Colour me informed – CfX colour standard explained

PantoneLive is based on the CxF description, but its implementation, like that of the similarly quasi open standard JDF by some developers, makes it an open format in name only. CxF was developed by XRite, prior to acquisition by Danaher and approved by the International Standards Organisation in 2015. It uses open formats and XML as a standard framework that can easily be understood by different software applications. It seeks to enable specification of colours within a PDF file, by describing the spectral data for that colour independent of substrate or colour space. There is support for ICC profiles to be assigned to each colour sampler.

As always there are flavours and interpretations which can hinder the ability for free exchange. There are three levels of conformance from measurement of a single solid colour patch, to three measurements and finally measurement on a black as well as white background amounting to 22 measurements in all.

A number of tools are available to take these measurements and to build the CxF file. Once it is approved by the brand owner and locked the colour is identified and can be used across the process, by designers for different applications and different processes without necessarily knowing which processes the printer will be using.