Message
Re: [colorvision_group] printfix pro sp ectro to colormatch (off topic)
2007-06-21 by CDTobie@aol.com
In a message dated 6/21/07 4:14:39 PM, mamemarquees@... writes:
This is kind of off topic... but could I use my printfix pro to do
color matching? I do Arcade restoration and I have some original
classic sideart that I reproduce, in the past I would just eyeball it
adding or taking away colors until it looks right. I noticed there was
a "measure" option that gave "LAB" colors, can I plug those into
photoshop and in theory it would match as long as my printer/monitor is
calibrated, kind of like they do in a paint store? It would save me a
considerable amount of time/ink/paper. I am going to test it tonight,
but I wondered if it is feasable.
Yes, Datacolor (ColorVision's parent company) builds just this sort of system; in fact a good deal of the worlds paint matching and textile matching is done with Datacolor systems. You are limited, with PrintFIX PRO, to measuring flat patches of not-too-textured color, that isn't overly-metalic or extremely-fluorescent in nature. The resulting Lab values can be used in Photoshop (among many other places) for defining spot color values (which may end up as AdobeRGB or other Lab-defined RGB space values). Using a printer profile (should be able to produce one of those, since you have PrintFIX PRO ) you can then print these values out again, getting reasonable matches, at least for colors within the gamut of your printer. Real world spot color matching is a tricky process, so you will have to work with it a bit to determine how to best get from your spot measurement, to your matching printed color. PrintFIX PRO does not include software for defining the proprietary color forumli for paint mixing machines, of course, so you can't make a direct "spot measurement to paint mixture" translation, but if a paint store has a system that will mix paints from Lab values, then you can get reasonably close mixes that way.
C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Unit
Datacolor Inc.
CDTobie@...
www.colorvision.com
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