Easy Matching – perfect RGB colour matching

Choose a correct monitor screen colour without indirections over the input box, slider and so on ! Intuitiv, very easy – nothing could be more easier.

Sometimes the small advantages count and they convince: Behind the unimpressive Easy-Matching window a very easy to use and highly accurate tool of the colour adaptation is hidden which also reflects our perception of colour.

Exact adaptation of colour on the monitor screen – priviously methods

Have you ever try to adjust a colour sample very proper on the monitor? Make sure that you have a good action of light, clip the colour sample on the monitor screen,... and then? This is (rather was) not very easy...

"Please use this colour", says the customer.

A bad method

Employees of the pre-press like to use a CMYK-colour atlas for their reference and thereby determine the suitable CMYK-colour values, e.g. for art print. Many producers of colours (e.g. HKS, Pantone) also deliver optimized CMYKs. Due to the fact that the monitor needs RGB calour values, the CMYK [values] are entered to a CMYK-able software (e.g. Photoshop, Indesign) and converted there to RGB.

This method is to be disapproved completely!

• CMYK is a very limited colour area compared with the monitor. Many colours (e.g. orange) are not able to be specified exactly, although they could be created on the monitor.
• by the double conversion the inaccuracynesses multiply
• in the case of CMYK-colours with a fraction of „black“ the black shading is completely lost
• the conversion from CMYK->RGB colours is only insufficient consistent with the conditions of the printed colour atlas. Also when the most up-to-date ECI-CMYK-ICC profile is set within the software this doesn't already mean that also the atlas has been printed accordingly.

In this case apples and oranges are charges, there even the best calibrated monitor is not helpful!

A difficult method

RGB values (specified in numbers) can be entered into entry fields within all programmes which are able to work with colours. The increase of the value for „red“ e.g. means „more red“, the colour is brighter. But the laws of the additive colour mix aber in the majority of cases remaining incomprehensible (Since when is the result of „red“ and „green“ yellow ???“), even experts find the RGB model a hart nut to crack if colours have to be adjusted exactly.

The RGB model is defined in a much too technical way in order to be able to be understood intuitively and emotionally. Also the rules of the additional mix of colours, the understanding of colours as lights is difficult to understand for our intuition.

This menu of choosing the colours doesn't enable for an exact choice of the colours.

A better method

Numerous graphics applications allow the entry of colour values in the HSB mode (Hue, saturation, Brightness, or HSL, HSV). Simultaneousely the RGB colour values are displayed. This is already more intuitive and is e.g. functioning in Photoshop in a good way, due to the fact that the entry values can be increased or decreased step-by-step using the arrow keys.

This method also has disadvantages.

• the pushing of arrow keys is quite laborious und too less „direct“
• the preview of the colours is much to small for an exact operation, their size can't be changed.
• the preview of the colours can't be displayed on different backgrounds. This would be important for the reason of the contrast between character and background.
• the technical and easy to programme HSB colour model doesn't react really in an expectable way on changes. So for example small changes in the pastelscale have an enormous impact, whereas in dark unsaturated colour areas nearly it has no impact. A colour choice on the base of the perception based CIELAB model would be more reasonable.
  

Not even Adobe Photoshop is suitable for the exact sampling inspection of colours in a good way.

 

Our solution

Instead a variation of the colour by HSB this windows supplies the variation of the colour which is based on CIELAB and the variation by the variable HLC (Hue, Lightness,Chroma). This has the effect as a result that changes of the colour are made in a far more floating and more natural way. Furthermore the easymatching window is sufficiently large and can be scaled in a user-defined way. It can be moved and placed on different backgrounds.

Thirdly: no superfluous fuss ! Instead by using laborious entries of digits or by scrolling bars a colour is changed as directly as possible by movements of the mouse on the colour area itself. It is nearly like one would „think“ about the colour change:

"OK - no problem", you say.

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