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CHROMiX ColorNews Issue #52 - Color Management Myths 35-39

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Type: ColorNews
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  CHROMiX ColorNews
   Issue # 52 - August 20th, 2013

This Month's Contents

  1. CHROMiX News
  2. Latest blog entries in ColoRants (and Raves)
  3. Shows and Events
  4. Color Industry News
  5. Forum Topics, Random Bits, etc.
  6. Article - Color Management Myths #35 - #39
  7. CHROMiX Open Box items for sale
  8. ColorNews Admin (feedback, subscriptions, etc.)

CHROMiX Blog
For the very freshest color updates, check out our new blog Colorants (and raves).

Respond & Discuss
Don't forget, you can discuss this month's article and anything else from this newsletter in ColorForums.com

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CHROMiX News What the heck have we been up to?

Curve3... new Update 3.1.X

Curve3 v3.1.1 will be available soon for download. Updates include Verify tool improvements for low density measurements, some small UI improvements and the EFI Fiery DLP curve save selection. Expect to see it just before Print 2013.

Curve3 - Helpful Information

Demo Mode:
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Curve3 has a demo mode that allows users to test the interface as well as main calibration and verification functionalities without a serial number. Sample files are included. Just download and test at the above link for the latest 3.1.X version.

User's Manual:
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The Curve3 User's manual is very good and will be the primary source of information for most people. It accompanies the initial download of Curve3, but it is separate. We wrote the manual deliberately as a training guide, while (of course) showing all relevant functions in Curve3. Download and at the above link for v3.1.X.

YouTube Video Overview and Training:
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For those who missed it, here is a link to the Curve3 YouTube video recording from our webinar conducted May 17th, 2013. Steve Upton hosts and Don Hutcheson does most of the presentation. It has been edited and is about an hour long. It's a great way to get an overview perspective of it's capabilities and probably pick up a tip or two.. .or three.

Maxwell News

New version:
Maxwell Client 4.1.1 is now available.

There are many new features of 4.1.1 including:
- Mac/Win versions synched to same version moving forward
- Supports new i1Pro2 device from X-Rite (M0 for now)
- Supports bi-directional reading by an i1Pro/2
- Split patch measurement view including warning and failure markers for each patch.
- Ability to filter track list by Device in operator mode. (helps with many devices / tracks)
- New metrics: dL, da, db.

A Reporting note for Maxwell users:

For a while we have promoted the benefits and power of Multi-Dimensional Reporting. Here is a ColorWiki page that describes the general functionality of Multi-Dimensional Reporting in Maxwell. It reads much like a Users Guide and provides excellent visuals (including a YouTube video overview).


Isn't it time you gave Maxwell a look? Maxwell is the most innovative cloud-based Verification, QA/QC system in the printing industry today.

Maxwell can remotely supervise the performance of almost any device from your web browser. You can track, trend, verify and analyze workflow devices ranging from spectrophotometers, LCD monitors, printers, proofers and presses. Plus, Maxwell will help you determine the performance or conformance to industry standards or in-house tolerances for every device. Maxwell includes strong Pass/Fail features and custom label printing. Maxwell also has a strong 'layered' notification system and can alert any person(s) or group(s) involved in the chain of information.

For more information, to receive a demo or to discuss your company's Printing Verification/QA/QC needs, please contact CHROMiX Sales Toll Free at (866) CHROMiX (866-247-6649) extension #1, or email at sales@chromix.com.

CHROMiX at PRINT13 Chicago

CHROMiX will be in Chicago at the Print13 Conference from Sunday, September 8th through the show's duration Thursday, September 12th (5 days). We'll be showing and discussing Curve3, Konica Minolta's Color Care product, and other related things in the Color Management section of the Konica Minolta booth #518.

Last year at GraphExpo 2012, Konica Minolta announced it had embedded CurveCore technology, via our Software Developer Kit (SDK), into their Color Care package available for many KM printers and presses. Here's a quick YouTube video overview Don Hutcheson gave then about Color Care.

Come by and see us this year at Booth 518!

CHROMiX at 2013 PIA Color Management Conference

Steve Upton, Pat Herold and Rick Hatmaker will be in Phoenix at the PIA Color Management Conference with multiple appearances. Steve and Pat will both be involved with speaking and/or labs (stay tuned to topics, dates and times), and Rick will be fielding questions and providing demo's in the Vendor area.

Come by and see us!

CHROMiX Reviews Eizo CG246W

Pat Herold recently did a bench review and testing of Eizo's spectacular CG246W 24" LED model, which has the automatic self-calibrator built-in. Basically, you set it and forever forget about calibrating again... Read it in the ColorWiki.

CHROMiX Reviews NEC PA242W

Pat Herold just did a bench review and testing of NEC's new PA242W 24" LED monitor with the latest SpectraView calibration software. Read his review here .

