Method for creating, retrieving and modifying special color ink database
Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of printing production, in particular to a method for creating, retrieving and modifying a special color ink database.
Background
In the field of printing, particularly in the field of packaging printing, in order to obtain a high-quality printing effect, printing is often performed using spot color inks in addition to conventional four color inks such as cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
The spot color ink is specially modulated by a printer according to the requirements of customers, so that the problem that the ink is modulated for many times in one-time printing due to insufficient ink modulation amount is avoided, not only is time wasted, but also the color consistency is influenced, the ink modulation amount is often more than the actual required amount, and the ink becomes residual ink after the printing is finished. Due to the particularity of colors, the spot color ink is difficult to be used for printing other products unless the same product is printed again, and after long-time accumulation, printing enterprises usually stock a large amount of residual spot color ink. The residual ink can not be applied in time, which not only causes the waste of raw materials and occupies a large amount of storage space, but also becomes solid waste which is difficult to be processed by printing enterprises.
In order to rapidly blend inks with the same color when the same product is printed again, ink blending personnel of enterprises with more standard management can record formulas of spot color inks and store color samples after the spot color inks are blended, but the formulas can not be generally used for guiding the blending of other spot color inks unless the same product is printed again.
The existing special color ink management method of printing enterprises generally records a formula according to product and special color name information, stores an ink color sample, stores residual special color ink, searches the residual ink and the formula of the special color according to the name when the same product is printed again, can utilize the residual ink, can quickly finish ink mixing according to the recorded formula, improves the efficiency and reduces the cost. However, for other products of different names, even though spot color inks of very similar colors may exist, their formulations and remaining inks are difficult to utilize because the specific color difference values are not known.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the defects of the prior art, the invention provides a method for creating, searching and modifying a special color ink database, which can search the existing special color ink information according to the name, and can search the existing special color ink information according to the color difference, the Pantone color number and the screen color display effect, so that the existing special color ink formula can be used for guiding the special color allocation of other similar colors, and the existing special color residual ink can be applied to printing production after being slightly adjusted.
The technical scheme of the invention is as follows:
creating a table containing spot color informationAnd a database of a Pantone color information table, the spot color information table containing a serial number, a name of the spot color, a name of a product to which the spot color belongs, a name of a company to which the product belongs, and a spot color L*a*b*Value, color display effect, formula, remaining ink amount, ink storage position, ink setting time, and the like, and the Pantone color information table includes serial number, Pantone color number, and L*a*b*The database retrieval method comprises two types of retrieval according to name and color, wherein the retrieval according to name comprises 3 retrieval items including spot color names capable of being checked, product names of spot colors, company names of products and the like, the retrieval result is that all spot color ink information with the same name in the database is listed, and the retrieval according to color comprises the spot color number, L and the like which can only be selected singly*a*b*The method comprises the following steps that 3 search items such as values and color display effects are obtained, search results are listed as n types of spot color ink information with the minimum color difference with a required spot color in a database, and the database modification method is that after the properties of the spot color ink listed in the search results are modified, corresponding property information in the database is automatically updated;
furthermore, the method for inputting the existing spot color information into the spot color information table is to record the name of the spot color, the name of the product to which the spot color belongs, the name of the company to which the product belongs and the spot color L of the existing various spot colors*a*b*Adding attribute information such as value, formula, residual ink amount, ink storage position, ink mixing time and the like into a spot color information table; the color display effect of the spot color is that the program is based on the input L*a*b*And calculating RGB values according to the values and the current ICC profile of the display, and automatically displaying according to the RGB values. By means of L*a*b*The value and display characteristic file calculates RGB value by adopting mature technology;
furthermore, according to the name retrieval method, one or more characters are input in an input box provided by retrieval items such as spot color names, product names, company names and the like, a program retrieves corresponding attribute items of each spot color ink in a spot color information table, lists the spot color ink information of which the attribute items such as the spot color names, the product names, the company names and the like simultaneously contain the characters of the retrieval items;
