Improve neural network‐based color matching of inkjet textile printing by classification with competitive neural network

Nowadays, with increasing use of digital printing in the textile industry, characterization and color matching are very much considered. There is a very complicated relationship between pixel values of input digital image and colorimetric parameters of printed textile samples. One of the most important used methods for inverse characterization of printer and prediction of CMYK digital values is neural network. In this study, the prediction accuracy of CMYK digital values were improved by dividing the training samples into 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 subgroups using creating a competitive neural network. For classification of samples, L*a*b* or XYZ were introduced to a competitive neural network as input parameters. Then, the classification of test samples was performed by trained competitive neural network. To predict the of CMYK digital values of input digital image, a cascade‐forward back propagation neural network is trained by L*a*b* of each subgroup. The results obtained show that the prediction accuracy of CMYK digital values were improved by suggested method. The best result was obtained by classification of samples with L*a*b* into eight subgroups and using a cascade‐forward back propagation neural network with 4, 4, and 4 neurons in hidden layers.