X-Rite Announces New i1Pro 2 Professional Color Management Solutions for Photo, Pre-press, Publishing and Digital Printing Markets

New solutions include all-new second-generation i1Pro spectrophotometer delivering increased accuracy, ease of use and expanded professional level feature set

X-Rite i1Publish Pro 2 Color Profiling Software Bundle

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., (April 11, 2012) – X-Rite, Incorporated (NASDAQ: XRIT), the world leader in color management, measurement and communication technologies, today announces its new portfolio of i1 Professional Color Management Solutions which now include a newly redesigned i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer.

Built upon the success of X-Rite’s i1Pro spectrophotometer as the de facto industry standard for more than a decade, the newly enhanced i1Pro 2 device has been redesigned to provide an even higher level of accuracy, versatility, ergonomics, functionality and value. Combined with the recently released i1Profiler software v1.3, which accommodates all levels of proficiency and expertise, the new i1Pro 2 portfolio of four different products is specifically targeted to meet the unique needs of photo, pre-press, digital print and publishing professionals, providing exceptional value at very attractive price points.

This new portfolio, comprised of X-Rite’s i1Basic Pro 2, i1Photo Pro 2, i1Publish Pro 2 and i1Publish products feature groundbreaking new technology and applications. Each Pro solution includes the new i1Pro 2 second generation spectrophotometer – the most accurate and forward thinking profiling device available today accommodating three measurement conditions in one single device. These conditions include the most commonly used M0 (Standard Illuminant A), the emerging M1 (illuminant D50) and M2 (known as UV-cut). Also included are i1Profiler, X-Rite’s entirely new next generation color profiling software, PANTONE Color Manager color swatch bridging software and ColorChecker Camera Calibration software.

“Exceptionally accurate color measurement and calibration remain basic building blocks for professional-level workflow,” commented Vic Stalam, X-Rite’s Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing. “Nowhere is repeatable, predictive color management more critical than in the prepress, digital printing and photography markets that make up the core imaging market customer base for X-Rite. With the introduction of these new products, X-Rite once again delivers to color professionals around the world the products they need that incorporate important emerging color standards.”

About Next Generation i1Pro 2 Spectrophotometer

The i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer introduces a new level of color accuracy, delivering increased ease of use and an expanded professional level feature set, including supporting the latest developments in industry measurement standards. i1Pro 2 solutions are sure to maximize profitability and minimize wasted time, ink and paper, while delivering the confidence that the user’s digital workflow is perfectly and professionally calibrated and profiled.

New i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer highlights:

New illuminant design allows for 3 standard measurement conditions (ISO 13655 M0: Tungsten; ISO 13655 M1: D50; ISO 13655 M2: UV Cut) plus Optical Brightener Compensation (OBC) without changing filters or needing a second instrument.

Enhanced Optical Brightener Compensation allows for the most accurate profiling for today’s enhanced range of substrates. Now users can predict what colors printed on optically brightened paper will look like under different light conditions using a single hand-held device.

Positioning Detection Sensor provides a more robust scanning experience even on special substrates and low-resolution printers. It allows for the measurement of smaller patch sizes (as low as 7mm) in manual mode and enables dual measurement workflows for OBC, M1 and M2.

New Status LED guides users through the measurement process and provides feedback on device status, improving the user experience.

New Design Ergonomics throughout allows for greater usability, flexibility, cleaning, protection, and storage of the precision i1Pro 2 device.

Better temperature stability and higher brightness levels improves emissive measurement, resulting in the best possible calibration and profiling of monitors and projectors.

All new diagnostics and self-correction features

Built-in wavelength calibration technology allows for self-diagnosis of optical grating in relation to sensor during white calibration (with automatic correction and notifications).

Maintaining and protecting the device (and investment) is easier than ever

Self-cleanable aperture protection glass and calibration white tile cover provides additional built-in protection from dust and dirt.

About i1Profiler Software

With the latest release of i1Profiler software v1.3, X-Rite has further enhanced this next generation professional color management software. i1Profiler offers an unprecedented level of flexibility and features a number of unique color management capabilities such as optimizing profiles, creating profiles with ambient light measurements, compensating for optical brighteners in papers, and utilizing simple yet advanced controls for black separation and providing significant ink savings, adding to users’ power and control in creating professional quality profiles. Users can choose between a ‘basic’, wizard-driven interface; or an ‘advanced’, user-driven interface to create high quality, precise, custom color profiles for monitors, projectors, printers, and presses.

