TM173-TM 173 Calculation of Small Color Differences for Acceptability

Description

TEST METHODS ARE DELIVERED AS A LINK IN YOUR EMAILED RECEIPT.

AATCC TM173-2009(2015)e2, Calculation of Small Color Differences for Acceptability

Developed by AATCC Committee RA36 in 1989; reaffirmed 1990; editorially revised and reaffirmed 1991, 2005, 2015; revised 1993, 1998, 2009; editorially revised 2006, 2019 (with title change). Partly related to ISO 105-J03.

1. Purpose and Scope

1.1 The CMC (l:c) formula is a modification of the corresponding CIELAB color-difference formula. It has color-difference symbol DEcmc. Even though use of CIELAB 1976 L*a*b* (CIELAB) equation provides industry with a ÔstandardÕ means of calculating and communicating color differences of trials from their standards, it is recognized that CIELAB color difference values (DE*) correlate poorly with visual assessments. The lack of correlation is caused by the non-uniformity of CIELAB colorspace. Significantly improved correlation between visual assessments and instrumentally measured color differences is given by the CMC (l:c) color difference formula. The improvement in correlation between visual and instrumental color-difference reports yielded by the CMC (l:c) equation will usually permit the adoption of a single-number tolerance for judging the acceptability of a color match in most situations, regardless of both the color of the standard and the direction of the color difference of any trial from it. Another equation, CIE94 has been considered, but it has not shown any significant improvement over CMC.

1.2 The CMC (l:c) formula retains, in modified form, the partitioning of overall color difference into differences in lightness, chroma, and hue components which is present in the CIELAB color-difference formula. Using the ellipsoidal semi-axes (lSL, cSc, andÊSH) makes the CMC (l:c) equation suitable for a wide range of uses.

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The above information is only a summary of the AATCC test method.