GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- X-Rite, Incorporated, the world leader in color management, measurement and communication technologies, today announced that the Color Marketing Group (CMG), the leading international non-profit association of color design professionals will -- for the first time ever -- deliver its annual Color Direction forecast in a digital format using ColorMunki Design spectrophotometer. Developed during its annual Spring conference (Seattle, WA, April 17-21, 2009), CMG's much-anticipated directions are color palettes that will set the tone for manufactured products across all industries in the coming months and years.

Thanks to the use of ColorMunki Design, the latest color innovation from the combined Pantone and X-Rite companies, CMG members will have access to the forecast data in a digital format immediately upon conclusion of the event, allowing them to implement the new color palettes into their production workflows, and share the color data with co-workers, vendors and suppliers with the confidence that their vision is being faithfully reproduced.

At past conferences, attendees have had to take notation of approximate color selections using analog or printed color standards, then wait for physical paint samples or color chips of exact standards to arrive weeks later. This year, X-Rite is providing its award-winning ColorMunki Design to record and digitalize color palette data at the conference so that it can be imported immediately into commonly used design software packages such as QuarkXPress and Adobe Creative Suite. Attendees can then use this data to accurately reproduce the selected colors on monitors, in print, and on projected files that are calibrated to match the digital data recorded by ColorMunki Design.

Working with X-Rite, CMG will also make color files of the chosen colors available immediately to color stylists and designers to receive by email or download from its website.

"Color Marketing Group is very pleased to partner with X-Rite in providing this additional service free of charge to attendees of the Spring conference," comments organization executive director Jaime Stephens. "We are always looking for ways to make it easier for our members to access and use information gleaned from our conferences."

ColorMunki Design makes sure your design goes from inspiration to screen to print without ever sacrificing quality. It provides an accurate means to measure, match and communicate color data. ColorMunki Design calibrates monitors, projectors and printers so they yield faithful, reproducible color. ColorMunki Design consists of an all-in-one spectrophotometer and software package that allows a user to select colors from Munsell Color Book, PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM and PANTONE Goe libraries, image libraries or to capture spot colors from just about any surface, plus preview out-of-gamut colors by printer/paper type.

Color Marketing Group (CMG), founded in 1962, is an international not-for-profit Association of 1,100 Color Designers who forecast Color Directions one to three years in advance for all industries, manufactured products and services. These Consumer/Residential and Contract/Commercial products include: Action/Recreation, Consumer Goods, Technology, Home, Visual Communications, Transportation, Juvenile Products, Fashion, and environments for Office, Health Care, Retail, Hospitality/Entertainment and Institutional/Public Spaces. For more information: www.colormarketing.org