New i1Profiler Software v1.3 highlights:

• i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer support added for monitor, projector and printer profiling
• M1 measurement condition support added
• White point editing added – from current measurement, saved measurement, ICC profile, or custom
• Improved CGATS reading module
• Improved handling for printer test chart measurement
• Default patch size reduced to 7mm
• Two new measurement workflows added:
• Measure Chart – specify number of rows and columns
• Measure Reference Chart – import CGATS reference from ProfileMaker 5
• Improved CMYK+n profile generation
• Russian language support added

About X-Rite i1 Professional Color Management Solutions

i1Basic Pro 2 is a fundamental solution for high-end monitor and projector profiling, monitor and printing quality verification, and spot color measurement. Designed for an imaging professional’s unique needs, i1Basic Pro is ideal for an effective workflow in a color-managed ecosystem. i1Basic Pro includes i1Profiler software, PANTONE Color Manager software and an i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer. 

i1Photo Pro 2 is specifically designed for discerning photo professionals to manage their RGB workflow from camera to display and projector to print. Professional photo users will enjoy the highest quality color results that especially target highlight and shadow details and delivers greater color accuracy for more neutral grays and natural skin tones. With the new Optical Brightener Compensation capability, photographers can even optimize their prints by taking into account optical brightening agents often found in photo papers and create output profiles for specific lighting conditions in studios or galleries, or wherever the print will be displayed.

i1Publish Pro 2 is the ultimate, fully-featured ICC profiling solutions for imaging professionals that need to color manage their complete RGB, CMYK and CMYK+ (CMYK plus any 4) prepress workflows, complete with quality assurance validation and verification functions. This includes a display QA function to check soft proofing and a printer QA function to check print quality using ISO 12647-7 compliant media wedges (IDEAlliance Digital Control Strip, Fogra Media Wedge, Japan Color Control Strip). With the Optical Brightener Compensation (OBC) capability users can easily adapt to any non-standard viewing environment. With the M1 measurement capability, imaging professionals can rely on consistent measurement for visual matching under emerging industry standard viewing conditions.

i1Photo Pro 2 and i1Publish Pro 2 include i1Profiler software, an i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer, PANTONE Color Manager software, ColorChecker Proof target (for direct viewing analysis of ColorChecker target compared to customer’s printed target and for Optical Brightener Compensation (OBC) evaluation), mini ColorChecker Classic target, and ColorChecker camera calibration software. i1Publish (a standalone software package) includes all of the above except for the spectrophotometer.

Availability and Upgrades

The new i1Pro 2 Professional Color Management Solutions are immediately available from X-Rite’s online store (North America), and also from the company’s worldwide network of resellers. i1Publish Pro 2 will also be offered with two upgrade options based on original solution purchased. For more information, please visit www.xrite.com or www.XritePhoto.com.

Visit the special launch page for this product here.

Preorder now

• X-Rite i1Basic Pro 2 Color Profiling Software Bundle
• X-Rite i1Photo Pro 2 Color Profiling Software Bundle
• X-Rite i1Publish Pro 2 Color Profiling Software Bundle

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Printing Series: Chromix ColorThink Pro

If you’ve been following my printing series you’ve probably seen me mention the name Douglas Dubler a few times as being the ultimate paper profile guru. Well as you might imagine, I’ve talked with Douglas quite a bit during this series to get advice on improving my own profile making skills so I could share my knowledge with you. During these conversations Douglas would frequently recommend ColorThink Pro as “the” tool to analyze your profiles to make sure you are generating something that is better than what comes with your printer.

Now Douglas is a wildly successful photographer with pockets significant deeper than many of us can ever dream to have, so I was skeptical at first. When I mentioned this to Douglas he was quick to point out that this product could actually save you money by allowing you to validate if your profile was any good or if it was the right profile for the image you were going to print. When I asked how, he said “simple, by preventing you from wasting paper, ink and time on something that isn’t going to look good when its printed.”

This got me to thinking – wow, that sounds cool, but can it really do that? This lead me to go to the web site and check it out, but at first it seemed like a useless tool that just generated some funky graphs. I’m not the uber-geek type, so I thought this app was totally useless. However, I had already made arrangements with Chromix to get a copy and review it, so I gave it the proper due diligence and learned how to use this product properly. It was only then that I discovered the significance of what this product can do with multiple 3D graphs overlaying each other and its powerful worksheet feature. It was at this moment I realized a few things:

1. Adobe Photoshop’s soft proofing kinda sucks – they should license this technology!
2. I can see exactly what is the correct paper (including rendering intent) for my image to maximize the colors rendered on the page. This allows me to know how to get the best print, and try several papers without spending a penny! Wow, that’s both great for my pocketbook AND the environment!
3. While the learning curve is a little tricky at first, once you understand it you’ll find yourself wasting hours playing around in this product because it is just cool as hell to do “what if” scenarios.
4. The ColorSmarts Guide feature is more than just help – it is an advanced wizard system that will allow you to do some powerful things that only geeks would discover on their own (hence the propeller beanie I think <g>).
5. I love this tool!

I’ve also realized in writing my review that I could write a book on this that would probably lose half of my audience so I’m going to do a rather short review that hopefully will grab your attention so that you will take time to learn more online.

Profile Inspector

Profile Inspector Overview Tab

Profile Inspector is a useful tool that will detect any file format problems in your profile, as well as show you the files contents in human readable form. Some of its data can also be edited to give you more human readable names in other products and much more.

This tool can also be your starting point for launching the graphs or the profile medic which can be used to fix a profile that has file format errors (not for correcting profile data errors).

