Color management system for application of color to substrates

A system comprising one or more processors configured to perform operations including:

• accessing one or more buildup curves, each buildup curve associated with a respective combination that includes each of a substrate, one or more colorants, and a colorant dispenser, and specifies optical characteristics of one or more generated articles generated using the substrate, the one or more colorants, and the colorant dispenser combination;
• accessing a design file specifying a design, the design file including one or more layer files, each layer file specifying a layer color;
• extracting the one or more layer files from the design file;
• generating, for each layer color, a corresponding colorization recipe based on the one or more buildup curves and the specified optical characteristics;
• populating a design instruction/metadata file with the colorization recipe corresponding to each layer color and with a reference value corresponding to the one or more buildup curves;
• and
• creating a production job instruction/metadata file having a link to the design instruction/metadata file and including parameters associated with the production job to be carried out using the design instruction/metadata file, the production job instruction/metadata file being operative to instruct a colorant dispenser to produce the design.

A nontransitory computer readable medium having software instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

• accessing one or more buildup curves, each buildup curve associated with a respective combination that includes each of a substrate, one or more colorants and a colorant dispenser, and specifies optical characteristics of one or more generated prints generated using the substrate, the one or more colorants, and the colorant dispenser combination;
• accessing a design file specifying a design, the design file including one or more layer files, each layer file specifying a layer color;
• extracting the one or more layer files from the design file;
• generating, for each layer color, a corresponding colorization recipe based on the one or more buildup curves and the specified optical characteristics;
• populating a design instruction/metadata file with the colorization recipe corresponding to each layer color and with a reference value corresponding to the one or more buildup curves;
• and
• creating a production job instruction/metadata file having a link to the design instruction/metadata file and including parameters associated with a colorant dispensing job to be carried out using the design instruction/metadata file, the production job instruction/metadata file being operative to instruct a colorant dispenser to produce the design.