Patent ID: 8149251

Claim:
A method for assessment of the theoretical color accuracy of a color imaging output device having a device characterization, comprising the steps of: (a) inputting a target file and said device characterization into a color management module, wherein said target file comprises image elements each having a color aim; (b) processing said color aim for said image elements and said device characterization in said color management module to produce a device color definition for each of said color aim; (c) evaluating said device color definition for each of said color aim according to the steps of: (i) converting said device color definition to a color value by using the color model represented in the device characterization, and (ii) comparing said color value of said device color definition to said color aim, and calculating a color error between said color aim and said device color definition for each of said selected image elements, and (iii) analyzing said comparisons of step (ii) to produce a quantitative assessment of theoretical color accuracy; wherein said color error is the Euclidian distance ΔE* ab between said color aim as L 1 *, a l *, b 1 * and said device color definition as L 2 *, a 2 *, b 2 *, wherein said ΔE* ab is determined according to the formula: Δ E* ab =√{square root over (( L 2 *−L 1 *) 2 +( a 2 *−a 1 *) 2 +( b 2 *−b 1 *) 2 )}{square root over (( L 2 *−L 1 *) 2 +( a 2 *−a 1 *) 2 +( b 2 *−b 1 *) 2 )}{square root over (( L 2 *−L 1 *) 2 +( a 2 *−a 1 *) 2 +( b 2 *−b 1 *) 2 )}; and wherein the analyzing step (ii) is conducted according to the steps of: (I) selecting one or more image elements from said target file for the purpose of calculating a quantitative assessment of color accuracy; (II) determining the number of acceptable matches by counting the number of selected image elements having a color error less than or equal to a defined color threshold; (III) further selecting neutral image elements from selected image elements, wherein said selected image elements have a value for L* greater than or equal to 25, a value for a* equal to 0, and a value for b* equal to 0; (IV) calculating a neutral error by averaging said color errors for said selected neutral image elements, and (V) combining said number of acceptable matches and said neutral error to produce said quantitative assessment of color accuracy.