Color matching software is an integral part of industries that regularly deal with color. Such software aids in color identification by providing a thorough analysis in a format compatible with digital devices.

But what really is a color matching software? How is color software different from something consumers use, such as Photoshop color wheel? In this article, we'll talk about everything you need to know about industrial color-matching software to answer those questions.

What Is Color Matching Software?

Color matching software, also known as a color matching system, is a digital software that specializes in color analysis and replicating precise color information. Various industries use such software to ensure color fidelity in designing, printing, textiles or other manufacturing processes.

Such software is particularly crucial for manufacturing colored fabrics, painted automotive parts, and toys. These industries place great importance on color accuracy because even a slight change can be very costly in the long run.

One thing you realize is that this software is not a standalone product. The software itself cannot analyze a physical material, you need a spectrophotometer for that. The software capability is limited to the digital platform. So, to use its reading in a meaningful way to create physical objects, you’ll need other specialized manufacturing instruments.

An industrial color-matching application has much more streamlined capabilities regarding sorting, recording, and reproducing color profiles. Color matching systems are also customizable for individual industries based on different requirements.

How Does Color Matching Software Work?

Depending on the industry and level of customization, color-matching software can have a lot of variation. However, the core operating principle for such software is usually quite uniform. It works through a combination of input, processing, and output stages.

1. Identification: The color matching process starts with the software receiving color information. It can be from an object via the data from a spectrophotometer, or colorimeter, or it could be from a predetermined color value that the R&D department has come up with. The device starts by measuring the spectral reflectance of this value and converts it into a particular color space.

2. Analysis: After the color gets sorted, the analysis starts. The software starts cross-referencing the color against the entries in its database to determine the appropriate parameters for hue, saturation, and brightness. This helps it find the closest match for the intended color in the production process.

It can then formulate the pigment mixture recipe for paint, ink levels for digital printing, or dye combination for dyeing. That’s basically the information the manufacturer needs to kickstart their manufacturing process.

3. Simulation: There’s one additional step a color matching software can take to ensure even better color accuracy, and that is to run a simulation. You can use this mode to check how the selected color appears under different lighting setups. This test is also called the metamerism check. This is a good thing to check before starting the actual production.

The simulation stage is most useful for textile, fabric, and paint industries because their products are subject to the most amount of lighting situations. Diverse lighting situations can affect color differently, and it’s especially noticeable on wall paint, and fabric because of their unusually large surface area.

Technical Details Of Color Matching Software

A color matching software needs several technical elements to work properly. Here’s a list of all of them:

1. Color Space Data: As you all know by now; color space is a categorization system to understand and reproduce color in various mediums. The color-matching software runs on the same principles, and since it prepares the color for a production machine, it needs to convert its output into a color space value to ensure effective communication.

2. Optical Measuring Device: For a color matching system to operate, it needs a reliable way to analyze color in the physical domain. There are not many devices capable of generating color information for that kind of procedure except spectrophotometers and colorimeters. So, a color matching software works best when paired with one of those.

Now it is worth noting that you don't necessarily need a high-powered industrial-grade spectrophotometer with every color-matching software. Some come with portable spectrophotometers, that are much easier to handle.

3. Data Sets: To measure color difference, the device requires the help of two separate datasets of color difference charts. One is the Delta-E calculations, and the other is the Metamerism Index. These help the software to accurately distinguish between two different colors.

Delta-E is the more straightforward testing system because it is easily distinguishable values. ΔE < means nearly indistinguishable. ΔE 2–4 means almost the same (this is fine for 80% of the industries), and ΔE > 5 means a noticeable difference.

The Metamerism Index is the test chart that allows the color-matching software to run color harmony simulations under different lighting setups.

3nh Color Matching System

Professional color matching is incredibly vital for a number of industries. So, consumer-grade color profiling software like Gimp won’t cut it. That’s why every professional industry uses some form of professional-grade color-matching software.

3nh has a robust, industry-standard color-matching system that can do just that. It is custom-fitted with several essential capabilities, making it one of the best multi-industry color-matching software.

This high-performance color-matching software, or PeColor, as it is so aptly named, is an extremely accurate and flexible software. It has automatic and manual color matching options, which gives the user full control over the output and analysis.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you now understand the inner workings of color-matching systems. It is an incredibly useful software resource for almost every industry that works with color. It’s mostly used by manufacturers, so it is not a consumer-grade product. However, some hobbyists will get a unit every now and then for their passion projects.

If you wish to know more about color and color measuring resources, then feel free to contact us at 3nh.