of the color imaging system to match the color response of another 34 target 34 color imaging system the system 10 of fig1 may be used to implement the steps of a method for characterizing a color imaging system in accordance with this first embodiment of the present invention accordingly the method of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in terms of the functionality of system 10 as shown in fig1 system 10 includes a processor 12 that executes a software application program configured to carry out the steps of a method for characterizing a color imaging system in accordance with this first embodiment of the present invention the processor 12 can be realized for example by a personal computer such as an apple macintosh u2122 or an ibm pc or by a computer workstation alternatively processor 12 could be realized by a microprocessor that accesses a read only memory rom into which the application program is loaded the application program could be embedded in a color management software package such as that provided with the 3m rainbow u2122 color proofing system commercially available from minnesota mining amp manufacturing company of st paul minn the implementation of system 10 and the method via software affords flexibility in development and modification the system and method alternatively can be implemented by an integrated logic circuit however for increased color processing speed in addition to processor 12 system 10 includes means for obtaining color data representing the output of a color imaging system examples of color imaging systems to which.