Methods and devices identify gloss levels and appearance colors for different printers based on the common printing capabilities of the different printers. Such gloss levels and appearance colors are formed from different combinations of one or more colorant marking materials combined or stacked on a print substrate surface. Further, such methods and devices identify common color metameric pairs based on the gloss levels and the appearance colors. Each of the common color metameric pairs has the same appearance color, but has a different gloss level. Patterns of different gloss levels in an area of uniform appearance color form a differential gloss security feature on a printed document. The methods herein can store a file with the common color metameric pairs in a non-transitory storage medium that is operatively connected to at least one of the different printers.