Color management

A color production method comprising:

• determining a target color and corresponding optical information of the target color;
• matching the optical information corresponding to the target color with predicted optical information of a colorant recipe, the predicted optical information of the colorant recipe being based on output device characterization information corresponding to a combination of an output device, an output device operational mode, a substrate, one or more colorants and one or more illuminants/sources and/or one or more observer vision characteristics;
• communicating an instruction/metadata file containing the colorant recipe and optical information associated with the colorant recipe to the one or more output devices;
• and
• causing the output device to produce a colored article bearing a color generated according to the colorant recipe.

A method comprising:

• accessing one or more buildup curves associated with a combination of a substrate, one or more colorants and a colorant dispenser, the buildup curve specifying optical characteristics of one or more colorants generated using the substrate, one or more colorants and colorant dispenser combination;
• accessing a design file specifying a design, the design file including one or more layer files;
• extracting the one or more layer files from the design file, each layer file specifying a layer color;
• generating, for each layer color, a corresponding colorization recipe based on the one or more buildup curves;
• populating a design instruction/metadata file with the colorization recipe corresponding to each layer file 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 print 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 system comprising:

• one or more processors configured to perform operations including:
• accessing one or more buildup curves associated with a combination of a substrate, one or more colorants and a colorant dispenser, the buildup curve specifying optical characteristics of one or more articles generated using the substrate, one or more colorants and colorant dispenser combination;
• accessing a design file specifying a design, the design file including one or more layer files;
• extracting the one or more layer files from the design file, each layer file specifying a layer color;
• generating, for each layer color, a corresponding colorization recipe based on the one or more buildup curves;
• populating a design instruction/metadata file with the colorization recipe corresponding to each layer file 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 associated with a combination of a substrate, one or more colorants and a colorant dispenser, the buildup curve specifying optical characteristics of one or more prints generated using the substrate, one or more colorants and colorant dispenser combination;
• accessing a design file specifying a design, the design file including one or more layer files;
• extracting the one or more layer files from the design file, each layer file specifying a layer color;
• generating, for each layer color, a corresponding colorization recipe based on the one or more buildup curves;
• populating a design instruction/metadata file with the colorization recipe corresponding to each layer file 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 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.

A system comprising:

• a colorant build-up characterization module;
• a profile generation module;
• a recipe color matching module;
• a production instruction module;
• a production queue module;
• a digital recipe conversion module;
• and
• a layer compression module.

A method comprising:

• characterizing a colorant dispenser;
• determining one or more colorant recipes based on the colorant dispenser characterization;
• adjusting the one or more colorant recipes to generate one or more adjusted colorant recipes;
• selecting a set of one or more matching colorant recipes from among the one or more colorant recipes and the one or more adjusted colorant recipes;
• and
• providing one or more layers files and an instruction/metadata file, the one or more layer files containing location information and the instruction/metadata file containing the set of one or more matching colorant recipes, the one or more layer files and the instruction/metadata file effective to cause the colorant dispenser to dispense colorant according to the one or more matching colorant recipes at specified locations according to the one or more layer files.

A system comprising:

• one or more processors configured to perform operations including:
• characterizing a colorant dispenser;
• determining one or more colorant recipes based on the colorant dispenser characterization;
• adjusting the one or more colorant recipes to generate one or more adjusted colorant recipes;
• and
• selecting a set of one or more matching colorant recipes from among the one or more colorant recipes and the one or more adjusted colorant recipes;
• and
• providing one or more layers files and an instruction/metadata file, the one or more layer files containing location information and the instruction/metadata file containing the set of one or more matching colorant recipes, the one or more layer files and the instruction/metadata file effective to cause the colorant dispenser to dispense colorant according to the one or more matching colorant recipes at specified locations according to the one or more layer files.

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

• characterizing a colorant dispenser;
• determining one or more colorant recipes based on the colorant dispenser characterization;
• adjusting the one or more colorant recipes to generate one or more adjusted colorant recipes;
• and
• selecting a set of one or more matching colorant recipes from among the one or more colorant recipes and the one or more adjusted colorant recipes;
• and
• providing one or more layers files and an instruction/metadata file, the one or more layer files containing location information and the instruction/metadata file containing the set of one or more matching colorant recipes, the one or more layer files and the instruction/metadata file effective to cause the colorant dispenser to dispense colorant according to the one or more matching colorant recipes at specified locations according to the one or more layer files.

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

• transmitting colorant dispensing data to a colorant dispenser, the colorant dispensing data including:
• one or more layer files each specifying a color of one or more pixels, and
• one or more colorant recipes, each colorant recipe corresponding to a layer file,
• each layer file and corresponding colorant recipe configured to be effective to cause the colorant dispenser to dispense colorant onto a substrate at a location specified by each of the one or more pixels of each corresponding layer file.

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

• transmitting colorant dispensing data to a colorant dispenser, the colorant dispensing data including:
• one or more layer files each specifying a color of one or more pixels, and
• one or more colorant recipes, each colorant recipe corresponding to a layer file,
• each layer file and corresponding colorant recipe configured to be effective to cause the colorant dispenser to dispense colorant onto a substrate at a location specified by each of the one or more pixels of each corresponding layer file.