National Textile Center

FY 2004 New Project Proposal

Project No. C04-NS11
Competency: Chemistry

Optimizing Color Control Throughout the Textile Supply Chain

Project Team: Leader David Hinks / NCSU / Color Science, Dye Chemistry Email: david_hinks@ncsu.edu Phone: 919-515-6554 Members: Renzo Shamey/ NCSU / renzo_shamey@ncsu.edu / Color Formulation, On-line Color Control Richard Aspland/ Clemson / aj@clemson.edu / Dyeing and Finishing, Color Science Warren Jasper/ NCSU / warren_jasper@ncsu.edu / Computer engineering, Software Rolf Kuehni/ NCSU / rkuehni@carolina.rr.com / Color Science, Dyestuff Applications Nancy Cassill/ NCSU / nancy_cassill@ncsu.edu/ Marketing, Retail Management Keith Hoover/ Target Stores/ keith.hoover@target.com / Global Color Manager Objective: The primary goal of the proposed research is to develop an accurate and precise integrated color control system that can be easily implemented throughout the US textile industrial manufacturing complex, from product designer through to merchandiser, dyer, retailer and consumer. Fundamental research in the following areas must be addressed to achieve this goal: 1) Develop illuminant data that correlate with the color rendering of lighting used in standard light booths (especially daylight simulators) and lighting used in retail stores, 2) Develop an accurate color inconstancy model and integrate it into color formulation software, 3) Develop a perceptually uniform mathematical color space and accurate small color difference equation with visual experiments replicated by at least three observer panels. Relevance to NTC Mission: Today, the U.S. Textile Industry is driven by retailers and merchandisers, who set product specifications including color standards and color difference tolerances, wash fastness, light fastness, etc. In order to reduce costs and reduce the time for approval of color standards and production submissions, accurate digital communication of color is now seen as essential by leading U.S. retailers, which impacts dramatically working practices of upstream processes such as product design, dyeing and finishing, color sorting of fabric inventory, and apparel manufacture. However, issues critical to the success of digital color communication require improvements in processes and methods, particularly: 1) agreement between light source data used in all color calculations, light sources used in retail stores, and in light booths for visual evaluation throughout the chain, 2) a significantly more accurate mathematical color space and color difference model, 3) an accurate mathematical method to produce color constant materials. State of the Art: Neither the NTC nor the US Textile Industry has recently funded fundamental research on improving color control in the textile supply chain. Yet, it is critical to global competitiveness and efficiency, as color control is part of the critical path in textile product development. The current methods of controlling color in the U.S. textile industry are inefficient. In June, 2002, NC State College of Textiles hosted an AATCC Color Science Symposium [1]. In a year when attendance at short courses nationwide was at an all time low, the AATCC symposium was attended by over 175 retail managers, merchandisers, color instrument manufacturers, designers, dyers, and academics. It was generally agreed that the main outcome of the meeting was that color communication and control throughout the US textile industrial complex was far from optimum, in part owing to a) poor agreement between the color rendering of textile materials by lighting in retail stores, standard light booths and illuminant data, leading to color inconstancy problems, b) the need for an accurate and efficient method to improve color constancy, c) lack of an accurate, perceptually uniform color space model and color difference formula, and d) the requirement for accurate and

