This practice provides standard terms and procedures for describing and characterizing the performance of spectral and filter based instruments designed to measure and compute the colorimetric properties of materials and objects. It does not set the specifications but rather gives the format and process by which specifications can be determined, communicated and verified. This practice does not describe methods that are generally applicable to visible-range spectroscopic instruments used for analytical chemistry (UV-VIS spectrophotometers). ASTM Committee E13 on Molecular Spectroscopy and Chromatography includes such procedures in standards under their jurisdiction.