Say goodbye to an old friend

i1Pro - Rev A

You knew this day was coming color management geeks.  With the release of its latest version of i1Profler, X-Rite has revealed that its flagship software will no longer support the earliest models of the i1Pro spectrophotometer. 

The i1Pro first came to market in 2001 which is a million years ago in digital imaging years. It has been a stalwart component of the color management toolbox for years.  Even after X-Rite came out with the i1Pro 2 and now the i1Pro 3 & the i1Pro 3 Plus,  there were quite a few of these original units floating around in the industry.   If you still have one of these older i1Pros (Rev A, B, C or D), then know that they will no longer operate on the newest version of i1Profiler: version 3.2 or newer.  

i1Pro 3 Plus instrument from X-Rite

For years this blog has been proudly telling our profiling secrets to all who would listen.  One of the policies that makes for a better profile, for certain papers and fabrics, is the use of polarized measurements.  Our president, Steve Upton, has been hammering on the instrument makers for years to please include polarizing capability into their new instruments.   One company that had seemed deaf to our pleas has been X-Rite.

Turns out, maybe they were listening after all!  X-Rite recently announced a new i1Pro:  The i1Pro 3 Plus.  This model is made specifically to take measurements of textiles and other unusual materials.   Important features include:

- Polarization filter that enables the instrument to take M3 measurements

- A larger, 8mm aperture to get better sampling of fabric patterns

- The instrument can support transmission scanning for backlit film.

- The IO table has been updated to support this new i1Pro 3 Plus, and now enables measuring backlit materials.

The new i1Pro 3 Plus and the new IO table are slated to be available in July, 2019.

X-Rite press release on i1Pro 3 Plus

Profiling Secrets revealed!

Steve Upton, Pat Herold and Rick Hatmaker are gearing up to head to the PIA Color Conference 2019 in San Diego coming up in January 12th to 15th.  Pat will be presenting a session on how to make great profiles. Steve has a couple of sessions on verification & troubleshooting inkjet output, as well as analysis of expanded gamut printing.

CHROMiX will also be providing a 20th Year Birthday Cake during the 3:20 pm afternoon break on Monday the 14th. Come join us if you can!

Last year was a surprisingly great conference in the new location with a lot of new people.   This year promises to be even better!

Color 2019 is back with more than 35 in-depth sessions, featuring four tracks, including Brand & Design, Print Production How-to's, Wide Format Inkjet, and Standards & Research. Whether you're a creative, brand professional, production specialist, or a color management expert, there will be sessions that are well-matched for you at this year's conference. Color 2019 is where you'll find the best, most practical and in-depth information from the best minds in color—and gain knowledge that will strengthen your competitive edge.

Visit www.printing.org/color for more information!

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

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. 

CHROMiX on NEC Google+ hangout

Hey everyone… I just spent an hour discussing color management on the NEC Google+ hangout panel. It was a live discussion and a YouTube video recording is available at NEC Google+ hangout discussion. Check it out!

X-Rite discontinues devices

End of these devices

X-Rite discontinues instruments

Now that the eXact has been released, X-Rite has stopped selling many of their handheld measurement instruments.  In an effort to streamline their products, they are discontinuing many older measurement devices. The new eXact is replacing some of these and some legacy devices will have trade-in value for upgrades.

Already discontinued as of March 30, 2013:
518, 528, DensiEye 700 (most models), SpectroEye LT.

Discontinued June 30, 2013 will be:  530, 530+IntelliTrax bundles, 939, 939M, SpectroEye, SpectroEye+IntelliTrax bundles. X-Rite will continue to provide support and service for 7 years after the discontinuation date.  Here is the link to X-Rite's partial list of discontinued products:

http://www.xrite.com/top_support.aspx?action=discontinued

No HCT in i1Profiler

The latest version of i1Profiler (v 1.4.2) has added the ability to make a scanner profile. The workflow supplied by X-Rite requires the user to select from a short list of supported scanner targets. There does not appear to be any way to choose a target that is not in this list, and the HCT scanner targets made by Hutchcolor are not included.

