Project

ChromaSpot is a colour library for the industry, free of charge, built on spectral measurements of physical samples. It exists because the alternative — every supplier holding a slightly different copy of what a colour is — costs the industry more than a library costs to make.

What it is

4253 colours, each measured on printed samples under three measurement conditions, each carrying its full reflectance curve. A code that is derived from the colour rather than assigned to it. And a deliberate omission: nothing in the definition says which ink or which paper.

That omission is the design. A colour that belongs to a substrate has to be republished for every substrate; a colour defined by what it is serves a carton, a film, a textile and a screen from one entry — see Substrate Independent.

Who it is for

What it costs

Nothing. No account, no registration, no fee — for the colours, the files, the exports and everything written here. The terms, and the small number of things asked in return, are on License and Use.

That is not generosity. A colour library is worth what its adoption is worth: a shared vocabulary means more the more people speak it, and a fee is the fastest way to keep them from speaking it.

Where it came from

A measurement campaign several times the size of the published set, reduced to a library that is even enough to browse and complete enough to specify from. The reduction, what it was for, and what is known to be imperfect in the result are on How This Library Was Made.

The measurement side of the project — the instruments, the software, the printing — is ChromaChecker. ChromaSpot is published by ChromaSync sp. z o.o.

Where to start