Graphs

Without a question the most valuable feature of this product is the graphing feature. While there’s a bunch of different types of graphs that you can render, split, spin, etc… the thing I found most useful was the ability to identify a bad paper profile. Here’s an example of such a profile:

3D Paper Profile Graphs
Hover to see the good profile graph and
mouse out to see what a bad profile looks like

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to notice that the above graph has nasty chunks missing out of it, and those chunks represent colors that are missing. I knew right away after looking at this profile that something went seriously wrong and that I shouldn’t attempt to print with it (paper and ink saved).

I’ll show more graphs later in this article, but you can do 2D, 3D, and even split them to see inside.You can also change the type and opacity which is useful when graphs overlap each other.

Video

While I found the design of this feature too crude and difficult to use for the average user (remember, I’m programmer who does user-interface work), the concept is really great as you can share the results of your graphs in a video.

Here’s an example I uploaded to YouTube for my Epson Exhibition Fiber review. This graph shows a very good paper profile with an impressive gamut.

Epson Exhibition Fiber Profile 3D Graph(profile created by Epson) 

ColorSmarts Guide

This is a cool tool because it allows you to experiment and learn about features you may not realize exist in this product and it tries to tell you what it did so you can learn yourself. Each time I use this product I try to experiment a new way and check something out. For tonight while writing this review I went down down this path…

Step 1 – Evaluate Device RGB Calibration

Step 2 – Choose a RGB Device Profile

Step 3 – Graph the results

Step 4 – Summary of what was done

While this isn’t the most exciting chart I’ve ever generated, you get the idea of how the workflow of this tool works. It’s the same basic concept for other selections as well, and the key part here is that you learn as you go when the summary tells you exactly what it did.

The cool thing is that even in cases like this you learn about something new that you might not need at the moment, but you’ll remember later when you do. In past wild rides like this I learned about other cool things that I didn’t realize existed before, so this is a handy learning tool.

Graphing image data against display and paper profile color gamut's

Since I already had the display profile loaded, I decide to change the graph type to a smooth volume and lowered the opacity. I then added a paper profile and left it at flat so I could tell which profile was which and then I added a plot of the colors used in one of my images I typically print on this paper.

You can see an example below that shows what I loaded:

Plot Items Dialog allows you to show/hide profiles
as well as control settings

Using the graph I could analyze my image to see how much of the colors were out of the gamut of the paper profile versus my display profile. It’s much easier to see when you click on the image and view it full size, but you can also see the spikes in the center that are the points of the image.

What this graph tells me is that my display has a very wide color gamut that is much larger than my printer profiles color gamut. It also tells me that while my display can render all of the colors of the image, my paper profile can not (a.k.a., out of gamut colors). This is useful for me to know as I may want to work on my image to bring those colors back in gamut for the paper I want to print it on.

Image Colors inside of
a LexJet Metallic Paper Profile inside of
a NEC PA241W-BK Display Profile

Typically the display graph wouldn’t be needed in a image to print analysis, but I did it here just for fun and illustrative purposes. Where this type of analysis is more useful is in the worksheet mode which I will discuss next.

Worksheet Mode - The Ultimate Soft Proofing Tool

Worksheet mode is really cool because you can do transformations (among other things) to see what happens when you convert from one profile to another profile – which is effectively what Photoshop is doing for you when you soft proof an image to see what it might look like when it is printed. Now the images I show you here are for illustrative purposes because there’s no way in hell you’ll be able to see the colors accurately because these images don’t have the color depth of ColorThink Pro AND you are viewing them in a browser. However, you can use these screen shots to get an idea of what I did when you are playing around with your own demo copy.

Here’s a cool one where I wanted to see what happened when my ProPhoto RGB image had the paper profile applied and I was viewing that result in an sRGB color space (like you do in Lightroom or Photoshop by default). The net result (which sadly you can’t see below very well) is that color is lost during each transformation such that sRGB isn’t as colorful as what will actually get printed.

For Illustrative Purposes Only – Colors are inaccurate in  your browser and in the file

Now the above exercise is totally geek stuff that isn’t super useful in the real world so now let’s look at a more useful real-world example.

Identifying Out of Gamut Colors

A common problem I have is that Photoshop will show me ugly gray patches to show that I have colors out of gamut, but I don’t know what colors they really are or what to do with that information. In the worksheet I can actually plot a chart that shows the differences and use a tool to see exactly what colors (in RGB values) are out of gamut (shown in yellow in the middle column).

Examine where the colors that are out of gamut actually are in your image

 

Conclusion

I’m not worthy to review all of the features of this product because many are simply over my head. In addition, many don’t apply to my work. What I really find it most useful for is printer profile evaluation especially in cases (as shown earlier) when I have a bad printer profile or if I want to see where my image is out of gamut for a given paper profile. Using this data I can either work to create a better paper profile, use a different paper or adjust my image to get the results I need.

ColorThink Pro can save you both paper and ink by helping you to identify a bad profile or conversion errors while soft proofing. It’s an important thing to remember because in time this product can pay for itself, so while it may be expensive at first it may only take about 20 large prints that didn’t get printed because of data learned in this product before you break even. 

