New Videometer Application Paper: Measuring Color As It Really Is

Color is not a fixed property of a material. It is the outcome of a light source, a surface, and an observer meeting at a single moment, which is why two samples can measure as identical under one light and visibly diverge under another. This effect, known as metamerism, is a well-documented source of color complaints across manufacturing, retail, and quality control, and it is the starting point of a new Videometer paper: Measuring Color As It Really Is.

What a single color reading can tell you, and what it can’t

Standard colorimeters describe a sample with three numbers, captured at a single point. That works well for a flat, uniform panel. It works far less well for a seed, a piece of fabric, a slice of meat, or a powder, samples where the color varies from spot to spot, and where a single average reading can hide exactly the variation a customer will notice.

What the paper covers

In a few short pages, the paper walks through:

• Why a color reading only makes sense once you know the light it was measured under
• Why two materials can match under one light and clash under another
• What measuring a sample’s whole surface reveals that a single point cannot
• How measuring every pixel of a sample, instead of averaging one spot, changes what a color measurement can tell you

It’s a concise, practical read for anyone setting color tolerances, investigating a shade complaint, or looking to understand why lab results don’t always hold up under real-world lighting.

This matters most for materials that are not one flat, even color to begin with. Seeds, granulated products, fabrics, printed surfaces, meat, and powders all vary from spot to spot, so where and how a measurement is taken can change the result almost as much as the light does. The paper works through both issues together: what the light is doing to the reading, and what the sample’s own variation is hiding from it.

Where the VideometerLite+ fits in

A particularly useful instrument for this kind of work is the VideometerLite+. It lights each sample with 15 LEDs spanning 405 to 960 nm, reaching into the near-infrared beyond what the eye can see, and calculates a full CIELab value at every point across a 100 by 100 mm sample area. A measurement takes about 5 seconds, following a 3-minute guided calibration with the supplied targets.

That per-pixel approach turns a single average color into a genuine picture of the sample: an overall color value, a measure of how much that color varies from point to point, and the ability to flag outliers or uneven regions instead of averaging them away. At 2.2 kg and supplied in its own flight case, the instrument is light enough to move between a lab bench, a production line, and a field site, which makes it a practical fit for anyone who currently measures color in more than one location.

For higher-throughput lab work, or when finer resolution and a wider set of measurement modes are needed, the VideometerLab builds on the same underlying measurement principle with a more powerful configuration: 19 LEDs spanning 365 to 970 nm, a resolution of 30 µm per pixel, and options such as fluorescence, darkfield imaging, and an Autofeeder add-on for automated sample handling.

If you’re weighing up whether the VideometerLite+ fits your processes, get in touch and we’ll help you find out.

Get the full picture

Download the paper for the full explanation, with worked examples of color measurements from dyed fabric, food powder, and meat samples.