Colour Selection of Paints and Coatings: How Spectrophotometers Take the Guess Work Out of Sample Matching

Social media, television, and magazines are creating a greater desire for colour choices and variations. Image Source: Flickr user John Morgan

Human beings are constantly looking for ways to communicate their own unique style. Thanks to the influence of social media, television, and print media that continuously boast of ways to express our individuality through selection and choices, the palette of colours is persistently growing every day. If the world is our canvas, then we are the ones holding the brush.

Consumers are barraged with colour options on a daily basis: what colour car to buy, what finish to choose, paint for decorating their walls…the list goes on and on. Due to the sheer number of colour variations, finding just the right colour selection and matching that colour precisely is where the real challenge begins. Colour measurement provides a solution to pairing paints and coatings to sample selections through the use of advanced spectrophotometers, taking the guess work out of colour matching.

The importance of colour measurement

Researchers state that, “the tremendous variability in the spectral composition of light reflected from surfaces lends itself to eliciting a daunting gamut of more than 100,000 discriminable colours, and the variation in the names we assign these colours is limited only by scope of human experience.” This makes colour selection extremely subjective. However, colour measurement technology provides a complex and objective process that enables manufacturers to quantify colour data for accuracy and repeatability.

Variations in colour are limited only by human perception and experience. Spectrophotometers provide accurate colour measurement that delivers quantifiable data for precise colour matching. Image Source: Flickr user Darren Johnson

Many paint and coating industries understand the importance of exact colour matching in terms of quality control. Ken Phillips, marketing director of HunterLab, gives a real world example of how colour measurement affects quality assurance in the car manufacturing industry. He explains,“it is critical that when two pieces of the same colour are joined together, they are in ‘colour harmony’ with one another, achieving the esthetic intentions of the designer. If the side mirror or bumper of a car does not match the exterior of the vehicle, these components are considered to be defective and not in ‘colour harmony.’ The cost to the supplier of these components to fix such a problem can be excessive.”

When variations exist in “colour harmony,” it does not always result in immediate product rejection. Consumers who find discrepancies between colour selection samples and actual product results quickly learn to associate these findings with quality, which in turn affects consumer choice. Therefore, it is detrimental to eliminate colour variations during the processing phase and before distribution. The sooner these colour deviations are detected, the less time and money is spent on correcting the problem.

Consumers make purchasing choices based on colour selection and expect colour samples to match the product. Image Source: Flickr user Jocelyn

The right choice in spectrophotometers

The ability to accurately mix colours to match colour selection is dependent on the use of spectrophotometers for many reasons. Not only does colour selection include hue, saturation, and colour value, but other characteristics such as matte or gloss finishes relate to both texture and colour perception. Spectrophotometers are designed to measure colour in both reflective and transmittance mode, which accounts for the three-dimensional attributions of colour that absorb or reflect light. All these traits must be accounted for in order to gain an accurate reading of a colour selection sample.

HunterLab offers the expertise and selection needed to address the various needs of the paint and coating industry with a variety of spectrophotometer options to choose from. HunterLab can help you choose the best instrumentation for your specific industry and budget needs. Contact HunterLab today to see how we can help you unlock the world of colour.