If you really want accurate color matching you don't want an old color
control strip.  Graphic artists replace their Pantone matching booklets
(sample printing ink colors) every year or so, because depending on how
they're stored and exposed to light, the dyes are subject to fading.  This
is true of color photos as well.  Red is the first to go (check out posters
in store windows and family photos hung on sunny walls and you'll see).
Maybe that's why the color matching books in used bookstores only cost a
dollar or two.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Helen Glazer, Exhibitions Director
Rosenberg Gallery  /  Goucher College
Baltimore, Maryland  USA
[log in to unmask]

Rosenberg Gallery web site:
http://www.goucher.edu/rosenberg
Personal web site:
http://faculty.goucher.edu/hglazer

[log in to unmask] wrote:

> I believe that what you are after is a color scale. It used to be
> packaged with a gray scale and some registration marks in two sizes--7
> and 14 inch if I remember correctly. Color control strips used to be
> exposed and unprocessed color film that you ran through your processor to
> check for improper chemistry or temperature. I have no idea if either
> product is still available. On the other hand you can get what you want
> in a book titled Kodak Color Darkroom Guide, assuming, of course, that
> they haven't changed it since the last time I bought one (the Nixon
> administration). Large used book stores often have it for a dollar or
> two. Good luck.
>