Device and method for controlling the calorimetric quality of any printed document

A method for ensuring the colorimetric quality of a document output by a production machine and including a control range, which comprises the following steps:

• a) the arbitrary choice of at least one of the following data:
• i) at least one control range,
• ii) theoretical reference values to be measured over said at least one control range,
• iii) acceptability tolerances and
• iv) information relating to the conditions for measuring the ii) and iii) values;
• b) the recording of the data a)i) to a)iv) and their coding in the form of a unique identifier;
• and
• c) the incorporation into the document, of said unique identifier, in any arbitrary representational or coding form;
• it being possible, by reading said unique identifier, to identify said data a)i) to a)iv) and to measure, under the conditions as defined in a)iv), actual reference values of the control range of the document, while comparing said actual values with those theoretical values defined in a)ii), taking into account the tolerances as defined in a)iii), makes it possible to verify the colorimetric quality of the document.