An alogrithmic method is identified for compensating for thermochromaticity errors in insitu spectral color measurements of a color printing device. A difference is mapped between spectral measurements of a printed color generated by the color printing device measured at a first or hot temperature and at a second or cool ambient temperature where the mapping comprises a referenceable characteristic of the color printing device. The spectrophotometric measurement of a hot color is compared with colors obtained with thermochromaticity compensation matrix to assess if the measured color corresponds to the desired color which will result when cooled to ambient temperature.