Color Calibration Chart for Printing System Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Multicolor printing systems face challenges in maintaining color consistency over time and across different printing environments, leading to perceptible differences in spot colors when printing logos, trademarks, or large areas with demanding color consistency requirements.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the creation of a color calibration chart with variations of print colors, where measurement values are used to select the best match for a reference color, allowing for automatic compensation of environmental changes and updates to the print color look-up table to ensure consistent reproduction of spot colors without the need for premixed inks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If process colors are used to reproduce spot colors without premixed inks, then device complexity and storage requirements are reduced, but color consistency deteriorates over time and across different printing environments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a color calibration chart beforehand that captures the relationship between process color combinations and spot color references under various printing conditions. This preliminary calibration data is stored and later used to automatically compensate for environmental changes, allowing the system to maintain color consistency without requiring premixed inks or complex real-time adjustment mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the printed spot color is measured and compared against the calibration chart. Based on this feedback, the system automatically adjusts the process color combinations to reproduce the reference spot color accurately, even when printing conditions change over time or across different environments.
2Manufacturing precision
If color calibration is performed frequently to maintain consistency, then color accuracy is improved, but productivity decreases due to time-consuming calibration processes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a comprehensive color calibration chart in advance that covers various printing conditions and environments. This preliminary calibration captures the relationship between process colors and spot color references, allowing the system to maintain accuracy without frequent recalibration. The calibration chart serves as a lookup table that can be quickly referenced during printing operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs automatic color measurement and adjustment using built-in sensors and processing capabilities. The printing system itself conducts the calibration verification and adjustment without requiring external intervention or manual calibration processes, thereby maintaining color accuracy while minimizing productivity loss.
3Reliability
If environmental changes are compensated for in real-time, then color consistency is improved, but device complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-captures environmental variations and their impact on color reproduction by creating a calibration chart under different printing conditions. This preliminary action stores the relationship between environmental factors and color output, allowing the system to compensate for environmental changes by referencing pre-collected data rather than requiring complex real-time environmental sensing and adjustment mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a spectrophotometer or color sensor to measure the printed spot color and compares it against the reference spot color. This measurement feedback is used to determine the best matching process color combination from the calibration chart, effectively copying the reference color appearance through automated measurement and lookup rather than complex real-time environmental compensation.
Data Source
AI summary
A color calibration chart may be created including a plurality of colors that are variations of a print color established for printing a reference color by a printing system using multiple colors. The colors in the calibration chart may be measured. A color from the calibration chart may be selected for printing the reference color which has a measurement value indicative of a color consistency within a predefined distance from a reference value for the print color.