Quality Control: Measure it, Control it!

To alleviate these risks, different instruments, including densitometers, colorimeters, spectrophotometers, and plate analyzers, were developed to detect and measure color changes at various stages in the workflow. Densitometers determine the strength of a color from its density, usually derived from ink film thickness. Colorimeters, such as X-Rite’s 528 handheld unit, break down color into its numeric value using the CIE XYZ color space or one of its derivatives, such as CIE L*a*b or CIE L*u*v. Spectrophotometers measure spectral data, which form a complex set of data on the spectral curve. Spectrophotometers gather the most complete color data and provide the most accurate and useful color information.