For people who don’t have soft proofing software (i.e., Lightroom users), this product is extremely valuable for their workflow as this is the most powerful and accurate soft proofing tool I’ve used.  Of course, I realize that this is likely to be a small subset as those doing proofing should have Photoshop. However, even Photoshop users will enjoy the benefit of more accurate soft proofing both visually and in the worksheet and graphs - when they learn how to master this tool.

Finally, I recognize that this isn’t for the beginner or budget minded as it isn’t a cheap $50 product. After using it I recognize that it is cheap for what you get and the hours it had to take building this software could easily justify a price as high as most RIP software.

To this end I have worked hard with Chromix to offer their first ever discount that is exclusive to readers of this blog. I realize this might not be enough for some of  you, but for those who live and breathe printing you should seriously consider taking advantage of this offer while it lasts. 

For those who generate their own paper profiles and can afford it, I highly recommend this product. For the budget minded, go get some good lenses and a ColorMunki first, and come back here when your generating your own paper profiles.

For more information visit Chromix or their wonderful wiki which is filled with tons of great info on color management and more.

Exclusive Special Offer

I am thrilled to announce an exclusive special offer for readers of this blog only. You can save 10% off when you enter apply ronmartblog discount in the shopping cart notes when you purchase any of the following products:

• ColorThink v2
• ColorThink Pro
• ColorValet Pro

You MUST enter apply ronmartblog discount in the shopping cart notes to get the 10% discount, so do not forget this important step! The discount will not show up in your cart but will be confirmed and applied by Chromix when your credit card is charged.

Disclosure

I may get a commission if you take advantage of the special offer or purchase products from select partner links and the special offer in this article. Thanks for your support of this blog by returning here when making your purchases!

Printing Series: Randy Hufford – Visual Artist and Printing Guru

My Favorite Randy Hufford Photo
Copyright © Randy Hufford – All Rights Reserved

Randy Hufford is the photographer we all dream of being one day because he lives in Hawaii, takes great shots and gets to enjoy selling huge prints clients on a regular basis. Tell me you haven’t dreamed of being Randy!!!

While Randy has been enjoying many great days in Paradise as a photographer, he also has been in the business of printing fine art prints for many great artists on the Hawaiian islands. During this time he has amassed an amazing wealth of knowledge about printing that he has shared in his series The Perfect Print which I reviewed on this blog a while back. I loved this series and it has changed the way I work, but few things in this series has been more fun than chatting with Randy on the phone and getting to tap his vast experience that goes beyond what could ever fit on a stack of DVD’s!

Randy on Epson & Canon Printers

Randy is very unique in all off the people that I have interviewed in my printing series because he is not a Epson or Canon sponsored master printer – he’s even better than that. Randy is an authorized reseller of both platforms, so he not only uses them but sales and services them so he knows his printers inside and out – literally!

In his DVD’s you hear him sing the praises of Epson printers of which he has a long and successful history. More recently after the release of the new Canon iPF6300, iPF6350, and iPF8300 printers he has purchased the Canon iPF5100, iPF6350 and iPF9100 printers to run the largest printing business in Hawaii.

When I talked to Randy about which is better, Epson or Canon, his answer was a pretty common one – “they are both fantastic printers so you can’t go wrong with either”. As an owner of both Canon and Epson printers, I couldn’t agree more!

With his in-depth knowledge of both platforms, Randy is the perfect teacher for those who wish to become a master printer on either platform. If you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to hear him do a presentation on printing, then jump on it as you’ll be hard pressed to find someone more experienced with the finest printers from Canon and Epson.

Copyright © Randy Hufford – All Rights Reserved

Randy on ColorByte ImagePrint

The more I use ColorByte ImagePrint (discount) the more I love the results, and the more I find myself just using it to make my life much more simple/efficient. Randy is the same way as his business depends on quality and consistency. He sites ColorByte as having the largest library of profiles that are better than most people can generate themselves as being a key component that make them the only RIP he recommends for the Delta E tolerances he demands of his work.

ImagePrint has a variety of different profiles for each paper, but a useful tip he had is that he generally finds that the RF2 profiles are his favorite. In fact, he said that he typically will use the Relative Colormetric rendering intent for art reproduction and the Perceptual rendering intent for photographs.

While this advice only applies to Epson printers for now, ColorByte is hard at work with new Canon drivers for the next release of ImagePrint (which I’ll definitely review) that are sure to be a hit. ColorByte founder, John Pannozzo, says that he is able to do things with the Canon printers that simply aren’t possible with the Epson for results that will produce the best prints his software has ever created. I’ve seen some pretty amazing stuff rolling off my Epson from John’s software, so this should be pretty fun – Randy and I can’t wait!

Randy on Profiling

Randy’s “The Perfect Print”  is a great resource on profiling your digital devices, but in our discussion he expanded that he really likes to do profiles with at least 918 patches (the more, the better) and that he does profiles using up to 3000 patches (which means he’s got automation <g> – see my X-Rite i1XTreme review for more info).

