Pigment & Resin Technology

Perfecting the Color Maker infinite shade card technique

Milind TaskarMukund Gadre
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Milind TaskarMukund Gadre, (2001),"Perfecting the Color Maker infinite shade card technique", Pigment & Resin
Technology, Vol. 30 Iss 2 pp. 95 - 99
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Contributed papers
Perfecting the Color
Maker infinite shade
card technique
Milind Taskar and
Mukund Gadre
The authors
Milind Taskar is at Indtech Analytical, Saki Naka,
Mubai, India.
Mukund Gadre is at Indtech Instruments PVT Ltd,
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Saki Naka, Mumbai, India.
Keywords
Computer simultion, Coatings, Pharmaceutical, Colour
Abstract
Color Maker is a computer simulation of mixing colorants
to generate a resultant true colour on screen. It can be
described as the infinite shade card. It has obvious
advantages to offer the paint coatings and printing ink
industries, which are defined. However, applications can
be made for Color Maker in all colour-using industries. An
example is given of its development as an accurate tool in
determining true colours on pharmaceutical tablet
coatings. Here, it evaluates the colour on the tablet in a
three-dimensional rendering of the colour, and produces
what can be termed a three-dimensional shade card.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com/ft
Pigment & Resin Technology
Volume 30 . Number 2 . 2001 . pp. 95±98
# MCB University Press . ISSN 0369-9420
95
Introduction
In Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 27
No. 1, 1998, the concept of the Color Maker
infinite shade card technique was described
(Taskar and Kannan, 1998). This technique
promoted the idea that a regularly used colour
matching system for copying shades ± or
matching shades ± from any particular source
could be used to introduce new shades
throughout the colour-using industries,
ranging from paint coatings to pharmaceutical
tablet coatings. The technique would be very
easy to operate.
The technique enumerated several
advantages, which are repeated here for the
benefit of new readers who have not read the
earlier paper. This risk of repetition is offset
by the advantage of being able to announce
that the concept is now being applied in
practice.
Color Maker concept
Every colour-related industry employs shade
cards for the colour standards that they
supply to their customers ± the end users.
There are certain shades that have been
established for a very long time, such as:
Oxford Blue, Royal Blue, French Blue, Ivory,
Signal Red, Post Office Red, Pale Cream,
Golden Yellow, Canary Yellow, Bottle Green,
Aquamarine, etc. It is superfluous to say that
these standards could be regional, and all the
shades mentioned above are used in the paint
industry.
Now, every year, even every season, some
new standards appear on the shade cards:
some will last for a long time, others will drop
into oblivion.
The introduction of new shades, new
standards and colour trends has been a
laborious process. Marketing and
development people, fashion designers,
architects, etc. are all involved. The
development chemists obtain all their colour
bases, or colour concentrates, and on the
instruction of their marketing counterpart will
mix them so as to produce colours in a
specified hue of several undertones. This is a
manual process of mixing and evaluation by
the marketing experts, architects, super
colorists and aficionados in the paint industry
as to which shade produced will click in the
marketplace. The evaluation is also carried
 Perfecting the Color Maker infinite shade card technique
Milind Taskar and Mukund Gadre
out applying the paint to the final object, such
as a bicycle frame, the interior of an
apartment, etc. The shade is then frozen as a
newly created shade, given an exotic name
and given a place on the shade card. The
formula of the mix that produced the new
shade is given to the production department.
The above is also more or less the
procedure for the T-shirt colours standards
which emerge at the change of every season.
Of late, the paint industry has come out
with shade cards covering some 1,000 shades,
which are supposed to cover the entire gamut
of colours. Of the shades introduced into the
market, many catch on, many fade away, and
others try to copy the ones that catch on.
All these colour developments involve effort
and infrastructure. Smaller companies cannot
compete in this area, as they do not have the
manpower required.
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Color Maker in use
Having described the process of introducing
new shades into the marketplace, now let us
elucidate what the Color Maker concept
means.
Color Maker means that the colour
matching system contains the data on the
pigments, colour bases and colour
concentrates involved. For the textile system
it has the data on the different levels of
dyestuff concentrations involved. Through
the technique of Color Maker the mixing of
colour concentrates, which has hitherto been
a manual process, can be computer
simulated.
Computer simulation is able to generate on
screen the colour mixed by the chemist
originally. It is a true colour to a high degree
of exactness. This would imply that, using an
available inventory and having compiled the
data required for matching colour shades for
the colour computer (colour matching
system), the industry has an infinite shade
card at its disposal.
