A system for matching a target coating comprising: a storage device for storing information, wherein a sample database is stored on the storage device, and wherein the sample database comprises at least one sample coating formula and at least one sample image feature wherein the at least one sample coating formula is linked to the at least one sample image feature, wherein each of the at least one sample coating formulas include a list of components and component quantities for a sample coating, and wherein the at least one sample image feature has been measured from the sample coating; wherein the at least one sample image feature comprises a spatial micro-color analysis, wherein the spatial micro color analysis comprises a value determined by a sample pixel feature difference between a least two sample pixels of a sample image, wherein the sample image is an image of the sample coating, and wherein the sample image comprises a plurality of sample pixels; characterized in that the spatial micro-color analysis comprises one or more of: a sparkle area of a black and white image of the sample image; a sparkle intensity of the black and white image of the sample image; a sparkle grade of the black and white image of the sample image; a sparkle color determination of the sample image; a sparkle clustering of the sample image; a sparkle color differences determination within the sample image; a wavelet coefficient determination of the sample image at a sample pixel level; an overall image color entropy of the sample image; an image entropy of one or more *a*b* planes as a function of a 3 rd dimension of the sample image; and, an image entropy of one or more RGB planes as a function of the 3 rd dimension of the sample image. a storage device for storing information, wherein a sample database is stored on the storage device, and wherein the sample database comprises at least one sample coating formula and at least one sample image feature wherein the at least one sample coating formula is linked to the at least one sample image feature, wherein each of the at least one sample coating formulas include a list of components and component quantities for a sample coating, and wherein the at least one sample image feature has been measured from the sample coating; wherein the at least one sample image feature comprises a spatial micro-color analysis, wherein the spatial micro color analysis comprises a value determined by a sample pixel feature difference between a least two sample pixels of a sample image, wherein the sample image is an image of the sample coating, and wherein the sample image comprises a plurality of sample pixels; characterized in that the spatial micro-color analysis comprises one or more of: a sparkle area of a black and white image of the sample image; a sparkle intensity of the black and white image of the sample image; a sparkle grade of the black and white image of the sample image; a sparkle color determination of the sample image; a sparkle clustering of the sample image; a sparkle color differences determination within the sample image; a wavelet coefficient determination of the sample image at a sample pixel level; an overall image color entropy of the sample image; an image entropy of one or more *a*b* planes as a function of a 3 rd dimension of the sample image; and, an image entropy of one or more RGB planes as a function of the 3 rd dimension of the sample image. <EOS>