Curve2 Tips

In our ColorForums, I have posted a couple of responses to some frequently asked questions about our Curve2 software.

The first post discuses how the spider graph in the software relates to the control points.
http://www.colorforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1780

Today's post describes what to do with the Run-to-run tab that shows up when you have more than one run.
http://www.colorforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=5333#5333

i1 sale ends soon

CHROMiX is having a sale on ALL i1 products from X-Rite, for a very (very) limited time. Any product that has an "i1" on it will cost you 10% less up until midnight of Wednesday, November 21st.

https://www2.chromix.com/ColorGear

Purchase any 'i1' product before Thanksgiving and we'll take an additional 10% off the CHROMiX price for all i1 items on your order. All i1 product is included in this sale.

Announcing Curve3

Seattle, WA - Oct 2, 2012 - CHROMiX and HutchColor announce the newly updated Curve3™ G7® calibration software at Graph Expo 2012 in Chicago.

Curve 3 is the successor to the industry-leading Curve2™ G7 calibration tool.  Curve2 evolved from the original IDEALink Curve calibration tool that helped launch G7 and establish it as an industry-changing technology.

Curve3 builds upon Curve2's core capabilities with a strong list of additional features requested by the industry:

-         Innovative multi-dimensional data smoothing

-         Special (CMYK+) ink calibration for packaging

-         Spectral VPR (applies curves to full-spectral data)

-         New black-point options for ink-jet and digital

-         Enhanced TVI calibration for European users

-         Intelligent error-reporting and resolution

-         User-specified starting calibration

-         User-defined control point lists

-         Expanded graphs & reports

        … and more

In addition, Curve3 supports OneRun targets and Esko's PressSync® calibration scheme. OneRun targets combine the P2P and profiling targets into one, saving press sheet room and aiding G7 calibration of smaller presses. An upgraded Curve3 Virtual Press Run (VPR) module will be released at the same time. VPR simulates press runs, generating curved color measurements for ICC profiling and saving thousands of dollars. Pricing of Curve3 and VPR will be similar to previous Curve2 pricing. Upgrades for past customers will be available at 50% of MSRP.

Curve3 will be shown at GraphExpo Chicago, McCormick Place South in the Konica Minolta booth #421. CHROMiX and HutchColor will demo Curve2, Curve3 and also CurveCore, an SDK for developers or manufacturers who want to embed G7 calibration into their products. Konica Minolta designates CHROMiX and HutchColor as 'Technology Partners'. Konica Minolta's new Color Care v2.2 software utilizes the CurveCore SDK to offer G7 calibration to Konica Minolta customers.

Calibration on Mars

Here is some interesting reading for the geeks among us who might be curious how one goes about calibrating a camera on Mars: 

• http://www.wired.com/curiosity-mars-rover-cameras/

And here are some details about the calibration target used on the Curiosity:

• http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/?ImageID=3804

Quiz your fellows over the water cooler: How much US currency is on Mars?

Actual pictures from Mars coming to us over the next few weeks & months promise to be high quality, clear and sharp.  Not the sorts of images we're used to seeing from other planets!

Viewing a Rendered Gamut in ColorThink

Number 3 in our series of Tips and Tricks for ColorThink shows you how to view a "rendered" gamut in ColorThink Pro. This, combined with the "proofing" gamut can give you both directions of a profile at the same time. This is a great way to analyze the quality of a printer profile.
View it at the ColorSmarts YouTube Channel

or 

At the Tips and Tricks page of the ColorWiki.

Konica Minolta Sensing Announces CHROMiX As A Reseller For Graphic Arts Product Line

RAMSEY, NJ, June 5, 2012
Konica Minolta Sensing Americas, Inc. (KMSA), the worldwide leader in the industrial measurement of color, light and 3D shape, announces the addition of CHROMiX, Inc. as a new reseller of Konica Minolta’s FD- Series Spectrodensitometers.

CHROMiX is the leading provider of technical services and reseller of graphic arts products. They are uniquely positioned as both a software developer as well as a reseller, making them unique in the industry. ColorThink Pro, Maxwell, and Curve2 are three color management software products created by and with CHROMiX which have been widely adapted.

“CHROMiX’s reputation for great customer service as well as a leading voice of color management know-how was a key factor in selecting them as a reseller of the Konica Minolta instruments” said Russell Doucette, Business Development Manager for KMSA.  “We look forward to CHROMiX supporting us with our growing product line of instruments and software for the offset and digital printing markets as well as quality control and formulation.”