furthermore, the search method for using the single selected Pantone color number as the search item is to input the Pantone color number of the required spot color in the input box provided by the search item, search the Pantone color information table to find the L corresponding to the color number*a*b*Value, then calculate the L of the Pantone color*a*b*Sorting the color difference between the value and each spot color in the spot color information table from small to large according to the color difference value, listing the ink information and the color difference value of the first n spot colors, and mixing the required Pantone and the L of the searched first n spot colors*a*b*The values are converted into RGB values and displayed on a screen in parallel for visual evaluation. Wherein n is a self-defined natural number;
further, singled L*a*b*The retrieval method with value as retrieval item is respectively providing L in the retrieval item*Value input box, a*Value input box and b*Inputting data in the value input box, calculating L of input*a*b*Sorting the color difference between the value and each spot color in the spot color information table according to the color difference value from small to large, listing the first n kinds of spot color ink information and color difference values, and calculating the input L*a*b*The color difference between the value and each Pantone color in the Pantone color information table is listed, and the number and L of Pantone color with the minimum color difference are listed*a*b*Value, color difference value and formula, L to be input*a*b*Value, retrieved L of the first n spot color inks*a*b*Pantone color L with minimum value and color difference*a*b*Converting the value into an RGB value, and displaying the RGB value on a screen in parallel for visual evaluation;
furthermore, the retrieval method of the single-selected color display effect as the retrieval item is to set the color on the color setting control provided by the retrieval item according to the screen display effect, read the RGB value of the set control and the ICC profile of the current display by the program and calculate L*a*b*The same method is adopted to list the first n special color oils with the minimum color differenceInk information, color difference value, number of Pantone color with minimum color difference, L*a*b*Values, color difference values and formulas, and displays the set spot color and the retrieved top n spot colors, the Pantone color with the smallest color difference, on the screen. Calculating L using RGB values and a display profile*a*b*Values are obtained using well established techniques.
The invention has the beneficial effects that: according to the invention, the special color ink database is established for managing the special color ink, so that the special color ink information can be conveniently retrieved according to the name, and the special color ink information can also be conveniently retrieved according to the Pantone color number and the L*a*b*The closest spot color in the database is searched for the value or screen color display effect, so that the spot color formula with similar color can be used for guiding the allocation of new spot color, the spot color with similar color is allocated with new spot color after the residual ink is slightly corrected, the spot color allocation efficiency is improved, the residual ink is changed into valuable, the cost is reduced, and the pollution is reduced.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a table of spot color information for a database of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a search term of the present invention retrieved by name;
FIG. 3 is a search term of the present invention searched according to color;
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a Pantone color number retrieval method of the present invention;
FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the present invention*a*b*A flow chart of a method for retrieving values.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.
A packaging and printing enterprise with certain scale and history of furniture often accumulates a large amount of formulas of spot color ink and residual ink. In order to realize digital and efficient management of special color ink, the invention creates a database, constructs a special color information table and a Pantone color information table in the database, wherein the special color information table comprises a serial number, a special color name, a product name of a special color, a company name of the product and a special color L*a*b*Value, color display effect, formula, residueInk volume, ink storage location, timing, etc., as shown in FIG. 1; the Pantone color information table contains serial numbers, Pantone color numbers, and L*a*b*Values and recipes, etc.
In order to correctly observe the color visual effect of a spot color on a display, a profile is first created and saved for the current display. Aiming at various spot colors of the formula and the residual ink reserved by the company, the name of the spot color, the name of the product to which the spot color belongs, the name of the company to which the product belongs and the spot color L are set*a*b*Adding attribute information such as value, formula, residual ink amount, ink storage position, ink mixing time and the like into a spot color information table; writing program according to special color L added into information table*a*b*And calculating RGB values according to the value and the current ICC profile of the display, and automatically displaying a spot color effect according to the RGB values. By means of L*a*b*Value and display Profile calculation RGB values employ well established techniques such as the makecform function and the applycform function provided by the image processing toolkit of MATLAB software available from MathWorks corporation.
Pantone color number and corresponding L*a*b*Values, formulas may be downloaded from published sources and added to the Pantone color information sheet.
The database of the invention can be searched according to two modes such as name or color, and only one mode can be selected for one time of search.
