A method for producing one or more matching formulas for matching color and appearance of a target coating containing flakes, said method comprising the steps of: a) obtaining appearance data of the target coating from an image by identifying appearance features, wherein the appearance features comprise a set of target bright features from bright areas of said image where target effect pigments exhibit highest brightness above a first threshold level T1, a set of target intermediate features from intermediate areas of the image where the target effect pigments exhibit intermediate brightness above a second threshold level T2, and a set of target dark features from dark areas of the image where the target coating is essentially free of detectable target effect pigments, and by generating individual feature values for individual appearance features, wherein the individual feature values include at least: a fractional area of an image having image intensities above a first threshold level T1, Area T1; a fractional area of each image having sparkle objects expanded at a second threshold level T2 comparing to that at the first threshold level T1, Area Exp; a fractional area of each image having new sparkle objects at the second threshold level T2, Area New; wherein appearance characteristics are generated based on the individual feature values including ratios of Area Exp / Area T1 and Area New / Area T1; b) comparing the appearance data with appearance characteristics of known flakes stored in a flake database; c) selecting from said flake database, one or more matched flakes, flake combinations or flake ratios that have appearance characteristics matching said appearance data; d) obtaining color data of the target coating; e) comparing said color data with color characteristics of one or more colorant combinations of known colorants stored in a color database to select from said color database, one or more colorant combinations that have color characteristics matching said color data; f) determining colorant concentrations of each said known colorant of said colorant combinations and said flake concentrations of each of the match flakes, the flake combinations or the flake ratios; g) producing said one or more matching formulas according to said colorant concentrations and said flake concentrations, wherein match coatings resulted from said matching formulas have color characteristics matching the color data and appearance characteristics matching the appearance data; and optionally, balancing said colorant concentrations and said flake concentrations to compensate for the presence of non-colorant and non-flake components. a) obtaining appearance data of the target coating from an image by identifying appearance features, wherein the appearance features comprise a set of target bright features from bright areas of said image where target effect pigments exhibit highest brightness above a first threshold level T1, a set of target intermediate features from intermediate areas of the image where the target effect pigments exhibit intermediate brightness above a second threshold level T2, and a set of target dark features from dark areas of the image where the target coating is essentially free of detectable target effect pigments, and by generating individual feature values for individual appearance features, wherein the individual feature values include at least: a fractional area of an image having image intensities above a first threshold level T1, Area T1; a fractional area of each image having sparkle objects expanded at a second threshold level T2 comparing to that at the first threshold level T1, Area Exp; a fractional area of each image having new sparkle objects at the second threshold level T2, Area New; wherein appearance characteristics are generated based on the individual feature values including ratios of Area Exp / Area T1 and Area New / Area T1; b) comparing the appearance data with appearance characteristics of known flakes stored in a flake database; c) selecting from said flake database, one or more matched flakes, flake combinations or flake ratios that have appearance characteristics matching said appearance data; d) obtaining color data of the target coating; e) comparing said color data with color characteristics of one or more colorant combinations of known colorants stored in a color database to select from said color database, one or more colorant combinations that have color characteristics matching said color data; f) determining colorant concentrations of each said known colorant of said colorant combinations and said flake concentrations of each of the match flakes, the flake combinations or the flake ratios; g) producing said one or more matching formulas according to said colorant concentrations and said flake concentrations, wherein match coatings resulted from said matching formulas have color characteristics matching the color data and appearance characteristics matching the appearance data; and