is preferably designed to suppress interference effects. Also claimed are articles provided with a colored appearance and an apparatus operating a PVD or CVD process for giving articles a colored appearance. The transparent coating can be made hard and wear resistant.