Color target

A color formulator will be given color targets to match of all shapes, sizes, materials, and descriptions as well as plaques, cards, swatches, parts, chips, stones, glass, fruit, and fabric. He or she will be presented with anything from animal, to vegetable, to mineral that illustrates a color the customer wants to reproduce in plastic. This is the challenge and fun of being a color matcher. 

Establishing a proper color standard is one of the most critical aspects of color matching. It is essential that the color matcher and customer agree on the color target or color standard. Both need to look at and measure the exact same thing. More color rejections occur because of incorrect or improper color standards than for any other reason. 

There are two possible solutions to this situation. One is to bring the first color target back to the customer when submitting the match. Then the submittal can be reviewed versus the same standard—the one the colorist matched. Care should be taken to maintain the integrity of the color standard if it is going to be handled and transported. It needs to be kept clean and protected from light and abrasion. 

Another solution would be to cut the original color target in half when the customer first gives it. Both the colorist and the customer should sign, date, and initial each half. The customer should keep half and protect it from light, dirt, and abrasion. The other half is taken to the laboratory for formulation. This ensures that when the customer receives the color submittal, the same color target is being compared. 

On occasion, a colorist may be asked to match to a set of reflectance numbers, or L, A, B coordinates, generated by spectrophotometric measurement of a color standard from a remote location. In other words, he or she will be asked to match a color that they have not seen. While instrumentation technology has improved over recent years, there still may be enough variance between individual spectrophotometer to cause a color rejection. Instruments are extremely helpful quality control tools to measure color and numerically define color differences. However, their use as a device to reduce a color target to a set of numbers and then send that set of numbers to a color formulator as a target for matching is seldom successful. Physical color standards that can be viewed under various light sources are preferred. 

Let us consider color match quality. The color formulator should ask the customer if the closeness of a match to the color target is the highest priority. Since there are hundreds of colorants available for the color formulator to select from, more than one possible combination of colorants may produce an acceptable match. Is the best, nonmetameric match of most importance to the customer and application If a perfect, nonmetameric match is not possible, which is often the case when trying to match plastic colorant systems to color targets in paint, ink, ceramic systems, or plastic media, will the customer accept some metamerism Also what light source will be the customer s preference when judging a slightly metameric match ... 

Blend the selected colorants to match the color target... 

ISO I264I (1997) Graphic technology - Prepress digital data exchange - Color targets for input scanner calibration. 

Building proactive outreach efforts in communities of color, targeted associations and colleges, minority suppliers, and the like... 

An acidic solution of cerium salt is transformed by a liquid process into a reactive cerium precursor as cited above. At this step, alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal salts can be added depending on the color targeted. The resulting precipitate is not yet colored, and must next be transformed into a colored sulfide. 

Cover Image Credit Nanombe sensor A carbon nanotube treated with a capture agent, in yellow, can bind with and delect the purple-colored target protein—this changes the electrical resistance of the nanotube and creates a sensing device. 

EIAs can be used per se or with a spectrophotometer. Traditionally, EIAs have been developed in 96-weU microtiter plates which provide the immobilization support for the assay, the reaction vessel, and, when linked to a spectrophotometer-based reader, a rapid means to detect and quantify the color resulting from interaction of a substrate with the antibody—antigen—enzyme complex. Automated immunoassay analyzers targeted primarily for use in the clinical laboratory have taken automation one step further, utilizing robotics to carry out all reagent additions, washings, and final quantification including report preparation. 

SUBTRACT LIGHT (BLUE.WHITE) COMING FROM VIEWED TARGET -REDUCE CONTRAST, ALTER COLOR OF TARGET -INCREASE HAZE... 

In summary, although clear, light-colored cellulose solutions are required to start the synthesis, there is no guarantee, a priori, that the targeted DS will be obtained. The reasons are that the state of aggregation of cellulose is dependent on the structural characteristics of the starting material, is sensitive to the pre-treatment employed, and the impurities present. This may result in non-reproducible aggregation states, and may lead to oscillation in cellulose reactivity. Typically, effects of these oscillations may not be readily apparent, because ... 

Figure 32.1 Targeted treatment solutions. Reproduced with permission from Threshold of Innovation (2005). IBM Business Consulting Services [1]. See color plate.

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