precise digital color communication. The latter requirement will facilitate significant reduction in time from product design to point of sale. In order to address each of these issues, we have formed a new Color Science Group composed of color science, computer engineering, marketing and dye chemistry experts. The current proposal will initiate the fundamental work that is critical to advancing color management to the highest possible level of control. Lighting. The most common reason given for return of an apparel garment is that 'the color is not right'. This is primarily because of lack of color constancy in one or more components of a product when viewed under spectrally different lighting conditions [2]. Significant discrepancies between lighting in retail stores, lighting used in standard viewing booths and illuminant data in current formulation, color difference and color constancy software have been demonstrated by us earlier. Poor agreement in color rendering between the standardized models and the actual viewing situations in either light booths or at the point of sale can lead to significantly reduced lead times for approval between vendor and customer at each stage of the supply chain, and it may ultimately result in the return of goods. An initial study of variability in spectral power distribution of daylight simulators currently in use in various color laboratories in North and South Carolina showed that there is poor agreement between standard viewing booths, as shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1. Spectral power distribution of the daylight simulators of 11 standard viewing booths currently in use. Using the latest color difference formula the error of prediction of average Color Space and Color Difference. visually judged color difference data is approximately 34% [3-5]. There are particular difficulties in obtaining agreement between visual and colorimetric assessment in certain areas of color space, such as black, navy blue, bright blues, grays and khaki, many of which are critical colors in any given season. Obtaining accurate color difference models is difficult for several reasons: 1) the color space currently used (CIE L*a*b*) is based on outdated experimental data and not perceptually uniform, as shown in Figure 2 (for perceptual uniformity the unit difference contours should be circles of equal size), 2) experiments have never been replicated under identical conditions to determine the influence of observer panels. Hence, fundamental research is required to develop a perceptually uniform color space and associated small color difference formula that can be incorporated into all digital color communication protocols in the textile industry. Approach: This project requires three graduate students to conduct basic research in the following areas: Lighting and Color Inconstancy a) Using a spectroradiometer, spectral power distributions (SPD) of area lighting will be measured in a large number of small, medium and large retail chain stores throughout the U.S., as well as SPDs of lighting in use in standard viewing booths in dyeing and finishing QC facilities, retail color management laboratories, and design laboratories. The data will be used to establish color inconstancy tolerances and to assist retailers in improving color control at

the point of sale. Protocols for an optimal standardization will be developed and implemented for the US Textile Industry (via AATCC and ISO).
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Visual color difference tolerances for selected areas of CIE L*a*b* color space.

b) A set of approximately 30 light fast, non-thermochromic dyed fabric samples of varying lightness, chroma and hue, and with varying levels of color inconstancy, will be prepared for visual assessment of degree of inconstancy under different lights. c) A method to quantify visually the color inconstancy of each sample will be developed (e.g., color constancy between daylight, tri-band lamp and incandescent lighting). The visual data will then be used to develop an accurate color inconstancy index model that can be incorporated into the development of color constant dyestuff formulas for both the development of color standards and for large scale production. Perceptually Uniform Color Space and Color Difference Using an accurate calibrated monitor, a computer program will be developed to enable total control of colored patches (lightness, chroma and hue) and background viewing conditions. The program will enable the development of perceptually uniform lightness, chroma and hue scales within the color gamut of the monitor (comparable to dyes gamut). Approximately 30 observers with normal color vision will be trained and used to develop the uniform color attribute scales. A mathematical model for correlating each color attribute will be developed. At least two replications of the experiment in different locations and with different observer panels will be performed. The mathematical color space will be validated by visual assessment of differences in dyed or printed fabric samples of varying lightness, chroma and hue, and an accurate color difference equation developed. The accuracy of the new equations will be compared with current models. This Years Goal: Hire two graduate students, and purchase equipment. SPD measurements of all lighting will be completed. Experiment design for color inconstancy will be completed and visual studies commenced. A preliminary computer program to establish uniform lightness and chroma scales will be completed and initial testing commenced. Outreach to Industry: The following industrial collaborators have willingly agreed to actively participate in the project: Datacolor International (Dan Randall, Color Manager, Textiles, North America), via donation of a digital color communication system (value ~$50K), Gap (Carol Revels, Global Color Manager), Nike (Mimi Manalac, Color Manager), Milliken and Co. (Bill Baird), AATCC (Amy Hammonds, Jack Daniels). New Resources Required: Please note: Upon initiation of the project, Datacolor International will donate a digital color communication system (value: $50,000). However, the following equipment is also required: Telespectroradiometer ($25,000) and a 19" Flat Screen Color Calibrated Monitor ($6,000).

BIBLIOGRAPHY SECTION

National Textile Center

FY 2004 New Project Proposal
Project No. C04-NS11

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

AATCC Color Symposium: Color Innovations 2002: Concepts, Communication and Control, College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, June 3-4, 2002. D. Hinks, A. El-Shafei, S. Draper, Q. Che, M. Nakpathom, and R. Connelly, Radiometric Measurement of Area Lighting Critical to Color Assessment in the Textile Industry, AATCC Review, 1(11) (2001) p. 35-39. M.R. Luo, G. Cui, B. Rigg, The Development of the CIE 2000 Colour-Difference Formula:CIEDE2000, Color Res. Appl., 2001;26:340-350. R.G. Kuehni, CIEDE2000, Milestone or Final Answer, Color Res. Appl., 2002;27:126-127. R.G. Kuehni, Color Space and Its Divisions, J. Wiley & Sons, 2003.