The search according to the name includes 3 search items such as a spot color name, a product name to which the spot color belongs, and a company name to which the product belongs, and the 3 search items belong to a check relationship, as shown in fig. 2. One or more characters input in an input box provided by the search item, a program searches corresponding attribute items of each spot color ink in the spot color information table, lists attribute items such as a spot color name, a product name, a company name and the like and contains spot color ink information of the search item characters, and the spot color ink can be prepared by utilizing the searched spot color ink which meets the requirements and the residual ink and the toner.
In the printing industry, customers put forward a new spot color printing requirement, generally as a Pantone color number, a real color sample orL*a*b*The value is the color communication basis, wherein the physical color sample can be measured by an instrument to obtain L*a*b*When the designer determines a spot color, the value is usually selected according to the display effect of the screen color. Therefore, the invention adopts the Pantone color number and L according to the actual production requirement*a*b*The value, the color display effect and the like are retrieval methods of the retrieval items, and 3 retrieval items belong to a single selection relation, as shown in fig. 3.
The search method for the single selected Pantone color number as the search item is to input the Pantone color number of the required special color in the input box provided by the search item, search the Pantone color information table to find the L corresponding to the color number*a*b*Value, then calculate the L of the Pantone color*a*b*The calculation method of the color difference between the value and each spot color in the spot color information table is shown as formula 1:
wherein L is0、a0、b0L of the currently desired spot color*a*b*Value, Li、ai、biL of a spot color in a spot color information table*a*b*Value, Δ EiIs the color difference between the two. Sorting according to the color difference values from small to large, wherein the sorting method adopts a mature technology, such as a bubble sorting algorithm, to list the information and the color difference values of the first n spot colors with small color difference, wherein n is a natural number defined by a user, and if n is set to be 5. And according to the required Pantone color and the searched L of the first n special colors*a*b*The RGB values are calculated from the values and display profile and then displayed in parallel on the screen for visual evaluation according to the RGB values, the process is shown in FIG. 4.
Singly selected L*a*b*The retrieval method with value as retrieval item is respectively providing L in the retrieval item*Value input box, a*Value input box and b*Inputting data in the value input box, calculating L of input*a*b*And sorting the color difference between the value and each spot color in the spot color information table according to the color difference value from small to large, and listing the information of the first n kinds of spot color printing ink and the color difference value. When the client uses L*a*b*When the value or the real color sample is the color communication basis, the ink mixing personnel hope not only to refer to the prior similar color formula but also to refer to the similar Pantone color formula, so the invention recalculates the input L*a*b*The color difference between the value and each Pantone color in the Pantone color information table is listed, and the number and L of Pantone color with the minimum color difference are listed*a*b*Value, color difference value and formula, L to be input*a*b*Value, retrieved L of the first n spot color inks*a*b*Pantone color L with minimum value and color difference*a*b*The values are converted into RGB values and displayed on a screen in parallel for visual evaluation, and the flow is shown in FIG. 5;
the retrieval method with single-selected color display effect as retrieval item is characterized by that the user can set color on the color setting control provided by said retrieval item according to screen display effect, and the program can read RGB value of control color and ICC characteristic file of current display to calculate L*a*b*The same method is adopted to list the information and the color difference value of the first n special color inks with the minimum color difference and the number and the L of the Pantone color with the minimum color difference*a*b*Values, color difference values and formulas, and the desired spot color and the retrieved spot color, Pantone color, are displayed on the screen. Calculating L using RGB values and a display profile*a*b*Values are given using well established techniques such as the makecform function and the applycform function provided by the image processing toolkit of MATLAB software available from MathWorks corporation.
When the same product is searched for printing production again according to the name, the searched residual ink can be preferentially utilized; according to the color search database, if spot colors with similar colors are searched, the residual ink of the spot colors can be utilized, and the residual ink amount of the corresponding spot colors in the database needs to be modified.
The invention aims at the accumulated special color ink formula and residual ink, establishes a special color ink database, finds out similar special color ink from the special color ink database as a probable event according to a new special color printing production requirement, and references the found similar special color formula to greatly improve the special color blending efficiency.
While the preferred embodiments and principles of this invention have been described in detail, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variations may be made in the embodiments based on the teachings of the invention and such variations are considered to be within the scope of the invention.