A method and system for matching color displayed by source and destination
display devices and particularly for providing color matching between a
computer monitor and an ink printer. The technique of the present
invention initially determines the combination and color value ratios of
single destination color components that will cause the destination device
to display a color that essentially matches each of fully saturated single
and dual colors of a source display device. These combinations of single
destination color components and their corresponding color value ratios
determine the best available blends of destination device color components
for printing source device colors. A color matching algorithm is employed
to derive the color value ratios--one for each of the single destination
color components. Each color component ratio is then scaled and linearly
interpolated over a range defined by the color matching algorithm to
generate a set of look-up tables (LUTs)--one for each single destination
color component. Color matching is performed by 1) performing a first
series of computational steps to translate the source color value into an
intermediate color value which is expressed in terms of single destination
color components, 2) accessing the set of LUTs with the intermediate color
value obtained in step 1 to obtain a second color value composed of the
scaled linearly interpolated color values stored in the LUTs, and 3)
optionally performing a second series of computational steps to translate
the second color value into a color value which is expressed in terms of
the original source color components.