AVA CAD CAM Celebrates Colour Science Pioneer Dorothy Nickerson for International Women's Day
Macclesfield - Cheshire - 8 March 2026 – Digital print technology innovator AVA CAD CAM has announced its International Women's Day spotlight, honouring the foundational work of pioneering colour scientist Dorothy Nickerson.
The tribute highlights Nickerson's essential contributions to colorimetry, colour difference evaluation, and industrial colour standardisation, which collectively serve as the backbone for modern digital print workflows and objective colour measurement.
Working closely with the United States Department of Agriculture, Nickerson was instrumental in moving industries away from subjective visual grading and towards objective, instrument-based colour measurement.
In sectors such as cotton classification, colour once determined value solely through human judgement.
Nickerson championed measurable systems that significantly reduced inconsistency, increased fairness, and improved overall quality control.
This vital shift from human opinion to rigorous instrumentation now forms the core of modern digital print workflows, directly contributing to more sustainable production practices by minimising material waste and costly print errors.
By co-developing early colour difference formulas such as the Nickerson-Hunter equation, she helped establish the mathematical expression of perceived colour variation.
Today, the digital print industry relies heavily on these very principles to measure delta E tolerances, set strict pass or fail parameters, protect global brand colour integrity, and standardise outcomes across various substrates and printing presses.
As the first female individual member of the Inter-Society Colour Council, Nickerson earned immense respect within technical committees at a time when women were heavily underrepresented in such scientific spaces.
Her legacy continues to influence the sector, serving as a powerful reminder that the scientific framework underpinning modern print workflows depends on diverse thinking, rigorous research, and a willingness to challenge established norms.
By celebrating the scientific pioneers who turned colour into a measurable data set, the organisation aims to inspire future generations of innovators in the highly technical digital print sector.
About AVA Software
AVA have been creating softwareto facilitate the design and production of decorative print for use on Apple® Macs® for almost as long as they have been around.
AVA have been creating software to facilitate the design and production of decorative print for use on Apple® Macs® for almost as long as they have been around.
Our focus on a relatively narrow area of the total ‘print’ market has enabled us to develop highly specialised software based on continuous feedback from partner customers, with whom we have now been working for several decades, in a process of continuous review and improvement. AVA today is structured in two (overlapping) groups.
One group focuses on the particular needs and challenges of printing onto textiles (Fashion, Home Furnishing), while the other specialises in the challenges of decorative printing onto other ‘Surfaces’ (Flooring, Wallcoverings, Ceramics).
AVA today is structured in two (overlapping) groups. One group focuses on the particular needs and challenges of printing onto textiles (Fashion, Home Furnishing), while the other specialises in the challenges of decorative printing onto other ‘Surfaces’ (Flooring, Wallcoverings, Ceramics).
