Is This The Washington Rose #65???

Might there be any print or computer monitor experts reading this thread - or do you know someone that is? Their comments or links might be of interest and benefit here.

There are two technical fields here - one concerning anything printed, which uses CMYK values, and the second concerning anything emitting light, such as TV, monitors and cell phone screens, which all use RGB values.

Their values are not interchangeable - but can be equated to a degree. Again, printed color depends on the reflection and absorption of a light source while light emitting surfaces don't.

It is far easier for printers to render the same color no matter who the printer is (assuming they are using pedigree pigments) than for a panel manufacturer.

There are many web sites that can refine all this and provide better clarity, so it's not worth the time wordsmithing that which is just a few clicks away.

The most difficult aspect of comparing a stamp image on a monitor to that of a print are several. The monitor must be carefully "calibrated" along with it's video card using specific RGB colors and an expensive calibrated color measuring instrument. Not all monitors or video cards can be fully calibrated. But with use of a simple computer program tied to the measuring instrument, the instrument output will tell a technician when "red" on the screen matches the correct RGB signal balances.

Hope this hasn't bored anyone.

The issue for stamp collectors, and others dependent on color rendering, is to realize in the end - comparing an accurately printed card of colors to the same colors on a calibrated monitor - that what they see might not exactly match, even then.

So all we can hope as a first step is that the stamp issuing countries not only state what colors they use on each stamp such as "red, black and gray" - but footnote each with their respective CMYK values.

That way - the catalog publishers and other parties can easily print a variety of color chips for hobbyists and others as well. (as long as guidelines for storing and protecting those chipsets are followed)

My question is when a government authorizes an entity to print a stamp, what specific data is incorporated into that authorization. I don't know. But I am certain the authorizations / contracts / directives do not use terms like "red, green, gray and black."

Where might the common citizen find such technical specs?


Waazwi - IMHO
Your humble opinion may differ. Do not make more than two humble opinions a day. If your humble opinion always differs from everyone else's, please see your doctor. Results may vary.

Would be good to create a new topic talking about colors specifically, once this topic is about a classic stamp. This is an important issue, and maybe we have a good color&light specialist in the forum that can help on this.

We've had a lot of different threads on this topic with this issue. 54 different shades, published in The Chronicle from USPCS. If you go through my posts in the past, you'll see a lot of the shades, and you'll also find color studies done by "Historical DNA Collector" a/k/a Ryan. Some good stuff to be found.

Hope this is helpful, Ray

Very!! Thank you!!

I appreciate the information and suggestion.

I find it interesting, then, that the catalog publishers etc. haven't migrated to a homogeneous standardized set of references. I did look up Pantone, with interest - to a degree - until I learned how restrictive and protective they are. Reminds me of Amos Publishing.

While Pantone wouldn't loose a night's sleep if the Philatelic environment dropped off the end of the earth financially, Amos and the Scott catalog empire would. The same with the other catalogers. At some point, even from a strictly business perspective, it would make sense to, albeit carefully, come to some common ground if for no other reason than to help the collector.

With the declining numbers of collectors becoming more evident each year the greater philatelic industrial complex needs to revisit their contributions to the hobby's decline.

Helping the hobby benefits the hobbyist and the businesses that provide the necessary stock, references, resources and paraphernalia.

Like the infrastructure of the US toady, or the homes we live in - if you leave things go too far without maintenance and some nurturing - the bill in the end increases at a non-linear rate. Indeed - if one were to wait too long the bridge, the home or the hobby might find itself at a point of no return. I'm sure you get the general meaning.

Again, I appreciate the feedback.

(Does anyone know exactly what the "work order" or contract looks like to authorize postage stamp printing? By that I mean what does/did the USPS use to communicate when the printer was contracted outside the government v.s. in house?)

Waazwi