Color Matching Across All Media

Cross channel marketing campaigns give brands the opportunity to promote their products or services across a variety of platforms, which continue to increase in number.

In a perfect world, color would match across all these different devices and platforms. For a variety of reasons, ranging from inherent differences in the delivery systems themselves, to manufacturing inconsistencies from device to device, “Coke Red” is represented differently in print vs. a computer screen vs. a smartphone vs. email.

One wonders, is color matching across all media a realistic goal?

Asking color experts how to obtain color matching across the current crop of platforms available for viewing graphics is akin to asking the Dali Lama “What is the meaning of life?”

Not only will there be no “magic bullet” to solve all the answers, there are so many variables it nearly makes any answer meaningless.

Both color precision and accuracy are in play when looking to match across platforms. Precision is how repeatable/consistent a device reproduces color, explained David Hunter, principal, Pilot Marketing Group, a national consultancy that helps end-users incorporate ICC Color Control and Digital Asset Management into their environment. Accuracy relates to making the device reproduce the "correct" color.

There is an assumption that all the issues have been fixed, and that it’s just an implementation problem, noted Marc Welch, director of strategic accounts, GMG Americas. GMG’s ColorServer technology provides standardized and simplified color management for all printing processes.

That is an erroneous assumption, he said. “Managing color across different platforms can’t be solved with a simplistic approach.”

Although color reliability is much improved since e-Commerce first burst on the scene, accurate and predictable color is still far from common practice. Content created for the non-print space is executed using different operating systems, and on a variety of platforms, which have different capabilities. However, even if content origination is consistent – there is the undeniable reality that end-use viewing takes place on different platforms, under different conditions. The vast majority of consumers are viewing Macy’s and Ikea’s Internet sites in less than ideal situations, on monitors that aren’t calibrated or without fine-tuning profiles.

In the digital environment –whether on a computer, platform, or smartphone – you can’t discount lighting, just like you can’t discount paper in physical printing, said Welch. “Lighting is the fifth color, we like to call it,” he says. Metamerism, whereby two colors match when viewed under the same light source but fail to match when viewed under different lighting conditions, can also be a factor when looking at print products.

How to navigate through the murky waters of color management when executing cross platform campaigns? Start with defining client expectations.

The fact of the matter, added Welch, is that it all depends on how good good is.” For example, if you are producing labels for Diageo’s Jonny Walker Blue brand, then you need a Delta-E of 1 or less. (The human eye can’t distinguish a difference below Delta-E of 1; a Delta-E of 2 is considered good to go in a professional setting). ”We are 20 years away from that on a mobile platform. We are lucky to get a 10 Delta E—that’s generous—it’s more like a 15 or 20.”

What is okay for one type of application does not necessarily make sense for another. Strict compliance to L*a*b* target values isn’t necessary for your personal photos of kittens on Facebook, but for executing a top brand’s marketing campaign, it may be expected. As a provider of cross channel marketing, you need to understand the application, and what the end use will be used for.

“’How Close, is Close Enough’ would be my title an article on color tolerances, said Hunter. “Everyone has a perspective of how close two colors have to be [blue viewed on a mobile device vs. blue in print] in order to be ‘acceptable.’ But it is in a person’s head, and no two people necessarily agree, and up until recently, it has been difficult to get multiple people on the same page in terms of determining ‘acceptable level of color match.’ In addition, the type of work influences the desired tolerance. Multiple versions of the same product packaging that have the same color and are situated next to each other on the grocery store shelf require a much tighter tolerance compared to a sales flier for Bob's Appliances.”

Even if all the work being done is for one customer, the variety of work being produced could have different tolerance levels.

Get to know the expectations of your client, advised Welch. Time Inc. needs a consistent product; Estee Lauder and Victoria’s Secret have solid expectations of how they want their models to look.

Standards for color accuracy and predictably in packaging, for example, are extremely high. Consumers are hyper aware of brands’ appearance on the grocery store shelf.

However, when it comes to color accuracy on screens, consumer expectations are low. “Television as we know it has never been specific on color; we have grown up with variability from television screen to television screen that from a print perspective would be atrocious,” noted Welch. Venture into a Best Buy store and it becomes obvious as to the lack of color consistency—between manufacturers and across different models from the same manufacturer.

