The Patent Green Test
Owning your own hardcopy of
the iDepict.comä
graphic is the ideal way to evaluate an item that appears beside
the iDepict.comä
graphic. However, for those
without access to a hardcopy, the next best thing is to use the digital graphic found on our website's
home page
as your reference graphic.
But how can a viewer be sure that the website's graphic is properly depicted? After all, the viewer is seeing
this graphic on the same monitor with the same settings that he is seeing the
item he is evaluating. What if it's the monitor or its
settings that is responsible for improper depiction...wouldn't that render the
comparison meaningless? Who's to say the website's server isn't
functioning properly and is causing improper depiction? And if the reference graphic isn't true, a proper evaluation
simply can't be made.
A universal reference right in your pocket
There is one universal, standard color that virtually everyone
has easy access to that can be used to determine whether the colors on our
website's
graphic are true...and it's probably sitting right in
your pocket: a U.S. dollar bill. You can use this universal reference to perform
what we call the Patent Green Test. Patent Green is the
official name of
the
color of the green ink used on the back of most U.S. currency by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The left-most of the middle bars in the iDepict.com graphic is
made up of several segments from various denominations; the bar to its immediate right is
solid Patent Green.
Although currency printing can
never produce a perfect standard color 100% of the time for all
bills (millions are in circulation), the Patent Green on the back of
U.S. bills will most consistently provide this universal reference
point.
This test takes only 30 seconds: get a bill from your wallet or purse, hold
the back of the bill up to your monitor and compare it to the graphic found at
iDepict.com. If the color on the Patent Green bar
doesn't match the color of your bill,
gently manipulate your monitor's brightness or contrast controls until it
does. In most cases this is all you'll have to do (employ the tint and
color controls as a last resort). Although not foolproof, once the Patent
Green color of the website's graphic matches your bill, the other color bars
should also be properly depicted...and you are then ready to use it as a
Reference Graphic to compare and evaluate the item you're interested in.
But remember: there is no
substitute for having your own hardcopy of the iDepict.comä
graphic.
Advanced calibration options
