Patent ID: 8065314

Claim:
A method for identifying one or more matching formulas for matching color and appearance of a target coating containing effect pigments, said method comprising the steps of: a) obtaining color data of the target coating; b) obtaining appearance data of the target coating; c) comparing the color data and the appearance data to color characteristics and appearance characteristics stored in a coating database by calculating color difference between said color data and said color characteristics, and feature distances between said appearance data and said appearance characteristics; and d) selecting from the coating database, one or more said matching formulas, wherein said matching formulas have color characteristics that match the color data and appearance characteristics that match the appearance data; wherein said matching formulas are selected by selecting and ranking alternate coatings from said coating database based on the color difference, ranking said alternate coatings based on the feature distances to produce an initial appearance ranking list, adjusting said initial appearance ranking list based on said appearance data to generate a refined appearance ranking list, and selecting said matching formulas based on top ranked coatings in said refined appearance ranking list.