These are very good quality scanning targets, and should be a perfect match for X-Rite's latest software update.  Several people have been asking why the HCT targets are not included and if they will be included in a future release of the software.

According to Don Hutcheson, X-Rite will have to modify the software in order to make it HCT-compatible. Discussions on that subject are under way but there is no official confirmation from X-Rite about when, or if, i1Profiler will make HCT profiles. Those with HCT targets are recommended to use MonacoProfiler or basICColor scan+ to make good quality scanner profiles.

Customers of both of these products should feel free to contact X-Rite about this, and let their needs be known.

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.

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.

 

Munki confusion

Since X-Rite has come out with a new model of colorimeter for calibrating monitors, I just know this is going to confuse people, so I thought I'd explain things. Internally, X-Rite refers to the device as the "i1D3" to reflect how it is intended to replace the i1 Display 2. But this single device comes in two different models:

1. - i1 Display Pro
2. - ColorMunki Display

The i1Display Pro is nothing like the "i1 Pro" - and -

The ColorMunki Display is nothing like the "ColorMunki"

The i1Pro instrument is a well-known spectrophotometer, and can be used to make printer profiles as well as monitor profiles. Let's try not to talk about the "i1 Pro" when we really mean the i1 Display Pro.

Also, the ColorMunki display is an entirely different device from what most people refer to as a ColorMunki device - which is a low-end spectrophotometer for calibrating displays and printers.

The i1Display Pro and the ColorMunki Display are identical in form, but the basic difference is that the i1Display Pro is faster and more expensive, and the ColorMunki Display is slower and costs less. http://blog.chromix.com/2011/06/x-rites-i1display-pro-colormunki.html

i1Profiler version 1.1.1 now available

X-Rite just released version 1.1.1 of i1Profiler on June 28th. This version has a few improvements in how it performs monitor calibrations:

• You can choose between small (119), medium (220) and large (478) patch sets when doing advanced display calibration.

• You can now specify a contrast ratio in order for the display to match the ICC standard PCS black point (287:1).

• You can now use the contrast ratio of a printer profile as the target contrast ratio for a display profile.

• They've made miscellaneous bug fixes that seems to be making the whole program more stable according to early reports from users.

Besides the new features, X-Rite is also reporting a list of known issues and important points to be aware of. Every user of i1profiler would find this well worth reading:

http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=1397&Action=support&SupportID=5503

X-Rite's i1Display Pro & ColorMunki Display - NEW

X-Rite has just announced two new monitor calibration products called the i1Display Pro and the ColorMunki Display. i1Display Pro is geared for those who want pro-level functions and control, and ColorMunki towards those who want easy of use. The i1Display Pro uses i1Profiler software, and Color Munki Display uses ColorMunki software.

Based on CHROMiX tests of the i1Display Pro, the results are very good (especially compared to the i1Display 2 product). Expect a review in the near future from CHROMiX.

Both i1Display Pro and ColorMunki Display products should be a welcome new addition to the market. Both are based on a new colorimeter device with a new optical system and with a new filtering technology. Both have a new, intelligent and innovative form factor.

Main features included for both products are emissive measurement, ambient light measurement and sensing controls, flare compensation, iterative profiling, and automatic display control (ADC).

The i1Display Pro is faster (5x) than the ColorMunki Display and the i1Display2 and includes a Display Quality Assurance verification, and a Display Uniformity Test.


CHROMiX beta-tested the i1Display Pro for X-Rite and found it to be a superb product, especially for the price point. We're not sure yet about ship date, but expect August 2011.

The i1Display Pro is expected to be street priced around ~$250 and the ColorMunki Display around ~$175. CHROMiX will be selling both units at competitive prices. And until September 30, 2011... you can trade in an old device and receive up to $40 for an i1Display Pro and $25 for a ColorMunki Display.

Rebate form

Main product information PDF

To buy at CHROMiX: i1Display Pro or ColorMunki Display