Houston, we have a color issue!
Hector Santos-Villalobos, Victor Loewen, Jan P. Allebach · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2009
Today's color imaging systems are powerful and complex entities that enable users to replicate lifelike colors. However when a color issue arises, it is very difficult to diagnose and solve. Therefore, it is beneficial to complement a color imaging system with sophisticated and user-friendly tools that help users to self-solve color issues. This paper discusses the assessment of a color printing workflow (CPW) for personal computers and the development of a web-based self-service customer support tool for color printing issues that may arise with electrophotographic color printers. We study the stages in the CPW where the colors of a document may change. From this evaluation, we find the system configuration that may have caused the change. This study provides the foundation for the development of our web-based tool, named the Color Printing Workflow Troubleshooting (CPWT) Tool. This comprehensive assessment of the CPW helps us to determine a troubleshooting strategy for our web-based tool. The set of color issues considered are those that arise when one attempts to reproduce a Pantone spot color.