Color matching goes online.

A new subscription-based service for formulating custom colors on the Internet was launched last month. It is aimed at smaller companies that don't have their own color-matching system and color database. Matchmycolor.com is a new service from SpecialChem, the French additives information website, www.specialchem.com. SpecialChem's partners in its new service include pigment suppliers Ciba Specialty Chemicals and DuPont Titanium Technologies, color-measurement specialist X-Rite, and French color-trends consultant Nelli Rodi TrendLab.

Available at www.matchmycolor.com, the new service is initially aimed at PVC, PP, HDPE, and ABS, with other resins to come later this year. You can select colors from a compendium of industry color catalogs or you can match an existing color. Upload colorimetric data from a spectrophotometer or input the data by hand. You can select a colorant set according to the application requirements (such as heat and weather resistance, food contact, etc.), along with the base polymer, and black and white pigments. For translucent colors, specify the layer thickness and black or white background. You can also input your own ingredient costs. The target color will then appear on-screen.

Then click "Calculate" and a color formula is computed using Ciba's proprietary Colibri color-matching software and a library of colorants from Ciba, DuPont, and others. You get an on-screen report of the the 10 best matches, including recipe details, colorimetric data and curves, a visual representation of the color, formulation cost, specs on closeness to the original match, and metamerism under different illuminants. The color can be refined or corrected, and final results can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet. Finally, you can order sample color chips online.