Color Perception Archives - insights4print.ceo

Strategic Insights

Why are print buyers holding single-use print jobs to a higher standard than the reference they use?

15/05/2026

Serious question: why are print buyers holding disposable FMCG packaging to a higher standard than their reference: their copy of the Pantone color guide? Why would consumers – who are not color savvy, typically looking […]

Strategic Insights

It’s proven: color differences can confuse consumers!
Well… if the colors are some 50 dE00 apart…

01/02/2026

If you are a regular reader of my blog or my LinkedIn posts, you’ll probably know I have been questioning the claim that color differences confuse consumers and negatively impact sales. And guess what: I […]

Strategic Insights

Tolerances in brand color reproduction:
one size – fits all?
Why printing needs expectation management

13/12/2025

When talking about tolerances for the reproduction of brand colors in print, you often hear just one number. Whether it’s 2, 3, or 4 dE00, it’s just one number. And we have to ask ourselves: […]

Strategic Insights

Probabilities and priors
How a maths theorem defines brand and product recognition

16/08/2025

While on vacation, I finished reading the book ‘Everything Is Predictable – How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World’ by Tom Chivers. And yes, you may question my choices of books, but I have to […]

Strategic Insights

We need a new metric:
the smallest actionable difference (SAD)
JND and JAD don’t cover consumer behavior in shops

14/03/2026

‘JND’, the ‘just-noticeable (color) difference’, is a core concept in color science. Next to that one, there is also ‘JAD’: the ‘just-acceptable (color) difference’. But these are not sufficient, if you ask me. That’s why […]

Strategic Insights

The biggest print quality experiment ever?
And nothing happened???

07/07/2025

Do you remember my article from last fall about the redesign of the Oreo logo, which featured a 10+ dE00 difference between the old and new versions? Both being used jointly on the shelves? Ah! […]

Strategic Insights

The wisdom of the crowd has spoken, again!
Confirming first test: myth busted

28/06/2025

Did I already mention that I love LinkedIn? Not just to keep in touch with people I know, but also to find and share interesting information. Plus, it’s also an excellent place for me to […]

The web embraces OKLch (OKLab),
when will print follow?
A better way to describe color

11/05/2025

Science evolves, based on experiences, experiments, and new insights. And that includes color science. Although the use of CIELab color description is fundamental to current color specification and reproduction, CIELab is ‘icky’, as John – […]

Strategic Insights

The Impact of Color on Brand Recognition:
Re-evaluating the 80% Claim
A guest post, by Google Gemini Deep Research AI

04/05/2025

Insights4print.ceo is my personal blog. But for once, I had to accept a guest article… Earlier this week, I read a newspaper article about the ‘deep research’ options that several AI tools now offer. And […]

Strategic Insights

And no one called it a brand’s worst nightmare…
(11 dE00 between adjacent packages)

04/05/2025

I love LinkedIn. It’s a place to keep in contact with old friends and meet new friends. It’s a place where much technological, business, and scientific information is shared. And it’s a great place to […]

Strategic Insights

The biggest print quality experiment ever?
Brand Colors IRL: the Oreo case

25/10/2025

It’s probably – or even better: certainly – not intentional, but Oreo is running the most extensive real-life study on print quality. Why, you might ask. Well: they changed their logo, including the logo color, […]

The truth about the Heinz ‘Label of Truth’

24/10/2024

The ‘Label of Truth’ from Heinz and Pantone is going around on LinkedIn again. With raving reviews. Everybody loves it! Genius! Except that it’s seriously flawed and, therefore, a big fail. Pantone should have known […]

Strategic Insights

The wisdom of the crowd has spoken!
The 2dE00 myth busted

07/07/2025

While walking through the aisles in a supermarket recently, I noticed these nice Bahlsen packages, four different types of products/designs nicely aligned in a row. And I wondered how close the Bahlsen blue would be, […]

Color games you should take seriously
Maybe even integrate into your print operations

21/10/2024

In the past few weeks, I’ve seen several ‘color games’ on LinkedIn. Although they are intended as a game, as fun, you might want to take a serious look at these. And dear printers, you […]

Best Practices

How long should a visual press check take?
(a few seconds vs. as long as it takes)

14/11/2023

Earlier this year, I published an article with studies showing how long consumers interact with a package while shopping. On average, the ‘Total Fixation Duration’ was less than a second. Coca-Cola cans? One-tenth of a […]