To every end user the industry can give the
personal satisfaction that they are being
offered a colour which he or she can create
directly, to apply as a computer simulation on
the interior of their apartment, and then
demand that colour as his or her own colour.
The manufacturer can deliver this colour in
the quantity required by the user from the
colour concentrates, as the mix required is
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Pigment & Resin Technology
Volume 30 . Number 2 . 2001 . 95±98
noted by the computer. Such a system can
also be directly hooked up to a dispensing
system. Thus, it can also be of great
advantage to those operating colour-
dispensing systems.
For the end user in the paint industry, the
Color Maker has the following functions:
(1) From the database of whites and colorants/
colour concentrates, the user selects the
white base and, according to the view he
has in mind about the hue he requires to
obtain his own unique colour, he selects
the colorants. For example, if he has pink
in mind he will select a rubine red, a blue,
a yellow, a black and possibly a violet
colour. He can evaluate on screen the true
colour of all the colorants he selects in any
possible white reduction or white mix.
(2) He then takes a certain amount of white
as the base.
(3) By playing with the spinner wheel
designated for each colorant and base, he
is actually mixing the various colorants
and instantly generates the resultant true
colour on screen. At any stage when he
feels that he has obtained his own unique
colour he freezes that colour, evaluates it
on the object, such as the apartment, in
various lighting conditions and in
controllable light intensities.
(4) For the user, supplying this colour is very
easy, as well as the quantity required.
Color Maker has kept a track of the mix
and noted the formula, which can be
scaled to volume, paste weight, etc.
From the point of view of a paint industry
user, for example, here is how Color Maker
would function and what it would do (note:
Color Maker and Infinite Shade card are now
two terms employed synonymously):
(1) The user has a certain idea in his mind,
let us call it a penchant for his own colour
as pink: ``my own pink''.
(2) From the pigment/colour concentrates
file he picks up a white base.
(3) Then he select rubine red, two or three
other reds, a violet, a yellow, and possibly
a black.
(4) All these colorants/colour concentrates/
pigments (all three terms are used
synonymously) can be evaluated, while
their selections are being made, for their
various undertones in various white
reductions or white mixes, as true colour
on screen. This computer simulation of
 Perfecting the Color Maker infinite shade card technique
Milind Taskar and Mukund Gadre
studying the various undertones of the
colorant in varying amounts of white
reductions is one particular, unique
application.
(5) After selection he decides on a certain
volume, or weight, of the final shade and
then mixes the colours to produce the
chosen shade on screen as a true colour.
Next, he takes a certain amount of white
base and then continues clicking the
spinner wheels assigned for the colorants
selected.
(6) At any point, when he feels that he has
achieved his dream colour, he freezes it,
saves it for the standards library for future
reference, giving it a name. He can then
evaluate it in the lighting conditions of his
choice and in controllable light
intensities.
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(7) This colour can be printed on paper as a
flat swatch of colour or as a print out.
(8) This is the concept of Color Maker.
As with its elder brother paint formulation
techniques, Color Maker requires batch
correction. This is for such reasons as
variation in pigments, resins, pigment
interactions, etc., and has nothing to do with
the perfection of the colour reproduction on
screen.
Tablet coating system
The above Color Maker and Infinite Shade
card concept is in fact only a part of Chroma
++ Color Matching System designed for a
wide range of applications, including paints,
printing inks, plastics, textiles, ceramics,
paper, etc. The authors of this paper have
worldwide experience of development of such
systems for formulation, correction, etc. The
system is specifically designed for each
application. For example, printing inks have
transparent inks and opaque inks. Paints
include water-based and solvent-based, etc.
For each application there is Expert Fuzzy
Logic computer technology that assimilates
the information on approved batches, batch
corrections, etc. It is also able to refine the
day-to-day formulations/recipes so as to
obtain a first time match, or at least first time
right 90 per cent of the time. In other words,
as the system matures it becomes an expert
colorist with the knowledge of the computer
97
Pigment & Resin Technology
Volume 30 . Number 2 . 2001 . 95±98
storage, the acumen of the fuzzy logic, and an
electronic eye that is the spectrophotometer.
From this we now have the perfected
technique of Color Maker, thanks to the
facility provided by IBM/PC architecture
which allows the BIOS on the ADDON cards
external S/W techniques to access the BIOS
function as and when required.
Color Maker was successfully tested on a
pharmaceutical tablet coating system. This
may not be to the liking of the purist as it
involves lake colours, which are akin to soluble
dyes such as Erythrosin, Carmocin, Poceau
4R, Indigocarmine, Tartrazine, Sunset
Yellow, Brilliant Blue, and Amaranth Red.
