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SDC and National Physical Laboratory define standard format for data

A new standard for communication between colour computers has been developed by the Colour Measurement Committee of the Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC) working in partnership with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

Currently there are many different suppliers of colour measurement instruments and software systems developed for colour measurement. These include quality control and recipe prediction systems, in addition to on-screen colour systems. The colorimetric information created by one system is generally not readily assimilated by another because it is in a format known only to the system manufacturer. Added to this, new and existing systems are continually being developed and enhanced, and new data formats introduced. To overcome this problem of communication and compatibility, the Society and NPL have introduced a new data standard.

XML is a meta-mark-up language developed for use with the Internet (WC3 endorsed standard) to allow the exchange of data between dissimilar systems. XML provides data about the data (meta data) as well as the data itself, thereby allowing dissimilar systems to understand the contents of a standard XML document. It provides a standard format for data in a document form. Via Working Group 12, the Society and NPL have defined a logical structure to cover all types of colorimetric data and have translated this into the associated XML document formats as a proposed data standard. It means that computers and spectrophotometers can now communicate data effectively, irrespective of manufacturer or system.