Ron Martinsen - ColorThink Pro Review

A lot of customers tell us how much they love ColorThink, but seldom do we get a chance to share "their love" with others.

Ron Martinsen has a popular photography blog, and he did an extensive review of ColorThink Pro recently:

http://www.ronmartblog.com/2010/11/printing-series-chromix-colorthink-pro.html

When you read this, you can't help but catch his excitement. One of our main purposes in the design of ColorThink Pro was to keep the functionality open-ended rather than limited to a wizard-like interface. This way, people can go down all sorts of workflow paths & other rabbit holes and use it for many more purposes than we ever dreamed of. And in the feedback we have gotten from people, we have found that to be true. It's great to see that Ron has "got it" and is taking this program for the 'wild ride' it was made for!

i1Profiler is still almost here

The latest report from X-Rite is that the new i1Profiler products are expected to begin shipping around the end of January, 2011.

i1Profiler is almost here

X-Rite is almost ready to release their new i1Profiler software. There has been some confusion over what prices and paths will be available for upgrading.

To make it simple, there are only 3 options to consider for people upgrading:

• i1 Publish New Full (Software Only) $999 This version will be necessary for PMv4.x, MPv3.x, and Stand Alone iSis users

• i1Profiler UPGRADE 'B' for i1Basic Pro, i1Basic, i1Design LT, i1Photo LT, i1Pro OEM $899

• i1Profiler UPGRADE 'A' for ANY full version of ProfileMaker v5, All Monaco Profiler 4.x versions, i1Photo Pro, i1Photo, i1Photo SG, i1Proof, i1XT, i1XTreme $499

X-Rite is not taking away or overwriting any existing i1Pro, i1Match, ProfileMaker or Monaco Profiler dongles. Users get to continue using their legacy solutions if desired. However, X-Rite will probably verify that the original dongle is legitimate, and eligible for upgrade.

Dongle Upgrades, and other notes:
X-Rite will upgrade an i1Pro or ProfileMaker dongle through the i1Profiler software interface. Users will purchase either Upgrade A or Upgrade B as applicable, and when they receive the upgrade, the box will include an activation code . X-Rite will not use the existing upgrade paths in i1Diagnostics or License Tool.

MonacoPROFILER users will have to call an X-Rite Service Center, where X-Rite will verify that their existing dongle is valid. They will then receive their new i1Publish dongle by mail within 5 business days.

As of Friday Nov. 5, X-Rite has confirmed the above information is correct and reflects their new policies. We will post any new or relevant information here as soon as it is confirmed or is official from X-Rite.

Link to the i1Profiler product page:
http://www2.chromix.com/colorgear/shop/productdetail.cxsa?toolid=50136&pid=10449

Thanks to Rick Hatmaker of CHROMiX for tracking down this information.

New Epson 4900 gets 98% Pantone gamut

Recently announced at Photokina in Germany, the Epson Stylus Pro 4900 has just been launched in the United Kingdom. Apparently it uses 11 UltraChrome HDR inks to provide a gamut that encompases 98% of the Pantone colors. This is pretty impressive. Designers are often wondering why the printer can't match the color they are looking for, and the answer is that it is hard to do! Pantone presses will run up to 16 different inks on press in order to produce all the colors in the Pantone books - that's how wide a gamut these colors encompass. To get this kind of gamut in a single printer would be impressive indeed.
http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-All-In-Ones/Large-Format/Epson-Stylus-Pro-4900

Also announced are the new Stylus Pro 7890 and 9890:
http://www.photographyblog.com/news/epson_stylus_pro_9890_and_7890/

Monitor reviews NEC PA241W & PA271W

I have just completed extensive reviews of two new displays from NEC: the PA241W and PA271W. Link to these reviews here:
PA241W review
PA271W review

While there are many places to get monitor reviews on the internet, these are mainly aimed toward the "gaming" crowd. At CHROMiX, most of our customers are professional & semi-professional photographers and other high end color specialists with a unique set of requirements for displays. Our reviews include:

• analysis of size and shape of color gamut,
• how consistent the color is across the screen,
• calibration options,
• analysis of the display when calibrated to the requirements of a photographer (which is usually much lower in brightness than other purposes.)

We write up reviews which are intended to answer the questions our customers will have, so I hope you will find them useful. Browse the ColorWiki for other reviews as well. We have articles that range from products to technology to techniques, and we add more whenever we come across something new. Look for the "Tools" section.

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

Color on the Web

Brian Lawler's excellent Blognosticator blog has a great entry about color management in web browsers.

For a good browser test you should also check out this page at the ICC's site which also tests for ICC v4 compliance. (a new version of the ICC profile format that is slow in being supported)

Color management in web browsers is actually quite a complicated thing. Web browsers are not just image viewers but are much more like InDesign and Quark. They are image and content aggregators (not to mention application platforms). So even though an image may contain a profile and the browser may display it properly, many or all of the other elements on the page may not display properly. In many layouts and designs, incomplete color management is worse than none.

We will continue to research, report and supply solutions to color in the digital display realm, so stay tuned.