The body published the results of its study into the accuracy of spectrophotometers, in which it found deviations of up to a delta E of nearly 4.
VIGC managing director Eddy Hagen described colour quality as "the biggest challenge in the printing industry" and said that graphic arts companies would try everything to achieve the colours desired by the customer.
He added: "Those customers will use [colour] as the most important criterion to accept, or reject, a print job, which makes the devices to measure that colour quality quite essential. So you would expect the quality of those devices to be top class. But it isn't."
Over the past year VIGC tested 20 different devices, most of them in use at active print sites, and discovered deviations of up to a delta E of 3.77 for specific colours. Most customers specify a maximum delta E of 2.
VIGC cited poor maintenance and variations in light source as two reasons for major deviations.
The organisation also recommended a wholesale switch from delta E 1976, to delta E 2000, which it said gave a more accurate representation of the human perception of colour differences.
Study finds dramatic deviations in spectrophotometer readings
VIGC, the Flemish Innovation Centre for Graphic Communications, has claimed that poorly maintained and older spectrophotometers can produce dramatically different readings, potentially causing print jobs to be wrongly rejected.
