Color and appearance are two of the most essential attributes of a final product. If the color doesn’t look right or assembled parts don’t match, consumers won’t buy. As brands and their suppliers adopt digital workflows to help accelerate product ideation and reduce waste, companies need to go beyond color and digitize both color and appearance characteristics.
For many companies, digital color means incorporating digital color standards based on the underlying spectral data measured by a spectrophotometer. The digital standard is shared across the supply chain to ensure accurate color in all stages, from design through pre-production, production, and quality control. The spectral data is used in formulation software and quality control tools, helping companies match and quickly produce accurate color. But is spectral data enough for today’s new digital workflows, especially for virtual prototyping?