This time of year, the internet is full of Top 10 Countdowns. It’s a tradition we’ve embraced since 1940 when the Billboard published its first chart ranking the top selling recorded songs. Since then, others have jumped on the bandwagon to highlight the most popular trends of the previous year.
We’ve been publishing our top-read blogs since 2016, and we’re happy to see some educational topics like color perception, tolerancing, and spectrophotometers continue to rank year after year.
Here’s a list of the topics our readers enjoyed this year, starting with the most popular.
Number 1: Color Perception Blog Series
If color is important to your business, you need to be aware of the variables that affect how we see color. Without getting too technical, this blog series introduces how we see color and things to watch out for when evaluating it.
Number 2: How to Calibrate Your Monitor in 10 Steps
Are you wasting time, paper, and ink re-printing images because the color isn’t right? When you work on an un-calibrated monitor, you can’t trust the colors you see on-screen and may make poor editing decisions. This blog explains how to calibrate your monitor for accurate softproofing.
Number 3: Using Tolerancing to Control Color
To control color, you need to be able to compare very small differences, determine their impact, and understand how to address that impact. In this blog series we look at the history of color analysis, the role of light in toelrancing, and how to use the most common tolerancing methods.
Number 4: What is Metamerism?
Have you ever walked out of the house wearing two black socks, only to arrive at work and realize one of them is navy blue? If so, you’ve been a victim of metamerism. This blog explains what causes metamerism so you can manage it during color production.
Number 5: Additive vs. Subtractive Color Models
To understand how color management works, you need a basic knowledge of the additive and subtractive systems of color reproduction. This blog introduces both color models and when they are used to produce color.
Number 6: History of Color Measurement Devices
With at least a hundred different types of instruments to choose from, how do you pick the one that’s best for you? This blog introduces the colorimetry and spectrophotometry and offers tips to choose the best type of color measurement device for your needs.
Number 7: What Does a Spectrophotometer Measure?
Spectrophotometers can capture color data on just about any sample, including liquids, plastics, paper, metal, fabric, and painted samples, and are used in every industry that requires accurate color. This blog explains the differences between the most common types of spectrophotometers and when to use each.
Number 8: The Three Attributes of Color
Each color has its own appearance based on three key attributes – hue, chroma (saturation), and value (lightness). This blog explains how to use these attributes to accurately identify a color and distinguish it from others.
Number 9: SPIN or SPEX: Which is Best for Gloss Measurement?
Surface appearance can change your perception of color. Think of a glossy magazine – To see the colors on the page you may need to it to change the reflection angle. Learn which type of color measurement device works best to measure glossy and reflective surfaces.
Number 10: Transmission vs. Reflection: Which Benchtop is Right?
Reflectance spectrophotometers measure color by flashing light onto the surface of the sample and measuring the percentage of reflection, while spectrophotometers that are capable of transmission project light through the sample and pick up the wavelengths and amount of light that made it. Learn which measurement type is right for your samples.
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