Color measurement devices are used to capture, communicate, and evaluate color. From cardboard packaging to food, laundry soap, carpeting and small plastic parts, color measurement devices help ensure the color being produced matches the color that was originally specified. They’re used behind the scenes in just about every industry where color is important, including plastics, textiles, paints, coatings, print and packaging. There are basically two types of color measurement instruments:...
Posted October 07, 2019 by Tim Mouw
Inter-instrument agreement is a very important consideration when selecting color measurement devices for your workflow. Unfortunately, it’s such a technical topic that it leads to a lot of confusion about what it means and why it’s important. The Ci7860 sphere benchtop spectrophotomter is has an inter-instrument agreement specification of 0.06 average Delta E*, enabling brands to create the most precise master color standards. Today we’re making it as simple as possibl...
Posted October 03, 2019 by Mike Huda
If you work in the print and packaging industry, standards can help you set clear expectations for clients, solve problems in your workflow, and improve productivity. They can also bring an independent perspective to production. Printers aren’t the only ones who should keep up with standards. Brands who are concerned with quality, price, and speed to market can also benefit because it allows them to compare print providers and choose the best candidate. The ISO and other standards organiz...
Posted October 01, 2019 by Ray Cheydleur
The best way to visualize how color will react in real world lighting conditions is to use a light booth. Traditional light booths contain common illuminants like daylight, incandescent, and fluorescent to replicate how color will look in the retail store and post-purchase in outdoor and home lighting. Today, the increased use of LED lamps in home, commercial, and retail environments is impacting decades of standardized lighting procedures. How LED is Changing the Game LED lights hav...
Posted August 09, 2019 by X-Rite Color
Controlling color on cylindrical-shaped items like cups, cans, and tubes is a challenge because it’s hard to properly align the measurement device with the sample. Many printers and manufacturers cut a piece from the finished product and lay it flat to take a measurement. While this method works, each sample takes time to cut, wastes product, and risks the safety of the employees who are cutting the samples. A Faster, Safer Solution X-Rite’s Cup and Cylinder Fixture works ...
Posted July 17, 2019 by Bob Binder
Are you wasting too much time and money on incorrect color? Even if you use the best color measurement tools available, your color will still fail without quality control. Quality control (QC) means verifying the color you specify is the same color you manufacture, throughout production. Setting up a QC program can help you accurately communicate color with clients and suppliers, inspect raw materials before you begin working, and verify your color is correct before you ship. ...
Posted June 27, 2019 by Tim Mouw
A calibrated display is not just for photographers. If you browse inspiration photos online, send color samples back and forth via e-mail, or transfer color files between suppliers and customers, you need to calibrate and profile your display to trust the colors you see on-screen. When talking about monitor calibration, many people interchange “luminance” and “brightness,” but they are not the same. What is luminance? Luminance is a measurement...
Posted May 22, 2019 by Kevin Aamodt
Hitting offset lithographic color targets isn’t always fast or easy. The manual process of measuring color bars and making ink key adjustments takes time and opens the door to operator error. Meanwhile, the press is running (and wasting) paper and ink. To achieve accurate and repeatable color, printers need to convert their printing operation to an efficient manufacturing process and drive efficiencies in all phases of their operation. For many, a closed-loop automated solution is the...
Posted April 03, 2019 by Ray Cheydleur
Your customer rejected your latest shipment due to color. You checked the color before you sent it and it passed tolerance… You did everything the same way last time and it passed tolerance… So why did it get rejected now? We get this question from our customers all the time. The Dreaded “Error Stack” Color rejections create waste and increase production costs. Unfortunately, there are a lot of variables that contribute to the color you produce,...
Posted March 07, 2019 by Tim Mouw
For the last few Decembers, we’ve provided you with a list of “top color measurement blogs” for that respective year. As we reviewed this year’s list, we noticed that your favorite/ the most-read blogs could be categorized into a few buckets. So, without further ado, here’s 2018’s top blog topics! 2018’s Most Popular Color Measurement Topic: Tolerancing Not to our team’s surprise, Tolerancing – what it is/what it means for your busines...
Posted December 20, 2018 by X-Rite Color