Background

The interchange of components and products that must match in color and appearance is a key concern to manufacturers, from such diverse industries as paint, plastics, paper, textiles, food and cosmetics, and to end users of the products (including the automotive and appliance industries, the government, and the consumer). Significantly, failure to control the color and appearance of products is a major source of consumer dissatisfaction. Whether evaluating new materials or finished products, the Color & Appearance Program can provide added confidence that your testing procedures are helping, and not hindering your efforts to maintain quality assurance standards. Hundreds of national and international organizations are already taking advantage of this unique program.

Over the past two decades the program has become accepted by laboratories worldwide as the standard for color and appearance proficiency testing and has received strong support from color instrument manufacturers. Also, several organizations have established corporate vendor programs using the CTS tests to establish a vendor's ability to comply with their particular specifications.