How to Measure Colour for your Business

Having trouble with visual colour checking? Need accurate colour reading? 

Before colour is painted, printed and produced, manufacturers have to ensure that colour is monitored and accessed during the design stage, the formulation & production process and finally during the quality control process. Which determines the overall outlook on the products while attracting customers…

After the product assembly, final quality checks are done to identify and if needed, fix the colour issue. This is less expensive than doing rework on your goods after a rejection call.

There are many ways to identify & categorise colours, which includes:

Visually / Manually

  • By comparing the product’s colour with a known standard (e.g. Pantone ®, Munsell, etc..)
  • Open to errors and disagreement with your customers and suppliers. Because it requires properly trained people to visually evaluate color while doing it under different lighting conditions can affect assessments.

Using a colour meter or colourimeter

  • A portable device that is able to read and provide tri-stimulus (RGB) values (uses an internal light source, to shine light down onto the surface of the sample and as it reflects back up to the device, it passes through three filters: red, green and blue), similarly to how our eyes see colours.
  • Cannot detect metamerism (evaluating when two colors appear to match under one lighting condition but not when the light changes) rendering it unsuitable for all production applications e.g. formulation.

Using a spectrophotometer

  • Works similarly to a colourimeter but instead of using only 3 filters (RGB values) there are 31 filters to measure the full-colour spectrum value. These filters can measure light in each of 31 different wavelengths to determine the exact colour of a sample.
  • Come in many shapes and sizes – small handheld devices, large benchtop workhorses and in-line devices used during manufacturing production.
  • Ideal for identifying metamerism (evaluate how colour will look under different light sources
  • Can measure almost anything from liquids, plastics, paper, metal, fabrics, etc.

Applicable industry:

Automotive  |  Aerospace  |  Components & Parts  |  Electrical and Electronics  |  Furniture  |  Graphic Design  |  Marine & Maritime  |  Printing  |  Packaging  |  Photography  |  Pharmaceuticals  |  Paints  |  Plastics, Rubber and Elastomer  |  Steel  |  Textiles


Brought to you by, JS Analytical Sdn Bhd (1094207-V)


NEED CONSULTATION ON COLOUR MEASURING EQUIPMENT?  

View our list of Colour Measuring Systems, visit our website.

Reach out to our expert today for a professional recommendation.

Elton Wong, Product Specialist
+6012-292 2371, [email protected] cc [email protected]