Color Viewing Lighting

Color management starts with standard lighting

Why is color management important?

Good color management

Poor color management

You may have heard stories about products appearing darker or brighter than you imagined due to inconsistent light source conditions. If it happens to your artwork, the impact of the wrong color can vary from barely noticeable to disastrous.

So how do you get the visual results in the finished product evaluation to meet the original customer specifications, such as brand colors, manufacturing tolerances, and meet the appearance expectations in the end-user environment. These require color management workflow to control, and we need to allow designers, brand owners, and production staff to be able to evaluate a color under a consistent lighting condition.

To achieve this goal, various industries have developed standards for color viewing. The graphic arts and photography industries have adopted ISO 3664:2009, which specifies D50 viewing conditions and requires viewing conditions to meet strict specifications for color quality, light intensity, illumination uniformity, viewing/illumination geometry and ambient conditions.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) specifies ISO3668:2017 D65 observation conditions for varnishes and coatings to aid color product design, testing and color quality evaluation.

What are the major lighting conditions for color viewing?

ISO3664:2009 D50 color viewing conditions for graphic arts and photography

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) specified standard illuminant for the graphic arts in five aspects to help lighting manufacturers design, test and certify color viewing systems and ensure accurate color reproduction.

1.Color Quality

Chromaticity：CIE1976 (0.2102，0.4889)，ΔE ≤ 0.005

CCT： CIE Daylight 5000K

Color Rendering Index：Ra ≥ 90

Metamerism Indices：MIvis (visible) ≤ 1.0，MIuv (UV) ≤ 1.5

2. Intensity

ISO3664:2009 has recommended light intensity on color viewing surface preferably between 1750 lux and 2250 lux, but definitely between 1500 lux and 2500 lux

3. Evenness of Illumination

At least 60% of nominal on viewing surface

4. Surroundings

Neutral matte surround in Munsell N7 grey with luminous reflectance of 10–60%

5. Geometry

The light source, image, and observers’ eyes must be positioned such that specular reflectance (glare) is minimized

ISO3668:2017 D65 Color viewing conditions for paints and varnish

Similar to D50, D65 refers to a standard illuminant of 6500 K, defined by ISO 3668 as "Visual comparison of the color of paints and vanish". The standard describes all the parameters required to ensure color viewing and matching, such as viewing and ambient conditions. It is mainly applied in manufacturing industries that have sample or product color evaluation process involved.

What are YUJILED’s standard light sources for color viewing?

YUJILEDS has developed its own series of standard lamps for such applications, such as LED color viewing cabinet, standard light source LED tube, and harmony room. Besides, YUJILEDS also offer D50 A60 LED bulb and standard light source desk lamps for art creation.

Based on its expertise in LED recipe and custom design, YUJILEDS standard light products are able to create and provide the most accurate and consistent lighting conditions for color viewing and assessment that meet different industry standards. No matter it is for new material development, color matching, product evaluation and inspection, or quality control, YUJILEDS standard light series can perfectly serve your purposes.

Development History of YUJILEDS Standard Lighting

2014 

YUJILEDS introduces full spectrum, high color rendering LED light source solution based on daylight simulator technology

2017

YUJILEDS introduces D65 LED T8 color-matching tubes compliant with ISO3668:2017 standard

2018

YUJILEDS introduces D50 LED T8 color-matching tubes compliant with ISO3664:2009 standard

2019

YUJILEDS starts supplying D50 LED color-matching luminaires to replace fluorescent tubes for Top 3 printing group in the USA

YUJILEDS participates in Color 19 Conference hosted by Printing United Alliance of USA

YUJILEDS participates in the development of the JSPST standard for next-generation color-viewing D50 light sources for printing industry

Presented the D50 LED color-matching light source solution theme report at the autumn meeting of the Japan Society of Printing Science and Technology

2020

YUJI launches LED panel standard light source for color matching Fogra 2020 exhibitor

2021

YUJILEDS assists BabelColor in developing a LED standard light source color-matching solution