PRELIMINARY STUDY ON POSSIBILITY TO USE AREA-BASED OPEN-SOURCE IMAGE ANALYSIS TOOLS IN ACCESSING SKIN TONE COLOR REPRODUCTION ACCURACY IN INK-JET PRINTING

Colour is a complex and integral aspect of human visual experience, significantly impacting our daily lives by influencing emotions, behaviours, decisions, and even physical well-being. Colour perception is highly subjective, varying widely among individuals due to factors such as biological differences, psychological influences, and contextual conditions. To ensure accurate colour monitoring, objective colorimetric analysis is essential, particularly in the graphic industry where colour reproduction quality is paramount. This necessity becomes even more pronounced in the reproduction of skin tones, a critical area of research due to its association with memory colours and its influence on the perceived impression of people in images. Recent research has demonstrated that individuals with normal trichromatic vision can accurately differ subtle changes in skin colour, including slight shifts in chroma and hue towards more reddish tones compared to the actual skin shade. Objective colour reproduction analysis typically employs standard colorimetric measurement procedures, devices, and software solutions. However, commercially available devices are often expensive and robust, particularly in the objective quantification of colour reproduction on materials with specific surface properties and shapes. There is growing interest in quantitative colour measurements derived from low-cost, user-friendly software solutions paired with inexpensive imaging technologies, making objective colorimetric detection more accessible. In this paper, we investigate the potential of using two area-based open-source image analysis tools, ImageJ and Trigit, to assess skin tone colour reproduction accuracy. Targeted skin colour tones were ink-jet printed, scanned, and analyzed to extract colour coordinates using these tools, with manual measurements taken directly from the prints using a spectrophotometer as well. By calculating colour differences, we characterized the proposed colour measurement procedures. The research reviled certain advantages as well as limitations of usage of area-based open-source image analysis tools in characterizing skin colour reproduction.