Billmeyer and Saltzman's Principles of Color Technology, 4th Edition

Chapter 5Color‐Quality Specification

Much of color technology is concerned with decisions about quality. Does this batch of material match the standard? Is this print a close reproduction of an original object? Does this process produce consistent color? If not, is the lack of color consistency acceptable? Can this new part be used interchangeably with parts made last month, or last year? All of these questions relate to quality. We believe that a quality product should minimize detrimental effects to our society. In addition to the usual goal of producing a product that meets or exceeds customer expectations, quality relates to productivity, worker job satisfaction, and minimizing waste and pollution. In this chapter, we describe types of visual judgments and various approaches to predict these judgments using color measurement, colorimetry, and color‐difference formulas.

A. PERCEPTIBILITY AND ACCEPTABILITY VISUAL JUDGMENTS

• Perceptibility: “Can I see a difference in color?” “Is this difference in color greater than or less than the difference in color between members of a standard pair?”
• Acceptability: “Is this difference in color acceptable?”

The first step in measuring color quality is recognizing that there are two types of visual assessments, perceptibility and acceptability. Let's imagine the use of a visual colorimeter. Rather than performing color matches, as described in Chapter , the visual colorimeter is used to measure color differences. Monochromatic light ...