CHROMiX has taken on the FD series product line because of its cutting edge approach to address the M0, M1 and M2 standards. “Offering our customers cutting edge products and software to meet their needs has always been priority one”, says Steve Upton, President of CHROMiX, Inc. “We believe the products brought forth by Konica Minolta will allow our customers yet another choice for measuring and achieving the best color accuracy.”

Learn more about the FD Series spectrodensitometer by visiting our website today.

Leg, Arm & Back Braces

One of the more satisfying uses of modern digital printing has to be helping kids who need artificial limbs and braces to have customized images of their choice printed into their brace.

Here is one of our targets printed onto a plastic prosthetic material, and a sample of the colorful designs that can be imprinted onto these braces.
We profile this material too!
What can we do for you?

ColorThink Grapher: What does bad look like?

Number 2 in the ColorThink Tips & Tricks video series is:
What does bad look like?

People who are using the ColorThink Grapher for the first time might not have much perspective on what a gamut is supposed to look like. You might not know a bad profile if you saw it! This tip goes through a range of different problems that we have come across which the ColorThink Grapher is particularly adept at identifying. You can view this at our ColorSmarts channel on YouTube, or in the "Tips and Tricks" page of the ColorWiki.

New instrument from X-Rite

After almost a decade in the color management industry, it's about time they replaced this instrument with a new model.  X-Rite today announced that they are coming out with a new i1Pro spectrophotometer:  the "i1Pro 2".

The first i1Pro I ever purchased goes way back to 2004 - a "Rev A" instrument.   There have been improvements in subsequent revs - most notably speed - but the form of the instrument has not changed appreciably even through a major acquisition and merger.   One of the main improvements with this new device is an additional patch detection sensor.  This aids in the detection of the space between patches so that the main spectrophotometer head can use more of its measurement information toward more accuracy and better averaging of the patches.  It also has two built-in light sources so that it can produce tungsten, D50 daylight and UV-cut measurements, all in the same device, without changing filters.   It has temperature compensation and noise reduction for dark patches - two more features we've been bemoaning not having in the previous i1Pro.

If you want a killer deal on one of the old i1Pros, you can still get them for a little while yet.
CHROMiX has the i1Pro and the new i1Pro 2 available on our website.

 

Eizo profiles iPads

I just discovered that Eizo has added a procedure for profiling tablet displays, phones, etc. to their new ColorNavigator software.  They call it Media Emulation.  ColorNavigator is the free profiling software that works with their higher-end monitors like the "CG" series. With this feature, you can choose an option for "Create ICC profile for tablet/display device..." and the software will send a series of color patches to a web site that your tablet can access. As you place your measurement instrument on the portable display, ColorNavigator will read the colors and create an ICC profile.

Now you have a means of profiling these displays even though you cannot connect a USB measurement device directly to them! You can use the resulting profile to "soft-proof" what your images will look like when they are viewed on these displays. Available on the latest version of ColorNavigator (version 6.1.1).

Tips and Tricks for ColorThink

http://youtu.be/tXQUPe29YmY 
    I have just posted on our YouTube account the first of (what might be) a series of short movies detailing how to do some tip or trick in ColorThink. Most people nowadays like to see a piece of software demonstrated in action rather than having to read a manual about it. It just somehow makes something easier to understand if you can actually watch somebody walk through it. This first video demonstrates how to use ColorThink Pro to check optimum ink limiting from a measured linearization file for a RIP.

These will also be posted in the ColorWiki:
http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/ColorThink_Pro_Tips_and_Tricks_-_Videos

Linearization and Optimization

 
Check it out. Tell me what you think. Tell me what you would like to see in the future. This topic came to us because a customer filled out a "Feature Request" - wanting us to add this feature in a future version of ColorThink. I had the pleasure of showing him how he could already do this using the current version of ColorThink Pro!

We profile CDs

Ever profile a CD?  We used to profile CDs more often when the technology was new. Since then it has become fairly easy to profile the sheets of adhesive label materials which are then applied to the CDs.

But more recently Teac has come out with a dye sublimation printer that prints directly onto the CD itself: http://www.teac.com/disc_publishing/thermal_disc_printers/p-55c/

We can profile that too!  This illustration is a set of CD targets we developed for use in profiling printers like this.

What can we do for you?

Datacolor announces the Spyder4

Just when you think X-Rite has cornered the market on display calibrators with its new i1 Display Pro, here comes Datacolor with a new Spyder4!

This new device has 7 color sensors instead of the the usual 3.  The software has added capability to do uniformity testing, better matching of multiple monitors, and they will be providing some means of correcting color on an iPhone/iPad.


I'll be looking forward to testing this in the future.

http://download.datacolor.eu/newsletter/2012-01-05-US/