CIE ΔE* (Color Difference) Equations

Pictured above is a combination handheld spectrophotometer and densitometer, the SpectroDens 4. The intent of using deltaE (ΔE) is to describe the distance between two colors. The Just Noticeable Difference (JND) of deltaE is usually 1. In other words, if two colors have a deltaE less than 1 it is imperceptible and larger than 1 is perceivable. Unfortunately, due to the nature of human color perception (our eyes), the visual perception of colors is different….

What is the Process Free (or Processless) Plate and What to Consider When Switching?

Photo Credit: Kodak Sonora Process Free Plates Offset printing plates are the foundation of offset printing and are used to transfer image information from the plate cylinder to a rubber blanket and ultimately to the printed substrate. While conventional offset printing plates require a processing step after imaging, newer technologies such as processless plates (process free plates), and chemistry-free plates eliminate or significantly reduce this additional processing. For commercial printers, packaging converters, newspaper printers, and other offset operations, selecting the right offset…

Five Tips for Creating Your Color Bar

Color bar printing is essential in ensuring consistent and accurate color reproduction on press. A color bar in printing is a strip of standardized color patches—often a CMYK printing color bar—that appears outside the live image area of a printed sheet. What is the purpose of a color bar? The main purpose of a color bar is to help press operators and quality control teams monitor and maintain color accuracy during a print run. By…

A simple review of CIE ΔE* (Color Difference) Equations

PHOTO: Techkon SpectroDens 4 all-in-one-color densitometer and spectrophotometer. If you work in the color industry, either you are a brand owner, merchandise designer, printing professional, paint department staff in Home Depot or Lowe’s, or just a complete color geek like me who likes words like CIE CMC color, you will likely hear the term “ΔE”, pronounced “delta-E”. Since I work in the color industry, I spend most of my time talking to all of the…

JINKAI QIAN

SmartInk