As an example, take quinoline yellow and
add pigments such as black iron oxide, red
iron oxide, titanium dioxide. To this add
natural colours like turmeric extract, etc.
Thus, it is not a conventional colour matching
system that would apply here for matching
and correction.
Pharmaceutical tablet and capsule
manufacturers will see that they have available
a specialized colour matching system for their
coatings. The database preparations involved
will be as follows:
(1) Black reductions of all colours with black
iron oxide.
(2) White reductions of all the colours.
(3) On a fixed white loading the
concentration levels of all the colours can
be gradually built up.
(4) Opacity data of all the colour, that is
concentration versus opacity.
Any pharmaceutical company interested can
contact us for more details, or for a system
that is specifically made for their requirements
and fully tested.
The initial steps showed complete success
in regard to formulation correction, etc., and
it was felt that as the system matures the self-
learning techniques will enable first-time
formula match 90 per cent of the time. The
second step of applying Color Maker to
pharmaceutical tablet coatings produced
some hiccups, as expected. Some shades on
screen would look different and, in reality,
when made would show considerable tonal
difference. These problems were overcome
due to some very powerful mathematical
modelling by the developers, M.G. Gadre,
with 18 years of practical experience of
development of colour systems and
 Perfecting the Color Maker infinite shade card technique
Milind Taskar and Mukund Gadre
implementing them to the shop floor, and the
Milind Taskar's knowledge of colour theory.
With Color Maker becoming a complete
success for the coating of pharmaceutical
tablets, the following advantages have been
found.
. An infinite shade card can be made
available on the inventory of the colorants
used for tablet coatings.
. No additional data are required other
than those made to match the shades.
. Shades created can be freely sent on CDs
or floppy discs to the user.
. Shades created can be printed on paper.
. Shades created can be evaluated as
applied on a tablet in various lighting
conditions of the users' choice.
. Shades created can be printed as three-
dimensional object shade cards. That is,
the shade card can be viewed or printed
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as a colour depiction on a tablet with a
three-dimensional view (note: the
conventional shade card, which is limited
in its number of colours, cannot compete
in areas such as 5 and 6).
. Colors are electronically stored, so there
is no problem of fading as such.
It is important to note that the conventional
shade card made from colours such as
Indigocarmine or Erythrosin will last for only
one to two months, as the colours are not fast.
Greys made out of Erythrosin, Brilliant Blue
and Tartrazine on the shade card are most
prone to becoming green, as the Erythrosin
red fades away.
For industries such as pharmaceutical
manufacturers the technique will be of
enormous help, as the shade card generated is
not only viewable on tablets as a three-
dimensional object, but also printable on the
tablets as a three-dimensional rendered true
colour and it is of a permanent nature.
The shade card thus generated can be freely
circulated on CDs, possibly called e-shade
cards. There would be an extra cost on the
labour of manufacturing.
Two years to develop
It can be seen that this application of the
Color Maker will be of great assistance, in
that it enables the user to view shades on
screen, freely distribute them on CDs, and
98
Pigment & Resin Technology
Volume 30 . Number 2 . 2001 . 95±98
enables them to print shade cards on a daily
basis.
Having been successfully applied to
pharmaceutical tablets and capsules, this
technique opens up new vistas. Each
application, whether it be paints, printing inks
or plastics, will be a future paper in itself. It
took two years to accomplish success from the
concept stage to developing the final working
function that can now be implemented in the
industry.
Areas like the mixing of fibres, suitings, or
dyeing of blended fabric will be most
challenging and formidable, as the textile
experts will confirm that in suitings and
blended fabrics cross-staining has to be
considered. In the case of fibre mixtures the
formulation and correction technique itself is
quite complicated.
Having been very encouraged by the results
obtained for pharmaceutical tablet coatings,
the Color Maker technique will be employed
for fibre mixtures and textile suitings, etc., no
doubt with the same initial hiccups to be
overcome. This will be reported in future
papers, as will the more long-term
implications on the industry, to be published
as a separate paper called ``Electronic shade
card''.
In conclusion the authors have two requests
to make.
(1) To emphasize that Color Maker is now a
performing function tested for industry,
we have made some repetitions in order
to drive the point home. It will change the
face of the colour-using industries in the
years to come, just like everything else
electronic.
(2) As with any other new technique, this
technique will become more and more
honed, refined and perfected as the
developers hear from the end user.
Readers are requested to access
www.colorgenie.com for more information.
A CD evaluation can be sent, by return, on
request.
Reference
Taskar, M. and Kannan, R. (1998), ``Color Maker ± an
infinite shade card and the colour trend setter of
shades in the industry'', Pigment & Resin
Technology, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 9-11.