Objective To study the color image watermark technology based on contrast sensitivity of human vision system. Methods Combined with frequency spectrum feature of the image in transform domain and contrast sensitivity characteristics of human vision system, a new method was brought forward for calculating the error threshold of human perception image. According to the calculated threshold, a new color image watermarking scheme based on human vision system was designed, and simulation experiments and three attack test were carried out. Results There was no difference between the color image with watermark embedded and the original color image, and between the original watermark and extracted watermark, the human eye could not distinguish them. Watermark information extracted after three attacks were still visible. The PSNR value of the image with watermark embedded and the NC values of the extracted watermark were both higher. And in the watermark scheme, the original color image was transformed into the device-independent CIELAB color space, which efficiently further improved the practicality of the watermark. Conclusion The experiment results showed that the proposed watermarking technology had good transparency, robustness and practicality.