The technology for computerized color matching and color prediction is progressing quickly. This technology permits the manufacture of fabric colors to within close tolerances, even between production runs, and permits dyers and printers to respond quickly to customer demands. Online color sorting equipment and software reads and records color differences across the width of a fabric and from roll to roll. Clusters of color are easily packaged and bar coded for shipment to apparel fabric cutters that need consistent and uniform shades. The latest trend among the manufacturers of color prediction and matching equipment is a design that integrates color management from laboratory sample strike-offs to final production. Besides color prediction and recipe formulation, these systems also predict and recipe formulation, these systems also predict the required amounts of paste, evaluate process performance, and optimize process parameters to maximize color reproducibility and repeatability and to minimize effluent pollution.