In today's commerce, instrument makers and instrument users must deal with a large array of bench-top and portable color-measuring instruments, many with different geometric and spectral characteristics. At the same time, manufacturers of colored goods are adopting quality management systems that require periodic verification of the performance of the instruments that are critical to the quality of the final product. The technology involved in optics and electro-optics has progressed greatly over the last decade. The result has been a generation of instruments that are both more affordable and higher in performance. What had been a tool for the research laboratory is now available to the retail point of sale, to manufacturing, to design and to corporate communications. New documentary standards have been published that encourage the use of colorimeters, spectrocolorimeters, and colorimetric spetrometers in applications previously dominated by visual expertise or by filter densitometers. Therefore, it is necessary to determine if an instrument is suitable to the application and to verify that an instrument or instruments are working within the required operating parameters.

This practice provides descriptions of some common instrumental parameters that relate to the way an instrument will contribute to the quality and consistency of the production of colored goods. It also describes some of the material standards required to assess the performance of a color-measuring instrument and suggests some tests and test reports to aid in verifying the performance of the instrument relative to its intended application.