Colour Management Upgrade

International Dyer, Dec 2004

eWama has release of version 2.0 of XMatch, its web-based colour workflow application, one of whose features is an XML link to Product Lifecyle Management (PLM), CAD and other supply-chain solutions.

eWama points out that, typically, a colour-management system used for colour approval works with data that is also used in PLM solutions (buying division, fabric type, collection number, season, etc) with only the actual colour-reflectance measurement being unique to the colour manager. Without an easy link, this data must be retyped for every colour approval.

But because XMatch has an Application Programming Interface (API) that most industry-leading PLM solutions can communicate with, 'jobs' or specifications created by designers and merchandisers on the PLM side can be directed to automatically create colour jobs for matching approval in XMatch. The company says colourists and dyers throughout the supply chain use XMatch to manage their digital lab-dip approvals, bulk approvals, bulk sorting and so on, with the API ensuring that the approval status of each stage is also presented in the PLM tracking module.

eWama also recently announced the preview release of Color Services, a new colour-on-demand architecture that provides international scientific-standard colour functions for enterprise applications, through open-standard web services protocols. With tills initiative, eWama hopes to spawn die development of more colour-management applications in colour-critical sectors outside textiles.

"We are very excited with the preview release of the first two colour functionalities, Color Search and Color Compare," said Richard Lawn. "As an example of their power, Color Search is used in our Color Trade web site, which allows a seller to attach colour reflectance records on the OCX to item-listing records on eBay, and then lets a buyer search the listings, using text and a precise colour as target. We believe this is the first step to a world where colour data can be treated as an integral product attribute within mainstream business applications.