How to make a colorant set — in 7 easy steps
A colorant set is a group of real paint samples. You mix them, apply them, let them dry and measure their colors. MEC uses these measurements to understand how your colorants behave.
You do not need a different laboratory process. Prepare your colorant-set samples exactly as you prepare your normal paint samples: use the same materials, mixing method, application and drying or curing conditions. You can simply make smaller batches.
Want to see the full process in MEC? Follow the Colorant Set Tour.
If you have a coating thickness gauge, find the thickest uniform area of the finished coating and measure its color there.
Cannot make your sample fully opaque? Do not worry. MEC can help compensate for some of the resulting color difference later, during formulation correction. For the most accurate results, full hiding is still preferable.
Gather your real materials
Use the same base paint, white, black and colorant pastes as in your factory. You will also need a scale, mixing cups, a mixer, sample panels and a color-measuring instrument. Make a label for each sample.
Choose your reference white and black
Every colorant set needs two starting colors: reference white and reference black. Ideally, choose the whitest white you normally use in your factory and the darkest black you normally use. These will be your reference colorants for making the other samples.
Keep the real mixing percentages
This is essential. The percentages must be the same as in your actual production. For example, if a product uses 20% colorant paste + 80% base, make its lab sample the same way. If you normally use only 3% black, keep that lower amount. Do not change the ratios just because the batch is small. Also keep the same base, paste strength and production process.
Make the reference white and black samples
If your normal base is nearly colorless (perhaps slightly yellow), add your reference white colorant to it, mix and apply a fully covering white sample. Mix reference black with reference white in different amounts to make light, medium and dark grays. Begin with two mixtures; five or more cover the range better.
If your base already contains white pigment, use the white base itself as your reference white—even if you also have a separate white colorant. Apply the white base by itself until it fully hides the surface, then dry or cure and measure it. Define the separate white colorant later as an additional colorant.
Make light-to-dark shades of each colorant
For a dark colorant, such as purple, make mixtures with reference white. For a lighter colorant, such as yellow, red or orange, also make mixtures with reference black when needed. Another white colorant should be mixed with reference black. Try to cover the useful range from light to dark with roughly even changes in shade (not necessarily equal percentages). Not sure which mixtures to make? The Suggest Best Mixtures step in the MEC Tour shows you how to choose them.
For the mixtures in this step, “mix with reference white” simply means mix the colorant with your white base paint—not with a separate white colorant paste.
Apply, dry and measure the samples
Apply each mixture as you do in production, using the same surface, coating thickness and drying or curing conditions. Each sample should fully hide the surface underneath. When dry, measure it with your spectrophotometer or colorimeter, using the same settings for every panel.
Save the results and continue in MEC
Write down the exact amounts used for each sample and its measured color values. A small laboratory batch can represent factory production if its materials and process are very similar. MEC may help correct small or moderate color differences, but it cannot reliably fix major problems in materials, mixing or coverage.
Samples ready? Now open MEC.
Use the step-by-step interactive tour to enter your white, black, other colorants and measurements, and create the colorant set in the software.
Open the MEC Colorant Set Tour ↗Have a question?
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Frequently asked questions
See answers to common questions about MEC and preparing colorant sets.
View common questionsImages are illustrations of typical laboratory activities. Mixing percentages are examples only; always follow your real production formula and material specifications.