Copyright © Randy Hufford – All Rights Reserved

Randy on Paper

Randy is a guy who prints every day so he knows what he likes and he uses a lot of it. This is why he is a huge fan of Canvas and does most of his daily printing on it, but he also said that PremierArt’s Smooth Hot Press Fine Art Paper 500 gsm paper has unreal detail! In fact, he was so excited about it that he even promised to send me some to help me find the religion – woohoo!

Copyright © Randy Hufford – All Rights Reserved

Advice for those who want to sell Fine Art Prints

Randy (like Vincent Versace) says that if you want to become a better photographer you need to print your own work, and to sell those prints you need to get them in front of people. This is why he recommends that you carry more than just an iPad! A physical print portfolio is a must so your potential client can connect with the image. He brought this point home by reminding me the experience you have at a fine art gallery where they dim the lights on the image to help you see the image and connect with it.

Some of Randy’s suggestions for success are:

• Consider yourself as a visual artist and not just a photographer
• Create images that control what the viewer does with their eyes
• Make a statement with your images
• Make sure your prints look good in different lights and conditions
• Create a limited edition series (100 or less prints – ever) of your best work, and keep tweaking and refining those images as you print them for your series so that the last images of the series are the best
• Get feedback from others to help you improve and refine your skills

Printing is Randy’s passion so he reminds us that most photographers only want to shoot, so they could never afford to print everything. However, there’s value in doing the printing yourself as you control the output of your original work.For those who print themselves, this extra step in the creative process shows and it is what sells fine art prints!

Randy Prints HUGE 60” wide prints

Randy believes if you show large, you sell large so he prints this at 60” wide!
Copyright © Randy Hufford – All Rights Reserved

Randy has enjoyed his life in paradise by making sure he’s always selling prints, and his key to success is large prints. He says you earn more money with large prints, so to sell large you must show large! Simple but effective advice so he encourages people to have large prints around their home and studio so you have something that will turn visitors into buyers.

He also points out that the bigger you print, the less competition you have. so if you really want to set yourself apart from the masses – go huge! This is why Randy is a big fan of the 60” wide print on his Canon iPF9100 printer. In fact, he’s so excited he’ll be printing a big 60” wide print for me help me understand why he loves large format printing so much. I’ve discovered a great joy when I’ve done big 24”x53” and 24”x43” prints, so I can only imagine how cool it is to see my work on a huge 60” print!

Conclusion

I had a fantastic time talking for hours with Randy, and I’ve learned a ton from his “The Perfect Print” DVD series. If you’ve got any desire to get into printing and make money from your work, this series is a must as Randy explains the real ins and outs of the business like few have the experience to do.

It was an honor to get to meet and know Randy, I encourage you to get to know and learn from Randy as well by watching his DVD series and by visiting his web sites at:

• http://RandyHuffordArt.com
• http://visualimpact.org/
• http://randyhufford.ivamaui.com/

Special Offer

Visit my article on The Perfect Print DVD series by Randy Hufford to get a discount on his DVD series. I loved this series as it is a more in-depth review of all things in the digital workflow from start to finish. It’s what I wanted to do in this printing series, but just don’t have enough hours in the day to accomplish due to my real day job. I HIGHLY recommend it!

Disclosure

When following links from this article for products that may be purchased, I may get a commission if you complete a transaction. Thank you for supporting this blog by using these links when making your purchase. It doesn’t cost you anything extra!

Extreme Color Management with the X-Rite i1XTreme and ProfileMaker 5 – Part 2 of 2

This article is a continuation of Part 1 found here.

i1XTreme Continued…

This section resumes my prior discussion of the i1XTreme Color Management Solution….

Match 3 was a snap to use with only one scan error

When working in Eye-One Match 3, I was able to easily scan the patches and only hit one error when scanning  row 5 shown above, but a simple re-scan solved the problem. In no time flat I had the measurement data I needed and a new profile.

Match 3 Measurement Success

Trouble on the way to Paradise

When scanning Bill Atkinson’s targets RGB 800 WIR Eye-One 2 Page targets shown below (see previous article for more info) I had a much more difficult time.

Bill Atkinson’s RGB 800 WIR Eye-One 2 page target

I’ve tried to establish credibility on this blog by calling things like I see them rather than just doing gloried press release reviews like some other reviewers often do. In this case I have to fully disclose that I hit a speed bump during my review that made me want to toss the i1XTreme system out the window and never do another profile again. Let me explain why I hit these problems, assure you that there are solutions to the problems I hit and why I’m glad that I didn’t give up.

When scanning the color patches you simply hold the button down at the beginning of the row while you are on a white spot, wait for a beep, and then glide the i1 across the page until it stops and release. The software will tell you if you failed (which requires you to rescan the row) or if you can continue (by notifying you to scan the next row).  The system seems simple enough and with the limited test patches (which happed to be much larger too) in the Match 3 product I had no problems. In fact, I thought it was rather fun to use!

With my first success behind me, I decided I’d take on Bill’s big chart because 800 should be a heck of a lot better than 288, right? I could just see this amazing print rolling off my Epson with this new and improved profile that I was about to create, so I scanned with much excitement.

