The total colorant sensitivity of a color matching recipe: An approach to colorant weighting and tinctorial strength errors

The repeatability of the recipe color can be affected by several different types of inevitable inaccuracies in the coloration process. Two of the major causes of poor target-color reproducibility are the (random) weighing and (proportional) strength errors. This article describes alternative definitions of colorant strength sensitivity and total colorant sensitivity of a dyeing recipe. The influences of the maximal colorant weighing and strength errors are taken into account in order to bring the magnitudes of the two treated types of sensitivity into a mutually realistic balance between each other. The quantifications of precision and accuracy of a color matching recipe are also developed and combined into a single-number measure of recipe quality. The listed quantities are expected to be useful in selecting the most reliable one(s) among the different formulations for the same standard color. The methods are presented for calculating numerical estimates of the newly introduced quantities. The precision and accuracy of the coloration process are investigated in laboratory experiments involving repeated dyeings. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 33, 300–306, 2008.