“We all know that video is all over the place,” said Welch. “We get into trouble when we start comparing video vs. print. We haven’t even solved the printing issue, to make color on flexo look like gravure, let alone color matching on your iPad.”

One trick of the trade is to change the scale or minimize the Delta E when moving to mobile. Instead of using solid colors, the brand will use gradients, giving room to wiggle. It still projects the color, without having to be absolute.

Another possibility is to minimize the importance of color in the image.

However, while setting realistic expectations is key, so is the need to quantify. “If we want to have better consistency, than we can expect to have more discipline or structure,” said Welch.

“New and evolving technologies, such as active matrix light emitting diode monitors on smart phones, computer screens, and televisions expand color gamuts but are still within the CIE L*a*b map (1979) of all the colors a human eye can see,” said Lloyd Carr, professor, Communication Design Department, New York Institute of Technology.

“Color profiles for new and evolving technologies can help us plan for a shared formula in all media,” he adds. “Using the complementary color mode models of RGB and CMY, we can see how color works to produce clean and predictable color formulas. Targeting a brand color to the smallest color profile helps to keep the same formula in all media.”

G7 Methodology, which provides a calibration procedure that works with any printing device to ensure gray balance and tonality, is shared with the default configuration used in the Adobe Creative Suite Applications. (Adobe CS software suites for graphic design, video editing, and web development applications are now only available via Adobe Creative Cloud subscription service.) This means what a customer is previewing on their monitor will look very similar when printed on a G7 device. “It is all about meeting customers’ expectations, and G7 methodology matches customers expectations when comparing how a file looks during creation in Adobe products, to when it is printed on G7 output devices,” said Hunter.

“IS 15339/CGATs21 {GRACoL and SWOP datasets) is process agnostic and defines seven "Printing Aim " conditions that allow an organization to perform G7 output on virtually any output device and any substrate,” added Hunter. “This will provide a shared visual appearance across platforms and provide a nice simulation of what the customer experienced on their monitor. In addition, with CGATS TR 016, a company can provide four levels of tolerance, which, for the first time, allow a print provider to differentiate themselves in terms of color accuracy.”

First, however, a company needs to "calibrate" their people, said Hunter. The Chromachecker Color Tolerance Exercise allows a person or a group to decide what level of color tolerance is correct for their application. Once the tolerance is decided, the group is able ti determine the "Printing Aims." This refers to the output condition which is most influenced by the substrate being printed on.

Chromachecker Gamut Sampler provides the same images from the Color Tolerance exercise but rendered into the seven different printing gamuts simulating the affect of substrate on the same group of images. Newsprint (Gamut 1), for example, has a much smaller gamut then the others due to the low contrast and dynamic range available with the newsprint paper stock.

“In term of assessing your devices precision and accuracy to see if it can conform to your desired tolerance, I use Alwan Print Verifier,” said Hunter. “It is the only program that I know of that can assess process (G7 Certified), Spot and Spot Color Simulations (critical for digital and Hi Fi output); and it can be configured to work with any 1) printing aim, 2) tonality target 3) measurement instrument 4) color bar 5) tolerance. I have not had a situation that it could not work to assess precision and accuracy for any situation.”

While color management is available for computer monitors, neither of the dominant mobile operating systems -- Apple's iOS and Google's Android – offer built-in support for color profiling. In 2011, Datacolor’s SpyderGalley app brought color management to the Apple iPad and iPhone; as of 2013, it is also available for the Android. However, the lack of operating system level support for calibration on these devices requires SpyderGallery to provide color management only within its own gallery viewer, leaving other apps to make do with the default, non-profiled color.

Dov Issacs, a principal scientist at Adobe, recommended another alternative—using the Adobe Reader on both iOS and Android devices. CMYK is reasonably displayed with Adobe Reader (no garish colors and overly high contrast from CMYK or grayscale) and if you print from those devices, you don't have problems of messed up CMYK values, rich black, etc., he says.

X-Rite offers ColorTRUE, a free color calibration app for mobile devices, providing accurate color viewing of images on tablets and phones for both iOS and Android devices.

ColorTRUE app provides two key functions. The first is the ability to create a custom display profile for your device. The second is an “Image Gallery” where the end user can view images with a high level of color accuracy, whether on a laptop, desktop, or iPad.