Well, I was excited until I got my tenth “Too Many Errors” alert (see below). I became annoyed at the fact that the user-interface never bothered to tell me what I did wrong or how I could do better next time, so I would scan again and get another failure. I’d scan slower, and I’d scan faster, yet both resulted in the same error. I’d adjust the paper and I’d take my time scanning. All of these efforts seemed to work on at least one occasion, but none of them worked reliably. However, when I got the nod from the MeasurementTool to advance to the next line, I was thrilled to move on – and move on I did.

Too many errors. Please read strip again.
You will hate this error message and
wish evil things up those who created it!

In a little over three hours I scanned the 32 rows of these charts (approximately 400 row scans), so to say I had a few errors is an understatement. I was tired and frustrated with a blister on my right index finger – but I was done. I saw the completion page below and thought I had some great data for ProfileMaker to do its magic and create a killer profile for me.

After 3 Hours of scanning, I thought I was done.
I thought wrong!

After I generated my profile, I quickly examined it in a cool tool called ColorThink Pro (review coming in November 2010 which also shows how to generate and use the charts). Upon inspection (see below), I immediately noticed it was @%#ked up!!!!

3D Graph of my first ProfileMaker ICC Profile
Never try to print using a profile that looks this nasty!!!!

I didn’t need to print to know that I would get horrible results, so I scratched my head and went back to the drawing board.

In doing my analysis, I noticed that my scan chart didn’t look as clean as Bill’s charts, but I thought ProfileMaker would use that data and magically make a great profile. However, what I really discovered is that the tool let me advance to the next slide when it got a row of data – not necessarily a correct row of data (see below) – WTF????

Scan success, but ignore the directions
to move on to the next row!

I felt like an idiot, so I did some more research and proceeded to scan again. This time knowing that a row not only had to be successfully scanned, it also had to be the correct pattern, I found myself investing 5 hours more of my life in getting 32 accurate row scans. FIVE HOURS!!!!

Not the birth of my children, nor my first magazine cover, nor anything I could imagine in the future (i.e., winning the lottery) had brought me more joy than to see the dialog below and know that wouldn’t be scanning any more of those @#king patches again that day!!!!!!

All rows scanned successfully.
One of the greatest accomplishments of my life!

Now I understood why the scan table had an advertisement that read “Need Automation? Add an Eye-One iO!” Pardon my language, but no shit!!!! Holy cow, I looked at that ad in disgust as I scanned for hours – once taking a 12 hour break out of frustration with the device.

With my frustration behind me I was ready to get my reward – a great paper profile, so that meant a visit to ProfileMaker 5.0. While there, I chose Bill Atkinson’s source chart (a text file) as the reference data to compare to my new data (also a text file) as shown here:

Generating the profile in ProfileMaker 5.0

The whole Gamut Mapping stuff confused me, but I found this i1 Gamut Mapping information to be very helpful. In the end, I did all three choices and graphed and printed using all three and got what appears to my eyes to be identical results. I’m sure there are differences and maybe eye isn’t trained enough, but the graphs in ColorThink Pro indicate they are very similar if not identical.

The Reward of Perseverance

An excellent profile generated from my 800 patch scan

To demonstrate the value of profiling I’ve printed the same source photo multiple times using various paper profiles – most of which I’ve generated myself. This test will show how one device can differ from another, as well as the importance of the software in this process.

NOTE: The images shown in this section are photos of prints taken using identical camera settings in identical conditions, but photo reproduction this way is quite tricky so they are subject to human error. The photos of the prints do not truly express the quality of the prints for a variety of reasons, so no conclusions about the paper or print should be made by using these photographs. Instead, they should just be used as a tool to demonstrate significant differences in the background gradient and tones on the tires in one image versus another. Sharpness or alignment may vary slightly due to my sample photos error, not the actual prints.

LexJet Sunset Photo Metallic Profile Test

For this example I am LexJet’s Sunset Photo Metallic paper where they do not provide a paper profile for my Epson Stylus® Pro 3880 printer. I started by trying using the Epson 3800 paper profile (which I know doesn’t work, but I did for illustrative purposes) and got horrible results (mouse over below or click here). To improve upon those results, I created my own profile using the ColorMunki and you’ll notice a huge improvement! Score one for the ColorMunki!!!!

Mouse over (or click here) for LexJet 3800 Profile vs.
Mouse out (or click here) for ColorMunki 3880 Custom Profile

Mouse over (or click here) for the Eye-One Match 3 Profile vs.
Mouse out (or click here) for the MeasureTool/ProfileMaker Profile

Now I probably don’t have to tell you but you’ll notice that the image above (mouse out or click here) was the image with the most tonal range and is the print that most closely represents the stellar results I was getting on my Canon iPF6300 printer using LexJet’s phenomenal profile. If you mouse over above (or click here) you’ll the Eye-One Match 3 profile which is a clear improvement over the ColorMunki profile, but still falls short of the MeasureTool/ProfileMaker profile created using Bill Atkinson’s 800 RGP 2P test patches. Now to be fair for the Eye-One Match 3 I only used the i1 RGB Target 1.5 test patches which only had 288 patches – but you have to go to MeasureTool if you want large or custom patch sets.

