File compliance
Every Color Direct .ai file from the last two months, graded against the canonical ink values in the CMS and, for Pantone swatches, against the Pantone+ Solid Coated and Uncoated books. Open a file to see each named ink it uses, how the file defines that ink, and how far that sits from the standard. This is the artist worklist: a file marked drifts has at least one ink more than ΔE 5 from its canonical value.
files graded
more carry no swatch book
drift ≥ ΔE 5
visibly off standard
conform < ΔE 2
match the CMS
ungradeable
no color in the file has a known value
The standard = cms_art_color_meta, canonical colors, read from the CMS on . Art parsed .
Pantone swatches are additionally graded against the Pantone+ Solid Coated and Solid Uncoated books Kaitlyn Schmahl supplied on 23 July ( + colors, Lab native) book; those values are a proposed seed for the CMS, not a second standard.
A color with neither is shown as no standard and is not graded.
· ΔE match <2 close 2–5 off ≥5
of the drifting files drift on INK006 alone — read that number carefully
Black is now valued at L*0 a*0 b*0 (absolute black). Files define INK006 Spot Black C as CMYK 100/100/100/100, which converts to L*11.8, so every one of those files reports the same ΔE against the standard. No printed ink actually reaches L*0, so this is a question about the standard, not pieces of bad art — if black should be defined as the value a press can hit, those files clear at once.
The other inks that single-handedly push a file off standard:
· INK001 Navy is the real one — most of those files carry the identical wrong swatch, so it is one bad definition copied forward, not many independent mistakes. Only files remain ungradeable at all. See Scope & coverage.
Inks most often off standard
Ranked by the worst single deviation seen in any file. Fixing the swatch in the source art for these inks clears the most files at once.