5th International Color and Coatings Congress (ICCC 2013) December 18-19, 2013IsfahanIran

Investigation Into the Colour Levelness of Textile

Materials Using a Scanner
S. Shahamatjoo*, H. Izadan, H. Khalili.
*: PhD student, Department of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology,
84156-83111, Iran.

Abstract
In the present research a scanner was used to assess the levelness of the dyeing
of a set of non-uniformly dyed Nylon fabric. To do so, the scanner was
characterized by a regression method and the L*a*b* of each pixels of the
images of the Nylon fabrics were calculated. The levelness of the panels was
calculated by the mean colour difference of the 8 locations of the samples. Then
the correlation coefficient between the calculated levelness and index the visual
data were determined. Finally the scanner results were compared with the Yang
method, for which a spectrophotometer should be used.

Introduction

In the last decade, the textile industry has done numerous researches in order to
manufacture high-quality products by improving yarn and fabric qualities. One of
the important quality characteristics is the uniformity of fabric appearance [1, 2].
This is because unlevelness is usually unacceptable except for stone-washed,
acid-washed, pigment-dyed textiles, fantasy unlevel dyed yarns and the intended
uneven coloured fabrics where the demand is for fashion [3, 4]
Colour levelness is traditionally measured subjectively. Subjective measurements
are based on human decision and different values for the same sample are likely
to be obtained [5, 6]. Hence, the objective of this study is to build a quantitative
method which is cheaper than spectrophotometric measurements and also
produce reliable results in comparison to the subjective method.
In order to quantized the levelness of dyeing, Yanget al. (1993) [5] used colour
strength parameter (K/S) in the wavelength range of 400-700 nm and obtained
eq.1 :
=700

U=

S( ) V ( )

=400

700

ln Sr ( ) V()]

L=1.2[2.00

400

eq.1
And

Sr()=

[((
i=1

K
K
) /
S i, S

( ) )-1 ]

/(n- 1 )

eq.2

is the measured wavelength, n is the number of measuring areas,

K
K/S is colour strength parameter, S
is the mean of K/S, V is Spectral

Where,

( )

Luminous Efficiency Function, U isunlevelness parameter, and L is levelness

parameter.

5th International Color and Coatings Congress (ICCC 2013) December 18-19, 2013IsfahanIran

Experimental

30 observers (15 men and 15 women) were used in order to assess the levelness
of 60 red, yellow and blue dyed samples. Then the reflectance spectra of the
samples were measured in the 8 different random locations of each sample and
these values were converted to L*a*b* under D65 illuminant and 10 standard
observer. Samples were measured using a DatacolorTexflash reflectance
spectrophotometer with the measuring geometry of 0/d and the measuring
diaphragm size was 18mm. The spectral range was from 400 to 700 nm at 20nm
intervals.The DE2000 formula was utilized in order to calculate the colour
differences of these 8 places with their average L*a*b* values. Finally, the mean
value of these 8 colour difference values was calculated and the amount of
correlation coefficient with the subjective assessments using regression,
logarithmic and power was determined. Then an Epson 4490 scanner which is
characterized byacolourcheckerSG chart were used to assess the levelness of the
samples. Then the mean RGB values of each box were converted toL*a*b* and
the DE2000 of these values with the average of the L*a*b* of each box were
calculated. Finally, the average DE2000 colour difference values were calculated
and considers as an index of colourlevelness of the sample.In order to check the
proposed technique the results were compared with Yang formulas.

Results and discussion

Table 1 shows the correlation coefficient (r) obtained from different methods of
the levelness of dyed Nylon fabrics.
Table1. Correlation coefficient (r) obtained from different trend/regression type
for L, U, DE2000(spectrophotometric), and DE2000(scanner)
Trend/Regression
Type

Linear Regression
Logarithmic
Power

0.7907
0.8100

0.7346
0.8068
-

DE2000
(Spectrophotom
eter)
0.7386
0.8742
-

DE2000
(scanner)
0.7857
0.8839

The table indicates that by applying alinear regression technique, similar results
obtained for the different method of levelness assessment using either scanner
or spectrophotometer. Also, the logarithmic and power trend for the calculation
of the relationship between the spectrophotometric and the scanner methods
with the visual method demonstrate better correlation for DE2000
(spectrophotometer) and DE2000 (scanner) which means that the current
techniques have more accurate results than Yang parameters. Furthermore,
DE2000 (scanner) method is simpler in comparison to the other techniques and it
does not need colorimeter and spectrophotometer which are more expensive
than a scanner. Also, with the scanner method it is possible to scanned whole of
the samples and this may reduce the effect of the user of the system on the
results. In contrast, spectrophotometer method is highly depends on the user
and due to this fact by replacing the user the results may change significantly.

Conclusion

The results obtained from the research reveals that by applying scanner for the
colour levelness assessment the results are more precise and more reliable in
comparison to the spectrophotometric method. In addition, a drawback of using
mean DE2000 colour levelness index may be the fact that the results cannot be

5th International Color and Coatings Congress (ICCC 2013) December 18-19, 2013IsfahanIran

extended to the different illuminants. However, this drawback may be overcome

by the scanner characterization using different illuminants. It can be concluded
that the scanner method has the potential of the replacement of the
spectrophotometric method.

References
[1]
M. Gnay,Color Research & Application, 2009, 4, 285-290.
[2]
B. Xu, Textile Chemist and Colorist, 1996, 5, 18-23.
[3]
J. M. Cardamone, and C. M. William, American Dyestuff Reporter, 1997, 7,
25-37.
[4]
T. Soleymanian,S. H. Amirshahi,M. Ganbar, Journal of Textiles and
Engineer, 2012, 85, 41- 46.
[5]
Y. Yang, and L. SQ,Textile Chemist and Colorist, 1993, 9, 75-78.
[6]
C. L. Chong, S. Q. Li, and K. W. Yeung, Journal of the Society of Dyers and
Colourists, 1992, 12, 528-530.