Ben Goren wrote:
Another option to suggest to the client is that they might to want to just make sample books with the actual materials themselves. It'd be the only unambiguous option, and may well lie within the budget -- especially if the requirements are particularly stringent or critical.
This is a really good suggestion. What you could concentrate on then, would be a scientific means of quality assuring the samples. Quite apart from the difficulties of measuring metallic samples in a scientific way (although there are multi-angle instruments that will attempt this), accurately reproducing such a color so that it matches under an arbitrary illuminant involves its spectral and geometric behavior (BRDF). No ordinary printing process will manage this, and the whole project is rather bleeding edge from a normal color reproduction point of view. Graeme Gill.