A digital imaging system for color accurate reproduction of various materials

Abstract

This research deals with a problem of color accurate reproduction using digital imaging system. This problem is usually solved by excessive color editing of captured images in various software applications, which have serious impact on workflow efficiency, and do not necessarily guarantee a good result. Because the digital camera is the input device, in the input-output reproduction system, its ability to accurately interpret the scene being photographed, has the great impact on quality of the final reproduction. In the process of quality color reproduction, whether it‘s about color reproduction of textile garment or art painting, the camera characterization plays the main role. Digital camera has to be precisely characterized using appropriate color reference target. In this research the new custom color target is developed, used and tested. The main criteria for construction of a target was defined, as the optimal studio conditions for digital image capture and all procedures for making of input (and output) device profiles. By analyzing the results gained with profiles testing, it was established that the errors in color reproduction which appear when using the standard targets was decreased when using the developed custom target for digital camera characterization. The method of color accurate digital camera characterization proposed in this paper has wide possibility of application, from solving the problems of color accurate reproduction of art paintings, to quality reproduction of highly textured textile products; like knitwear, lace, yarns, carpets and textile with print.