Colour is one of the most fundamental aspects of textile design which contributes greatly to the overall visual effect of a finished fabric. Colour matching is a vital process in ensuring continuity of colour from the master standard to all subsequent production batches.

The three components of colour matching
There are three components involved in colour matching which are illustrated below. If any component changes, the actual perception of colour will also change.

Colour matching requires the use of a standard light box which has several illuminants:-

D65 - daylight
A - tungstun
CWF - Cool White Fluorescent

Everybody's perception of colour is slightly different. Light boxes are therefore employed so that whenever samples are viewed the conditions are exactly the same.

Colour Space
Every colour has a colour space which can be pinpointed by coordinates given by a computer. Colour can also be checked by eye and given a colour space, but again this is open to subjectivity.

The three fundamental aspects of colour are lightness, chroma and hue.

Lightness is shown on the "L" axis. It indicates the depth of a colour, ranging from white to black with grey in between. One way of picturing depth of colour would be to imagine a black and white photograph where every colour is shown as a different depth of black, white or grey. The lightness of the fabric sample would be represented by a number on the "L" axis.

Chroma is shown as the distance away from the "L" axis.

If the colour is described as being at the very outside edge of chroma it will appear to the observer to be very clean and bright. As it moves towards the grey central "L" axis it will become greyer, flatter and more dirty.

Hue is the variation in colour. For example, a blue may be very red - moving towards purple lilac - and would appear in the blue colour space at the red side. Different shades of blue would all appear in the blue colour space but in different areas.

Lightness, chroma and hue are checked on all yarns and piece dyed fabrics to ensure colour continuity standards are maintained to the highest levels. They can be represented as a three dimensional figure.