Computer Color Matching Procedures for Mass Colored Polypropylene

Abstract

In the present investigation, attempts were made to color match mass colored polypropylene by the use of several colorimetric color matching procedures. A color matching procedure consisting of a rough match as a starting point and an iterative algorithm to achieve the exact match to any degree of accuracy was carried out. The rough match was calculated based on the Kubelka-Munk's one and two constant theories. Six different iteration procedures were utilized to achieve the exact match having ΔE₂₀₀₀ < 0.5. The results showed that the iterations based on Lab76 gave superior results showing the most potential for a recipe prediction system for a computer color matching procedure by giving the lowest average concentration difference, ΔC_AVE, and the lowest color difference, ΔE₂₀₀₀, under the reference condition, i.e., D65/10°. In general and as expected, concentration predictions based on the one-constant theory were always inferior to the prediction based on the two-constant theory.

Keywords:

• Color difference
• Colorimetric procedure
• Color matching
• Kubelka-Munk theory
• Mass colored polypropylene