Integrating an efficient color-measuring instrument into the system will significantly improve the effectiveness of overall coloring process as well as ensure color consistency in a finished product. Yet in this area of color control, as well, challenges have remained.

One continuing challenge in portable color measuring devices has been a cumbersome user interface. "Traditional" interfaces often use switches that must be toggled in a precise order to customize sample names and screen selections. Also, while just about every portable color measurement instrument on the market offers a wide variety of software tools, many are never used simply because it is too difficult to navigate through the program to access them.

The newest offering in the portable spectrophotometers introduces a radical departure and eliminates many of these challenges by utilizing PDA-driven technology for easy operation. This highly unique approach to color measurement is a prime example of the latest technology to be incorporated into the new electronic color communication system. Why? PDA (Personal Data Assistant) technology delivers the best of both worlds for superior color quality. It allows leading color developers such as Datacolor to integrate software customized for just about any color management applications right into a light, easy to handle color measurement instrument. Plus, it retains all of the navigation features that are standard on a PDA and which make it such a desirable device in general. No more cumbersome toggle switches or default selections. Using a stylus, the user simply taps the screen to input custom sample names or to change evaluation screens. This speeds the color evaluation process while it reduces errors in sample identification and evaluation selection.

Adapting the PDA to a color management application also takes advantage of the memory/storage capacity available with a PDA. In the past, the software offerings that have accompanied portable instruments were confined to basic quality control functions-simple color difference, pass/fail, and color indices--because of memory limitations. Data upload/download to and from a PC has been a mandatory feature of all handheld units. However, QC and color formulation systems based on PC platforms generate enormous databases of both samples and formulas. Memory limitations have prevented the full utilization of these databases in a handheld application. The integration of the PDA into the new instrument is an answer to that limitation. For instance, the memory capacity of Datacolor's PDA-driven device, the Mercury 3000, makes it possible to accommodate a maximum of 30,000 samples, and to develop more complex programs that can search, retrieve, and manipulate the information that they contain.

How to ensure precise onscreen reproduction

As advanced as all other systems components may be, however, the key to providing superior color communication in an electronic medium remains its ability to reproduce color precisely. Once the color standard has been selected, matched, and measured, it is reviewed in a virtual color environment. The efficacy of electronic color communication rests solely on an ability to reproduce the color accurately on screen. And that is made possible by a high degree of monitor calibration and the right color control software designed specifically for this medium.

The monitors in the new virtual supply network are calibrated to such a precise extent that a user can be confident of making the same decisions when viewing electronic images that would be make viewing actual physical samples. What should you look for when evaluating an electronic color system? The following are key considerations:

(1) A single monitor must be able to repeat color day after day, with the same precision.
(2) The calibration must be device independent so that accurate conversion (from computer-based color data to colorimetric data, or RGB « CIELAB) is permitted using virtually any brand of monitor. This enables transfer of color between any two monitors, as well.
(3) Look at how operators of the system are able to manipulate color. They should be able to conveniently create, edit and visually compare colors on screen.
(4) Once the on-screen color is created, the software, in turn, should automatically compute the right colorimetric data. This is the digital "signature" of that color.
(5) The system should also accept measurements by a spectrophotometer and instantly transform the data into visual color on the screen for evaluation or adjustment.

The resulting digital sampling brings an ability to create or evaluate color electronically and to avoid the time-consuming and costly traditional method of mailing colored samples back and forth between sites for approval. Digital sampling technology (visit www.datacolor.com) breaks new ground across all industries, but is particularly important in manufacturing applications where accurate color reproduction is critical to the delivery of a quality product. Thanks to this ability to reproduce precise color on a computer screen - color standards can now be archived digitally, eliminating problems associated with fading, transfer, or handling. And the digital color data is ready for input to color matching or quality control software, as well as automatically available to the printer, or other end-user, once the colors have been approved.

In manufacturing operations across a wide variety of applications, color serves as a fundamental indicator of quality. Delivering material that is off-color can risk future business, and failing to get the color right "the first time" can drive up labor and raw materials costs significantly, reflecting the quality of the manufacturing process itself. With increasing competition and the move to bring products to market in record time, it is more important than ever to deliver an on-spec color faster and more efficiently. The latest color technology, particularly when housed within a virtual color environment, delivers new efficiencies for the entire supply when managing color throughout the complete production cycle, from mind to market.

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