Patent ID: 7605945

Claim:
A color reproduction definition creating method that creates a color reproduction definition representing a correspondence between a device value and an output color of a hypothetical virtual device outputting an image on a medium with a color material of each color according to the device value of each of a plurality of colors, the method comprising: a selection step of selecting candidates of color materials in a plurality of colors to be used on the virtual device from real color materials; a gray balance adjustment step of associating a color material amount of each color with a maximum value of the device value of each color when the virtual device outputs a predetermined black color by using the color materials in the plurality of colors selected in the selection step; a device value association step of associating each color material amount with each device value so that a relation between brightness and the device value becomes a linear relation when the virtual device outputs achromatic colors of different brightness; and an evaluation step of evaluating broadness of a color range reproducible by the virtual device by an inclusion rate of a plurality of standard colors, and having the steps started all over again from the selection step according to an evaluation result, wherein evaluating includes: mapping the common color reproduction area in LCH space, mapping selected spot color points comprising standard colors on the mapped common color reproduction area, and determining the inclusion rate based on the mapped spot color points included within the mapped common color reproduction area, wherein at least one of the selection step, gray balance adjustment step, device value association step, and evaluation step is performed by a computer.