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

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

 

New Barbieri Spectro Coming

Here's something new. Barbieri is going to announce a new spectrophotometer at FESPA digital in Hamburg, Germany in about a month. FESBA is a digital print trade show for the (mostly) European market, and it starts May 24th. Barbieri makes several other spectros which we have tested and liked (and commented on). I can't wait to see what new instrument is coming out on the market!

Besides the Spectro LFP and Spectro Swing, BARBIERI electronic will present their new model of spectrophotometers which is specially designed for a wide range of Large Format Printing applications.

http://www.barbierielectronic.com/n_FESPA2011.htm

X-Rite standard for Graphic Arts

X-Rite announces a new graphic arts standard called "XRGA".

Since the merger between GretagMacBeth and X-Rite, the company has maintained the original products in the product lines pretty much as they were. For the pressroom, X-Rite continued producing the X-Rite 530, 938, 939 and the GretagMacbeth SpectroEye, and the i1Pro, etc.

However, each of these two camps of instruments was designed with slightly different calibration standards, and there were enough differences between the two types of instruments that there would be discrepancies when trying to compare the same colors measured using different instruments. To solve this, X-Rite has come up with a matrix of transformation calculations that can be used so that the output from these different instruments will be much more in alignment with each other and provide inter-model agreement. This new standard is called "XRGA".

They are rolling this out in new instruments starting in September 2010. For customers using existing instruments, X-Rite will make available firmware and software updates free of charge to allow your instrument to output the new XRGA standard measurements. This applies to currently-sold instruments only - they will not support instruments that have been discontinued.

In addition, there will be a new version of Colorport (version 2.0) available in or after October, 2010, which will allow you to save data from any of these instruments in either the XRGA standard or the original measurement response.

I have to note also, that the discrepancies we're talking about here are (depending on your perspective) not too large. We're talking about delta E differences of between .6 ∆E to 1.6 ∆E (dE76) or so.

This provides a needed correction for anyone using multiple spectro's. It is unfortunate that X-Rite's testing and the XRGA standard does not cover the iSis chart reader. Since the release of Rev E of the iSis, customers have reported a significant change in the calibration white point of this new rev of the instrument and it would have been good to have a means of making legacy versions of the iSis consistent with the new Rev E version.

We hope to see more from X-Rite on this in the future.

For more information on XRGA see the X-Rite webpage:

http://www.xrite.com/XRGA

Barbieri comes out with a spectro with a polarizing filter

Starting May 1, 2010 Barbieri releases a new Spectrophotometer called the Spectro LFP Series 3 - which among other things can measure profiling targets using a polarizing filter. We have not seen a device with a polarizing filter since the SpectraScans were discontinued by X-Rite. At $8000, I'm not suggesting that everyone run out and buy one, but if you make printer profiles for media that has flat or bumpy surfaces like canvas or other fabrics - this will get you the shadow detail in your profiles that you won't get any other way.

http://www.barbierielectronic.com/p_spectroLFP.htm

It's great to see a currently-produced product, that is compatible with today's operating systems, that can take polarized measurements.