Color Measurement on Metalized Substrates

In practice, this means that sphere instruments are potentially more versatile, since they allow for the measurement of a color with or without the impact of its substrate’s associated surface effects.

Measuring ink on foil
Printing any inks on foil presents some unique challenges for spectrophotometers, as metallic substrates are highly reflective. When measuring any mirror-like surface, a 45° instrument will essentially be “blind” to the substrates, since nearly 100 percent of the light will be reflected in the opposite direction, leaving almost none of the light available to be measured by the sensor (Fig. 6). The instrument would “see” less light, interpret this as black and would likely yield values that may indicate that the sample is darker and more saturated than it really is.