The invention relates to a computer implemented process for matching a paint to the visual appearance properties of a painted substrate surface comprising the steps of a) selecting a potentially matching first candidate paint based on a first paint recipe comprising one or more color and/or effect imparting toners, b) applying the first candidate paint to a test panel to obtain a first painted test panel c) visually comparing the appearance properties of the painted substrate surface and the first painted test panel under more than one viewing angle, wherein the visual comparison comprises c1) selecting a visual appearance category wherein the appearance of the painted test panel most prominently deviates from the painted substrate, wherein the categories are selected from a number of pre-defined visual appearance categories displayed on an output device of a computer, c2) inputting the selected visual appearance category in an input device of the computer, c3) visually determining the visual appearance difference of the painted test panel and the painted substrate in the selected appearance category, d) entering the determined visual appearance difference in an input device of the computer, e) optionally, entering only the types of toners of the candidate paint in an input device of the computer, f) providing a paint recipe modification advice consisting an advice of increasing or reducing one or more of the toners in the recipe, or adding an additional toner to the recipe or, on an output device of the computer, wherein the computer software provides the modification advice on the basis of i) the entered visual appearance difference and ii) a database in which only visually determined appearance properties of available toners under two or more viewing angles are stored, with the aim to minimize the appearance difference, g) preparing a second candidate paint based on the recipe modification advice, h) applying the second candidate paint to a test panel to obtain a second painted test panel, and i) repeating steps c) to h) until the visual comparison in step c) indicates that the candidate paint sufficiently matches the appearance properties of the painted substrate surface.