CxF brings dynamic color communication to fashion industry
30 May '08
3 min read
X-Rite Incorporated, a global leader in color technology, unveiled the next generation of the Color Exchange Format (CxF), a file format designed to accurately and unambiguously communicate all commercially relevant aspects of color across devices, applications and geographies.
The new CxF is applicable to any industry where faithful communication of color and total appearance data is mission critical, including design, print production, architecture, manufacturing, fashion, and film and video.
“Methods for specifying and communicating color are often media-specific and the interpretation of color data across media can be ambiguous. This makes color consistency difficult to achieve in cross-media color reproduction,” explains Dr. Niraj Agarwal, X-Rite's vice president of new solutions. “CxF provides an XML-based color specification mechanism that is comprehensive, flexible and usable as an industry-agnostic horizontal resource.”
CxF acts as a universal container for transporting complete color information from concept to final production. It faithfully carries the entire set of total appearance color reference data supplied by the content creator throughout the production and supply chain, maintaining the integrity of the original design and allowing global communication with unmatched accuracy.
CxF can include spectral color values, named colors such as PANTONE, color spaces and appearance effects (specific lighting conditions, type ofsubstrate, type of ink, density, opacity, transparency of the color, gloss, texture, position and shape of color patches), as well as commercial aspects, mathematical, optical conditions, etc. CxF enhances existing standards, like PANTONE, by bringing a new set of dimensions to the colors that can be transmitted across workflows in any global production supply chain.