Search Configuration

The Search Configuration settings affects how searches will be made.

Matching Methods

There are currently two methods for matching substances to spots, RF Error and Correlation.

RF Error

This is the “traditional” method of matching. RF Error compares the spot values and fails the match if a single value is off by more than the RF Error value. The RF Error value is an integer, typically set to 1 or 2.




Correlation Factor

The Correlation Factor is used in the Correlation method, which looks more at the overall match of the substances. If a substance matches most of the spots very closely, but is a little further off on a single value, it might still be listed as a potential match. The Correlation factor is a little harder to quantify, but larger numbers allow more matches. 5 seems to work well. Increasing the number will mean that more matches will be found, but they will be sorted with the best matches at the top.



If Use Spot Colors is checked, the TLC spot colors will be matched to the colors published for the substances. If Use UV/Visible is checked, the visibility of the spots is considered in the search.




Similarly, the Thallus Spot Tests and UV Reactions (also sometimes called “Nylander” or “Character” tests) are enabled or disabled by the checkbox indicated below.




Again, the search using colors (for both TLC Spot Tests and Thallus Spot Tests) differs somewhat for the RF Error method and the Correlation Method.

The RF Error color matching is a simple “Pass-Fail” test. The measured color on the left is matched to the published color along the top. If there is a “1” in the intersecting row and column, the colors are considered a match. If there is a “0”, there is no match, and the substance will not be included in the search.


With the Correlation method, colors that are close, such as Orange and Brown, may not match exactly, but consideration is given that there is some subjectivity in deciding the colors, and a closer match may be accepted if other values are close. The numbers in the Color Matching Table for Correlation are expressed in percent. A 100% will always be considered a match, while 0% is always a failure. Anything in between will reduce or increase the probability of a match, depending on the other measured spot values.


Note: If RF Error is selected, but the Correlation Color Matching Table happens to be loaded, the program will interpret any percent 50 or above as a 1, and any percent below 50 as a zero. In this way, the Correlation Color Matching Table can be used at all times even when switching matching methods.

Searches can be saved once configured. There is a default search (SearchConfigDefault.scfg) that is loaded whenever the program is started, and this search cannot be saved over. If you need to change default settings, you will need to save with a different name, then outside the program rename the newly saved file to the default name.