Color Management: What about dE?

Professionals doing business in the packaging and printing sector, sooner or later?come across the term Delta-E. As everything related to color, it looks simple at first glance but the closer you look, the more complex it gets.

Delta-E (dE) is a single number that represents the 'distance' between two colors. In fact, a dE of 1.0 is the smallest color difference the human eye can notice. Any dE of less than 1.0 is imperceptible. Of course, we wish it would be that simple.

Color differences greater than 1.0 are perfectly acceptable, maybe even unnoticeable. Also, the same dE color difference between two yellows and two reds may not look like the same difference to the eye and there are other places where it can fall apart.

It's perfectly understandable that the industry needs a system to show errors. Delta-E numbers can be used for:

• ??how far off is a print or proof from the original
• ??how much has a device drifted
• ??how effective is a particular profile for printing or proofing
• ??removes subjectivity (as much as possible)

In Koskinidis Packaging we have full implementation of dE control for color management through spectrophotometry, across all our printings.

This system provides a guarantee for the maximum color variation which is dE=2.0 based on our standards.