Spectral reproduction from scene to hardcopy: I. Input and output

Abstract

Efforts to construct end-to-end color reproduction systems based on the preservation of scene spectral data have been underway at the Munsell Color Science Laboratory (MCSL). The goal is to present hardcopy results which are spectrally matched to original colors. The evaluated approach consists of capturing scenes through a trichromatic digital camera combined with multiple filterings followed by an image processing stage and then four-color printing. The acquisition end is designed to estimate original scene spectra on a pixel-by-pixel basis based on system characterizations which takes into account the camera sensitivities as modulated by the filterings and scene colorant make-up. The spectral-based printing used in this research is able to produce the least metameric reproduction to the original scene using a computationally feasible approach. Results show a system accuracy of mean ΔE*94 of 1.5 and spectral reflectance rms error of 0.9%.