Datacolor Tools QC v.2.x Search
Datacolor Tools QC has a colorimetric search capability which allows the user to find, within the Tools database, sample measurements that are close in color attributes to those of a target color.
The user can define default search parameters by clicking on the System tab above the Ribbon bar and then, in the Defaults section of the System Ribbon bar, click on the Search Defaults button.
Here, the user selects the Color Difference formula to be used in the search, and selects the types of measurements to be considered in the search: all standards and all batches, or,all batches only, or,all standards only. The option to search the CSI Color Wall database is an option only if that database add-in was installed.
To best focus the search, the user selects what he wants in the color relationship between the samples searched and the target color. The options are to have the samples chosenbased on thetotal color difference, or DE, close to that of the target, or requiring them to have a DL (or lightness)difference greater than that of the target, to requiring them to have a DC (or chroma) difference, greater than that of the target, or to be close to the targetin both hue, measured as DH, and in chroma, measured as DC. The setting for Maximum Distance is set below here and is tied to the color attribute selected for the search.
When the total of sample measurements found to be within the search parameters exceeds thevalue in the number of samples section, the number of results displayed will not exceed that number.
The Options section allows the user to set up which folders within the Tools database are to be searched, as another way to best focus the search to relevant data.
User defined fields are those which have been added by a Tools user to the fields which are standard to the software. For example, here the user defined standard field DCC_STD_SUPPLIER_NAME is selected. It isthen set to look for measurements where the supplier was Acme Rayon Fabrics. The results of the colorimetric search then will be further limited to include only those stored measurements whose Standard supplier name is Acme Rayon Fabrics.
To run a search in Tools, a target color is measured or selected to the desktop. The standard Tools loading configuration will place a Search button on the Home Ribbon bar. If yours has been removed, it can be replaced there using the Home Bar options, accessed by clicking on the Tools button.
When you click on the Search button, the Search setup is displayed with its default settings. At this point, if, for this particular search, you want to change any of the default Search parameters, it can be done here.
When you are ready then, you click on the Execute Search button.
In this example, the results are 10 samples displayed whose measurements are within the DE limit of 2. We can select one, some, or all of them move them to the Tools desktop for further evaluation.