Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a new evolutionary algorithm which mimics the immigration and emigration of species among islands. Used widely in packaging and printing to obtain a colorful appearance, the spot color matching (SCM) is formulated as a complex multi-dimensional optimization problem. In this article, BBO is combined with the harmony search (HS) and opposition-based learning (OBL) approaches to construct an effective hybrid algorithm for solving the SCM problem. HS is used to enhance the local searching ability of BBO, and OBL is employed to increase the diversity of initial population; consequently, the exploration and exploitation abilities of the hybrid algorithm are enhanced and well balanced. Experiment results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.