To ensure the reproducibility of the dyeing of cotton knit by cold pad batch(CPB), the solubility, alkali stability and substantivity of multi functional type reactive dyes were tested. The color difference of the cotton knit CPB dyeing products between laboratory and dye house was measured. The results showed that the equipments, dyes and fabrics, all of them influenced the color differences of the final samples between the laboratory and dye house. These factors could not be controlled to reduce the color difference between the laboratory and dye house in the conventional computer color matching algorithm. A new color match prediction method based on the non-negative matrix factorization(NNMF) algorithm was introduced and the applicability was studied by comparing with the conventional color match prediction method based on the Newton-Lapson algorithm. The color match prediction method based on the NNMF showed more accurate recipe prediction results than the conventional color matching method for the CPB dyeing process of cotton knit fabric.