Colors catalog for wood identification

The colors of the woods or their tonalities are infinite, no two trees are the same, we cannot ignore that there are thousands of species in different areas and in different climates with very different characteristics. With the color catalog for wood identification, sought to develop an academic method for wood color identification from a color code. To achieve this objective, 50 samples of wood available at the Wood Technology Laboratory (LTM) of the Faculty of Forest Engineering of the Universidad del Tolima, were duly identified and brushed to bring out the natural color of the wood. A photographic collection was obtained from the woods in the dry and wet state and with the help of software (Adobe Photoshop professional CC) colors were obtained in LAB and RGB notation systems, with a sample of 30 colors distributed randomly throughout the picture. Counteracting information through the use of a portable digital colorimeter with the that the color of each of the samples was measured in both states. As a result, it was obtained a color catalog for 50 species of Colombian woods, in wet and dry state, in which a color palette was added for the description of the color of species not included still in the catalog. This tool has been used in Universidad del Tolima Wood Anatomy lessons in the last year as a verification process of its use, and the initial results are quite encouraging, in the sense that the students have expressed easier handling and easier to understand than the previous tool. Now the challenge is to increase commercial species and seek to reach surveillance and control agencies environment with a view to positively impacting their training and the possibility of improving their work tools and contributing to the reduction of wood illegal trafficking in Colombia.