one embodiment of a method for aligning measurements taken by a plurality of color measurement instruments with measurements taken by an industry standard color measurement instrument includes receiving a first set of spectral data from the plurality of instruments , receiving a second set of spectral data from the industry standard instrument , generating initial profiles for the plurality of instruments , mathematically correcting the first set of spectral data using the initial profiles to produce a third set of spectral data , and generating new profiles for the plurality of instruments ( by calculating a mean of the third set of spectral data , and producing , for each given instrument , a second correction that aligns the spectral data taken by the given instrument with the mean .