Measurement of Color Differences.

Government specifications for paper require that it match a standard sample for color. Traditionally acceptability has been determined subjectively. Tolerance limits are vague and depend on an individual's perception of color. In an effort to quantify color an abridged color spectrophotometer, the Diano ChromaSCAN, interfaced with a programmable calculator was purchased. This paper reports on a two-year investigation employing this instrument. Although no simple correlation between it and human perception of color was found, numerical tolerances for six paper colors and white have been established.