Paint Cue

Welcome to paintcue.com

This site is under construction and will be a companion site to accuracy.com and colorcue.com.

It is specifically intended to support versions of APII and the Pantone(r) ColorCue TM configured to support paint systems.

Any AccuPic II instance can be reloaded via usb with a user overlay to support additional color systems and color applications.

Although this had been true for APII versions other than the Pantone, Inc ColorCue, it will be now possible to purchase and use Pantone (r) ColorCue's with additional overlays.

High performance AccuPic technology requires the preparation of a high quality master reflectance file for each color system. These files must be prepared from measurements made on a master instrument which conforms to the master instrument set maintained by accuracy,

Once a masterfile for a color system is prepared, our tools allow any accupic technology instrument (50k produced since 1993) to be updated with this system.

For accupic2 instances this is a usb operation for which the data may be electronically distributed and applied by any pc (with usb support).

This implies

• If you own a Pantone (R) ColorCue (TM) 2 it may be changed to support other color systems. ( We are developing overlays for the 2.1 model, with red grips, at this time )
• If you purchase any apii instance you may change or update the color system in the future.

The resulting overlays automatically generate on board neighbor hoods, close colors, lab, lch, xyz, and sRBG coordinates from master file data.

When we have adjusted formula data for a specific formulation system (paint, dye , ink), advanced overlays can report custom formulas, and with a winapp at the mixing site or webapp we can provide remote formulations.

We currently have QA'ed master files available for

• Pantone, Inc. Formula Guide, Coated Matte and Uncoated
• Pantone, Inc. Goe Guide, Coated and  Uncoated
• Pantone Inc. Textile Guide, Paper and Cotton
• Sherwin Williams
• Benjamin Moore
• Behr
• ICI
• Wal*Mart Color Place
• Pratt&Lambert
• SICO
• PPG
• Valspar

In addition to the configurations distributed by Pantone, Inc have an initial release set of overlay configurations defined as follows

• Wal*Mart Color Place + Pantone Inc. Textile Guide, Paper
• ICI + Behr + Pantone Inc. Textile Guide, Paper
• Valspar + CI + Behr + Pantone Inc. Textile Guide, Paper
• Benjamin Moore + Pantone Inc. Textile Guide, Paper
• Pratt&Lambert + Pantone Inc. Textile Guide, Paper
• SICO + Pantone Inc. Textile Guide, Paper
• PPG + Pantone Inc. Textile Guide, Paper

We also have a number of other (older) systems (eg Millennium) measured for which we have not repeated current QA.

If you own a Pantone(r) ColorCue(tm) 2 or 2.1 it is possible to evaluate any of our qa'ed master files (or other files) using the chroma check feature of our AP2Tools winapp.

This process

1. builds the image on an on board searchlist in the winapp
2. triggers measurement and performs searches allowing user setup of the search metric
3. reports color difference between the measurement, the found color and the expected color
4. optionally logs reflectance and colorimetric data as a csv file readable by spread sheets

Those systems which have intellectual property protection may require a specific or implied right to use from the system owner.

If you are interested in an oem quantity or an evaluation unit please email paintcue@accuracy.com with details.

Nominal US list pricing of a loaded instrument will be $399

If you already own a Pantone(r) ColorCue2.1 or other apii instance , nominal list pricing of an update key for loading of a different set of systems will be $50.

If you have purchased an instrument and wish to change the overlay, additional overlays cost $50 and may be reloaded (into the same instrument) repeatedly.

When this site is fully functional it will be possible to order against credit cards here.

For now email paintcue@accuracy.com and we will setup sales through distribution.

All keys are unit specific and requests must specify a valid unit serial number.

Special Offers

• APII instances allow display and spoken output of Male Descriptive Language. This is a set of a few hundred descriptive color names (like "very light pink") which are constructed from a small (<32) number of primitives (like "very", "light", and "pink"). We believe this may have some value to males with partial color blindness. The technique allows implementation in multiple languages. We tried a simple translation of the English names to German with poor results. We will offer free evaluation instruments for testing and development of the simple names for popular languages, and to a few color blind individuals.
• We will provide evaluation instruments for evaluation of advanced overlay features (on board matching , remote formula formula specification)  to individuals or organizations willing to perform and report an evaluation
• APII instruments allow renotation of measurements or color system nodes into any of several transparent notations. One intent of a transparent notation (EG Munsell) is that an individual with a knowledge of the notation has an instant understanding of the color and the relationship between any two colors so notated.. We can provide winapp simulation support, and if successful, free instruments for testing.