Hi group.
I have just proposed to Google Boulder that they incorporate our colorcharts.org databases into Sketchup. Right now SU is sadly lacking in this area.
In order to accomplish great results; calibrate your monitor, use high quality source data and you can manage colors from additive color to subtractive color just as easily as any graphic artist. Printing ink and paint colorant have a lot of similarities, they are both pigment ground up in a clear carrier. You already know that all print media graphic artists manage color from additive color to subtractive color and do color correction on their desktops with spectacular results. Why would you think the same is not available to you when managing paint colors?
Here are the two different approaches to obtaining digital paint chip source data for virtual display purposes.
The first is by using an inexpensive $300 colorimeter like the Pantone Color Cue. Colorimeter’s have a very low degree of quality and only come up with a close approximation of colors. Anyone using this method to display paint colors on their websites also makes disclaimer statements that the screen color is not to be relied upon and you should purchase a test sample of the paint before proceeding with your paint order. The cost of scanning a color chip using this method is pennies!
The above is not considered by the paint industry as a scientific approach and therefore is never used to color match or formulate paint.
The second approach is spectrophotometers. This is the one the paint industry uses and relies upon. It is also the one we use. Spectrophotometers and their ancillary equipment start in the $10,000 range and go all the way up to several hundred thousand dollars. Ours cost around $100,000. Low end spectrophotometers read 31 data points across the UV/Vis electromagnetic spectrum. Spectrophotometers over $50,000 will read 400 data points or more. Here is a link for more data
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet-visible_spectroscopy. Read “Practical Considerations” on the same link.
In laymen’s terms the vast difference between low end and high end spectrophotometers is like trying to use a carpenters tape measure VS a machinists micrometer to obtain high quality incremental data. What this means to you is the higher quality of measured data you start with the better your reproducible results will be for either virtual visualization purposes or paint formulation.
