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This paper describes recent developments at the National Institution of Standards and Technology in the colorimetric characterization of pearlescent coatings. The goal of this research is to develop a measurement protocol for the accurate color characterization of these coatings using an understanding of their scattering mechanism as a guide. A large ensemble of bi-directional reflectance measurments on a series of interference pigmented coatings show general trends in the color variations with illumination and viewing angles. These measurements were used to define a set of geometries (illumination angles of 15 , 45 , and 65 and aspecular angles of 15 , 35 , 45 , 70 , and 85 ) to characterize the angle dependent color travel observed in these coatings.