simultaneous contrast (In French contraste simultané) color perception that is influenced by the environment of the color shade being viewed. To eliminate simultaneous contrast, a neutral gray environment is prescribed for color matching and visual color evaluations in the printshop; furthermore, an in-field pinhole is recommended when viewing/comparing individual color shades in a brightly colored environment, e.g. on packaging.

simulation (In French simulation) visual imitation of an expected output result, achieved with the help of ICC color management, e.g. in offset printing, in hardcopy proof or in soft proof; see also “ICC profile types” under simulation profile.

silver inks (In French encres argent) metallic inks on the basis of aluminum pigments; attractive metallic effects when mixed with colored inks.

SICOGIF Syndicat national des Industries de la Communication Graphique et de l’Imprimerie Françaises association of the French printing industry; publishes guidelines for color reproduction and proof criteria. Compared to the German media wedge, the SICOGIF wedge has 6 additional color fields and interprets skin tones and gray areas separately.

short key/black (In French noir court) in achromatic composition as well as in modified chromatic composition with UCR, the increased use of the achromatic process color black (K) instead of the three chromatic colors CMY in the three-quarter tones, going as far as the solid tones, in the area of the three-color gray axis, that is, only in a short section of the tone value range. The tone value at which the characteristic curve of…

shadow/black point compensation (In French compensation du point noir) configuration option in ICC profile treatment in image processing programs; acts mainly in conjunction with the rendering intent “relatively colorimetric” and adapts the deepest grayscale of the printing process to the deepest grayscale of the input.

shades, shadow tones dark parts of the image, or high tone values; see also highlights.

setting, film/skin formation (In French formation du film) process of the surface drying/hardening of a printing ink layer; this first sub-process of printing ink drying is followed by full drying.

separation-preserving (In French préservation des séparations) requirement to be met by the link between ICC output profiles that the chromatic/achromatic composition written into the source profile should be preserved in the destination profile. Problem solution: DeviceLink technology, bypassing the PCS.

separation color (In French couleur de sélection) see process colors.

sensory analysis (In French analyse sensorielle, sensométrie) testing of food and semi-luxury goods with the human senses alone by trained personnel with respect to the influencing of quality through migration from printing inks and packaging materials; tested properties: odor, taste, coloring, appearance, shape retention and consistency; methodology: testing of the components individually and after interaction with the printed packaging, in some cases also days later, to take account of the effect of atmospheric oxygen; influence…

sensitometry (In French sensitométrie) methods and procedures to describe the coordination of radiation-sensitive layers (printing plate) with the technological requirements; the objective is the standards-compliant tone value transmission in all recording, imaging and printing processes, for which the appropriate sensitivity, tone reproduction and tone value curves are determined and applied.

sensitivity (In French sensibilité) 1) sensual responsiveness of the eye to brightness stimuli and spectral stimuli. 2) brightness-specific and spectrally conditioned action range of electronic components (e.g. CMOS) or information recording materials (e.g. printing plates).

sensationally/perceptually equidistant/uniform (In French perceptuel uniforme) more or less well implemented property of color systems which, instead of the mathematical (CIEXYZ, CIExyY) or physical gradation (wavelength spectrum, illuminance) aim for a physiologically justifiable gradation, e.g. CIELAB, CIELUV, CMC and CIE2000, whereby the equidistant property is mainly shown in the intuitive interpretation of brightness, chromaticness and hue angle.

self-luminant body (In French source primaire) systems that cause light emission: all light sources as well as technical equipment such as monitors and projectors.

selective filter (In French filtre coloré) glass, gelatine or interference filter, which selects various wavelengths from the light and thus possess certain filtering characteristics; today used only in metrological applications in monitor colorimeters or in-line color densitometers.

security inks (In French encres sécuritaires) printing inks with difficult-to-forge properties; methods: fluorescence, UV remission, special reflection and interference effects, machine-readable magnetic coding, integrating of marking substances (taggants); used by registered users in the securities and packaging printing sectors.

secondary radiator (In French source secondaire) surface that is illuminated by a light source and which reflects light of a certain remission spectrum depending on the light spectrum and the surface coloring. Our largest natural secondary radiators are the surfaces of Earth and Moon remitting the sunlight.

secondary colors (In French couleurs secondaires) color shades that are created by mixing primary colors; additive secondary colors: C=G+B, M=R+B, Y=R+G; physical secondary colors: R=M+Y, G=C+Y, B=C+M.

SDC, Society of Dyers and Colorists British society of dyers and color agent manufacturers, publisher, together with its US counterpart AATCC, of the Color Index. The “SDC Colour Measuring Committee” developed the CIE94 color difference formula CMC with improved correspondence between visual and metrological evaluation.