What’s the net result here? Naturally, the more patches you test – on your specific model printer – the better your prints will be. You’ll extract more tonal contrast out of the image and more accurately represent the colors you are seeing on your calibrated display. In fact, if you create your profile properly the print you create should blow your display image away.

Conclusion

The scanner and display calibration with this product are both simple yet offer the flexibility for advanced calibration as well. This was great because this was more advanced than what is possible with my beloved ColorMunki. However, what really makes this product worth the money is its ability to generate a exceptional printer profiles.

Fine art printing can be expensive and it is the final representation of your work, so if it doesn’t look amazing then you are selling yourself short. For those who care about the details of their final result, an excellent printer profile is a must! Sadly the profiles generated by others (including paper and printer makers) aren’t always the appropriate choice for the best results possible from your specific printer.

For those who wish to control the process of creating the best possible profile, I’d recommend you consider using an X-Rite i1XTreme UV Cut Color Calibration Solution (which includes Eye-One Match 3) or ProfileMaker (until i1Profiler becomes available). I must also HIGHLY RECOMMEND the i1iO Automated Scan Table. Alternatively, you may also consider the i1iSis as an even faster solution for reading your test charts, but either way automation is critical in my opinion.

For Photography, I do not recommend purchasing the non-UV cut version. I questioned a panel of 5 printing experts featured in this series and they all insisted that the UV cut is required for photographers due to the growing use of papers with Optical Brightening Agents (OBA).

Ordering Information

The X-Rite i1XTreme UV Cut Color Calibration Solution is available from Amazon, Adorama, B&H and other resellers.

ProfileMaker (which includes MeasureTool) is currently only available i1iSis bundles which I could only find on Adorama at this time.

Adorama and B&H both carry the i1iSis

i1iO Automated Scan Table

Save yourself from frustration of manual scanning by purchasing an i1iO Automated Scan Table to complement your i1XTreme system from Amazon, Adorama, or B&H. NOTE: You only need an i1iO or an i1iSis for automation, not both. The i1iSis is the fastest solution from X-Rite.

Special Offer

X-Rite does not offer any special offers on its products, but I’m happy to announce that LexJet (maker of the Sunset Photo Metallic paper featured in this article) does! Click here to learn more.

Disclaimer

X-Rite provided a loaner i1XTreme color management solution for me to use so I could write this article, as well a dongle for use with ProfileMaker. If it were not for X-Rite’s generous support, I could not have brought this article to you. I receive no compensation from X-Rite, but if you purchase products using links in this blog to external sites I might get a commission. Thank you for supporting this blog by returning here when you make your purchases.

Extreme Color Management with the X-Rite i1XTreme and ProfileMaker 5 – Part 1 of 2

Earlier this year I introduced you to color management using the X-Rite ColorMunki which I love and use on all my computers. However, if you’ve been following my printing series you’ll notice that when I list out the gear that my featured photographers are using, you don’t see the ColorMunki mentioned anywhere.Instead you’ll often see the X-Rite i1iO Automated Scan Table or X-Rite i1iSis XL Color Calibration System mentioned along with ProfileMaker.

Why aren’t the top pros using the ColorMunki? Well part of it is because the ColorMunki is still fairly new compared to the i1 system, so many have been doing color management since before it came out. However, another important reason involves calibration on the next level – what I call “Extreme Color Management”.

Extreme Color Management

Extreme Color Management is when you use targets with a lot more than 50 (x2) color samples you get with the ColorMunki along with a high precision spectrophotometer and advanced software (ProfileMaker now i1Profiler coming soon) to create a much more accurate precision profile that is more accurate than what can be accomplished with the ColorMunki. Of course, like in all things in Photography, this means it’s going to cost you more money for that extra precision, but is it worth it?  Stay tuned and I’ll try to show you why you should care and who this configuration is intended for.

A good example of an Extreme Color Management Top Photographer is Douglas Dubler (also an X-Rite Coloratti). Douglas demands the best results and is willing to take the time to create the best profiles to get those results. The fruit of his labor are some of the most impressive prints I’ve ever seen, and ones that can stand the scrutiny of wall-size light boxes like the GTI VPI 52. It is for the most critical eye, yet the results are ones that even a novice can appreciate – even if they can’t quantify why Douglas’ prints are so much better than other master printers.

ProfileMaker 5

When using a ColorMunki or i1Basic, it will come with easy to use software to help you generate a custom profile for your display (and projectors and printers for the ColorMunki). ProfileMaker goes beyond the i1Match takes profiling to the extreme by supporting the generation of profiles for scanners, printers, displays, projectors, and even your digital cameras! This is an advanced end-to-end color management system not only for personal and professional printers, but also publishers CYMK printers! In short, if a device can take a profile, this software can be used to create a profile for it.

