Patent ID: 8922829

Claim:
A method for determining a color solution which achieves color objectives for a color marking device, the method comprising: identifying N objectives for a color marking device, said objectives comprising at least two of: visual color match, graininess, mottle, color stability, metamerism, ink cost, color difference, and spectral match; constructing a 3-dimensional Pareto Front using an optimization process based upon printer models of said identified N objectives, said Pareto Front being such that various color solutions displayed along a frontier of said Pareto Front are Pareto optimal, said color solutions comprising at least one of: process colors used to emulate a spot color and a set of device configuration settings comprising process parameters and process set points for said color marking device, said Pareto Front identifying collections of Pareto optimal color solutions which accommodate said objectives instead of a single optimal color solution; in response to having constructed said Pareto Front, displaying at least a portion of said Pareto Front in a 3-dimensional representation on a graphical display such that said various collections of Pareto optimal color solutions can be visualized; placing a slideable plane on said displayed portion of said Pareto front; moving said slideable plane along at least one dimension of said 3-dimensional representation to identify a sub-section of said Pareto Front which contains preferred color solutions; selecting, by a user, a target point on said 3-dimensional Pareto Front from a set of N objectives which map onto said identified sub-section of said Pareto Front, said selection being based upon at least one user preference; identifying a Pareto optimal color solution on said Pareto Front that is associated with said selected target point; and using said identified Pareto optimal color solution to generate a spot color for said color marking device, said generated spot color simultaneously achieving said user-selected preference while accommodating said identified objectives.