Color measurement is serious business. Industry leaders pour millions of dollars into R&D, marketing and product shows to convince buyers of the accuracy and innovation of their hardware. Terms like Absolute Reflectance Value and CIE Tristimulus Values are often included in presentations and literature. This is aimed at providing the small (but knowledgeable) group of buyers with a degree of comfort and assurance that the product is a serious contender for their procurement dollars. This industry has thrived, and there are thousands of examples of the benefits of spectrophotometry. It’s a proven approach, but expensive and difficult to deploy throughout an organization. After all, can you imagine the cost of providing every employee with a color measurement device? Not a chance.
But what about the rest of us? After all, millions of sales people, clients, designers and technical support personnel could benefit from color measurement tools. They are on the front lines - creating, producing and supporting all sorts of products where color is a key factor. They need to know if the color is acceptable, and they really don’t have the time to wait weeks for a far-off lab to send samples. Time is money folks.