I will not do an in-depth review of this software at this time as it is due to be replaced in the near future.

i1Profiler

i1Profiler is the name of the current unreleased software which will replace ProfileMaker 5 at a future date. I hope to bring you more on this product as it becomes available.

i1XTreme

Photo Courtesy of B&H Photo
ColorChecker Targets Sold Separately

The X-Rite i1XTReme Color Calibration Solution (Product Overview) is a product designed to give you advanced color consistency between all of the devices in your digital workflow so you can achieve the best color management possible on the market today. It supports not only the obvious like computer displays and printers, but also scanners, projectors, and even digital cameras! The net result is a color managed workflow that goes beyond the basics that a device like the ColorMunki can provide.

This device and supporting software like ProfileMaker/i1Profiler are critical if you wish to generate your own profile for use with RIP software as you need the ability to print and measure outside of i1Match.

UV Cut or Not?

One thing that has always confused the heck out of me is why there are two different versions of the i1 spectrophotometers – one with a “UV Cut” and one without. Well it turns out that the “UV Cut” was introduced when papers with OBA’s came out as they apparently introduced problems. The Built-in UV filter prevents problems when measuring pigments that fluoresce under UV light or papers that incorporate artificial whiteners (source: Adorama).

Because I work with many papers which have OBA’s (like Canon & Epson papers with the word Bright as well as Metallic paper), I chose to get the UV Cut version. In addition, all of but one of my master printers and RIP software companies that I polled as to which version to get said to get the UV Cut version, so that was good enough for me.

The UV Cut has the same MSRP as the regular version, so the decision as to which one to get should really be based on your needs. It seems that if you’ll be doing a lot of measurements off of real life objects for obtaining color matching information, there are cases where the UV Cut would be a disadvantage. This is why both versions are offered, but sadly you have to pick one or the other – there isn’t an adapter that allows one device to do both (do I hear feature request???).

Using the i1XTtreme System

The ColorMunki is simplicity at its best – just plug and play and follow some really simple wizards. However, using the i1XTreme is a big leap from there as you’ll find yourself getting a lot of complex questions for which there isn’t a lot of useful help or instruction to tell you more about what you are being asked or why you should care. From this perspective, I was a bit disappointed in this system as it felt a bit like being thrown into the deep end of the pool before you know how to swim.

The good news is that I’m a fast learner, so I scratch and clawed my way through a bunch of confusing docs, web articles (some of which went back to 2004) and more to find out the information I needed to know. The question is, was it all worth it? More on that later…

Here’s how I use this i1XTreme system in my studio:

• Display Calibration - All good color management begins with a calibrated display, so I use the i1XTreme to calibrate my display. The process isn’t as pretty, but it is very similar to how it is done with the ColorMunki in my Color Management article. You get asked a few more complex questions, but when in doubt just accept the defaults and move on.
• Scanner Calibration – I’ve always been frustrated with the crappy results I’d get out of my scanner, so it was a pleasant surprise to learn that I could simply scan a test target provided in my kit and run a simple wizard and voila – a nice scanner profile was created. Just as with printer profiles, the difference was like night & day and it was very easy to do. It was actually harder figuring out how to get my scanner software to actually use the profile than it was to create it!
• Printer Profiling – Nothing is more important than printer profiling in my book, because without a proper profile your prints will look like crap. I’ve actually seen top tier photographers and print masters get lazy and not calibrate their displays because they could trust their printer profile so much that they simply needed to do a test print and put it next to their monitor to get an idea of how the colors would shift. You couldn’t do that the other way around without wasting a lot of time and paper, so this is why I think most people really buy this product.

In addition to the above features, you can also use this product to calibrate your projector (which I don’t own) and digital camera (which requires ColorChecker SG which I didn’t have included in my test kit).

Profiling to the Extreme

Bill Atkinson’s RGB 800 WIR Eye-One 2 page target

Epson Stylus Pro and Profiling Guru Douglas Dubler recommends using the targets on Bill Atkinson’s download folder along with Profile Maker (currently only available i1iSis bundles) to create profiles.

Eye-One MeasureTool (included in ProfileMaker)

I was having trouble getting my ColorMunki to calibrate LexJet’s Sunset Photo Metallic (review and coupon code coming soon) paper for my Epson Stylus® Pro 3880 printer to get the same great results I was getting with LexJet’s profile for the Canon iPF6300. The ColorMunki got me close, but it was still too dark and the print had a green tint to it.  Using the i1 with the included Eye-One Match 3 software I was able to generate a profile, that when printed with the Perceptual rendering intent, gave me something that was much closer to the Canon print.

As happy as I was with my new profile, I decided to take it a step farther and try Bill Atkinson’s RGB 800 WIR Eye-One 2 page target to scan in 800 patches to create an even more accurate profile (profiles up to 5202 patches are available). This sounded great because the Eye-One Match 3 had only printed out 288 patches using the default settings (but more patches were available) and Douglas had recommended Bill’s patches.

Click here to read part 2.

Disclaimer

X-Rite provided a loaner i1XTreme color management solution for me to use so I could write this article, as well a dongle for use with ProfileMaker. If it were not for X-Rite’s generous support, I could not have brought this article to you.