CHROMiX is the WINNER of the 2022

Barbieri Excellence Award for Business Performance

CHROMiX has been selected by Barbieri for it's Excellence Award! 

"CHROMiX develops software for the digital printing market and spectral color data is a cornerstone for its software evaluations. We found there there is a deep understanding in how to connect and integrate spectral data and color measurement technology which allows customers to gather the highest accuracy."

The feeling is mutual. We love Barbieri devices and work hard to incorporate effective and seamless compatibility with our software.

Here is a link to Barbieri's Hall of Excellence for more depth in details of this award.

Better transmissive profiles

A few years ago I posted here about the popularity of our transmissive profiles.
http://blog.chromix.com/2010/07/transmissive-profiles.html
Now, these profiles are faster, better and less expensive.  Since that post in 2010 we have invested in a state-of-the-art Barbieri LFP spectrophotometer, which makes it possible to take transmissive measurements using our standard target. 

The word "transmissive" means we are capturing the measurements of the color as it passes through the clear or semi-opaque material.  The effect of a light source transmitting through the semi-clear media and through the ink can best be captured using a spectrophotometer that is specially made for this purpose.  You might use transmissive profiles if you are producing images intended to be back-lit in light boxes or other such displays.

Before, we would have to charge $150 per profile for RGB Transmissive profiles because of the great deal of handling involved in making these measurements using the DTP-41T.  Now, we use the same target we use for the ColorValet Pro service.  This means that ColorValet Pro customers can now get transmissive profiles for only $49 more per profile.  And for our regular ColorValet customers, we have been able to lower our price for standalone RGB transmissive profiles to $99.00.    (CMYK transmissive profiles are still $150.)

https://www.chromix.com/colorgear/shop/productdetail.cxsa?toolid=50191

Curve4 new features - the video

Steve Upton and Don Hutcheson explained the new features of Curve4 recently in a webinar.  There are so many new tools and modules in this new version of Curve that it really helps to watch the makers explain it all.  

You can watch the YouTube video of the whole presentation here:

https://youtu.be/sbnR_nYStUk

Or go directly to the highlight of your choice:

Built-in measuring ability

The calibrate tool

New targets available for Curve4

New ink limiting feature

Re-calibrate using smaller targets

The Blend Tool

Questions and Answers

A new Measurement Tool

CHROMiX has been quietly adding the ability to directly drive a number of popular spectrophotometers in the industry, originally for the Client software that works with our Maxwell database.  We will be rolling that same capability out to our new software products as well.   People have been begging us for this feature for years!   Besides the Maxwell Client, you can see this feature in Curve4 Verify - recently released.  Expect to see this even more in the future.

I have produced some videos to show how this new measurement module works.
 X-Rite i1Pro,  X-Rite iSis  X-Rite IO table   Barbieri LFP  KonicaMinolta FD-9

Barbieri and Maxwell

Maxwell got a nice plug from Barbieri at the recent ISA show in Las Vegas.

Our Maxwell Client works closely with the Barbieri SpectroPad to load tracks onto the instrument and pull off measurements for uploading into Maxwell.

This makes for a great combination: Wireless portability, instant pass/fail reporting,  and connection with the Cloud for tracking color anywhere in the world.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/barbieri-front-center-isa-sal-passanisi

Check your instruments

The beginning of a new year is a great time to take stock of all your measurement devices.  I'm thinking that peak time around your company is winding down now, and you have a bit of time to devote to some proactive maintenance.

This is a good time to:

•  Run your spectros through any diagnostic programs that are available for your devices.  Barbieri has a software tool called "Service Report" for all of their instruments and X-Rite has a utility called "i1Diagnostics" that has been recently updated to work with the i1Pro 2 and IO 2 table.

The reason why you want to run your instruments through these tools when there is nothing wrong with them, is so you can have a record of what your instrument looks like when everything is good.  Run your instrument through the diagnostic tool, save the result and keep it for the future.  Someday you'll thank me when you have a color problem and the idea goes through your mind, "I wonder if the instrument is bad?"  You can run the process again and hopefully say, "Well the service report shows basically the same numbers it did when we ran the same test back in January."

• An even better way to have assurance of instrument accuracy is to measure a control tool on a regular basis.  This control tool would be a control strip that is specially made to be stable and colorfast for a long time.   We sell the Vogelsong COLORef and also bundle it with our MeasureWatch service of Maxwell.  This combination gives you a quality control strip as well as an easy way to track the accuracy of your device as you make routine instrument checks over time.  The idea is that if an instrument is going out of spec. you'll know about it ahead of time.