Device Geometry

Color measurement instruments, including spectrophotometers and colorimeters, illuminate an object at certain angles to detect its color. The angle at which the object is illuminated and the angle at which its reflected light is detected is the instrument’s optical system geometry. An instrument’s geometry influences where an object’s color falls within the defined color space and may generate different measurement results from instruments with other geometries.

There are two main device geometries:

8 degree, diffuse illumination

45 degree, direct illumination

Supported 8 degree devices: Datacolor benchtop (D800, D1000), Datacolor Check3, Datacolor 20D, Xrite Ci7000, Xrite Ci64, Konica Minolta KM-26d

Supported 45 degree devices: Datacolor 45G, Datacolor Color Reader Spectro, Xrite i1Pro2, Xrite i1Pro3, Xrite Metavue, Konica Minolta KM-25cG