  Human endeavor has involved making choices about color and looking for ways
to color objects since the dawn of civilization. While it has been the
exclusive domain of artists and craftspeople for millennia, the last century
has seen the introduction of a scientific basis to color communication. The
ultimate goal of this development is for color communication to happen
seamlessly and in a transparent way. There are however two categories of
challenges here: first, understanding and quantifying color needs and
expectation and second, developing control mechanisms that deliver the desired
color. In this paper a review will be presented of the color needs in
end-to-end color journeys, from initial concept to final colored object and an
overview of recent developments in color printing will follow. Topics like
imaging pipelines (including the recently-introduced HP Pixel Control), the
ease of use of color workflows (including HP Smart Color Tools), the handling
of brand or corporate identity colors (via HP Professional PANTONE Emulation)
and the measurement of color difference under specific viewing arrangements
(i.e., the dENS metric for viewing samples without separation) will be
addressed. Finally, a series of challenges for the future will be set out, so
that their solution can be approached by both academic and industrial
communities.