 

CHROMiX Blog Here are some of the recent posts to our blog: Colorants (and raves)

Shows and Events Color-relevant gatherings to plan for

September 8th - 12th, 2013 - PRINT 13, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL. CHROMiX will be there at booth 518, so come by and see us!

September 10th, 2013 - SPECTRUM - Content Integration:
Bridging Print & Digital. At PRINT 13, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL

October 23rd - 25th, 2013 - Specialty Printing and Imaging Technology Expo 2013 (SGIA), Orlando, FL, Orange County Convention Center.

December 7th - 10th, 2013 - 2013 PIA Color Management Conference, in Phoenix at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. CHROMiX will be there!

Events Calendar: For all current and future events, bookmark this calendar.

Color Industry News What's going on in the world of color

basICColor released v5.1.1 Display calibration software

If you already own Display v5, it has a useful new automatic updater under the Help/Check for Updates menu.

There are several new features and further stability:
- RemindMe, a new utility to remind you when to calibrate next
- Spyder4 connectivity improvements
- i1Display Pro connectivity improvements
- Eizo CG246 and CG276 are hardware calibratable
- NEC SpectraView 232 is hardware calibratable
- Color Space Emulation for certain Eizo and NEC models with 3D-LUTs
... and more. basICColor Display 5.1.1 Features Overview

Color Management Handbook version 3

Eizo released version 3 of their FREE Color Management Handbook. Past 'printed' versions, although beautiful, had to be bought. If you haven't seen one of these handbooks, you are in for a surprise. Many in the industry have acclaimed these as the best in their class. The handbook includes tons of very useful color management information. Enjoy!

EFI Fiery Color Profiler Suite 4.5 adds support for Curve3 DLP's

EFI has been busy implementing G7 capabilities for toner-based Fiery RIPs. Fiery systems, version 8r2 or newer, now support Device Link Profiles (DLP) created by Curve3 to implement true curve-based G7 calibration. With a properly-serviced Fiery print engine, G7 compliance can now be achieved by merging a Curve3 DLP with input and output profiles generated with EFI's Color Profiler Suite

eXact Manager Software available

X-Rite released a free Windows utility for the eXact spectrophotometer. eXact Manager v1.1 includes: Job Template Builder, Color Library Builder, New Job Templates for G7 (v2), Black Backing templates for PSO, Import Data through CxF3, Windows 8 support.

X-Rite releases i1Profiler version 1.5

The i1Profiler version 1.5 download is available now.
New features include: Device Link Profiling, i1iO Dual Spot Mode (M0,M1 and M2), Supports the Hutch Color (HCT) targets for scanner profiling, Supports the Ugra/Fogra Media Wedge CMYK for large format printing, Enhanced display (Plasma) and projector profiling.
Note that there are a few things to be aware of for Installation and Registration:
Administrative rights are required to install and uninstall the software.
Do not connect measurement devices until the software installation is complete and the system has restarted.
The i1Display Pro or the i1Pro 2 must be connected in order to register your i1Profiler solution.

X-Rite raises i1Profiler prices by $200

On August 12, 2013 X-Rite raised i1Profiler software prices by $200 for all stand-alone and i1Pro2 bundled versions. The justification for the increased price is the newly added Device Link Profiling capability. Affected products are:
- i1Publish Software (only) (EOPROF): New MSRP is $1,199 (was $999)
- i1Publish Pro 2 (EO2PUB): New MSRP is $2,298 (was $2,098)
- i1Publish Upgrade A (EOPROF-UPGA): New MSRP is $799 (was $599)
- i1Publish Pro 2 Upgrade A (EO2BAS-UPGA): New MSRP is $1,699 (was $1,499).

However... CHROMiX will continue to have competitive aggressive prices on i1Profiler NEW and UPGRADE products, so don't hesitate to ask us beat or match any US price.

Techkon offering $1k for trade-in

For the month of August, Techkon is offering up to $1000 for trade in of ANY spectrophotometer towards the purchase of a new SpectroDens. Just contact CHROMiX sales with any questions: sales@chromix.com

Forum Topics and other bits  Popular topics from ColorForums.com and other things we've found along the way.

That Sunflower Image - ColorThink 2.3 to the Rescue:   Here's a great example of ColorThink v2 in action: Comparing Image Color Gamuts

Why Change your ISO Standards?:   This is simply good advice about ISO lighting perspectives

BEER Tones:   Finally! For the color geek that loves beer, a visual fan guide for beer color to stimulate happy hour conversations, or just to dazzle your friends at parties! Not that you don't already...




Color Management Myths #35 - #39 by Pat Herold

It's been a while since we added to our collection of color management myths. Here we take on some of the common misperceptions that we hear from various sources & explain what the truth is and why. A little advice: Having some foreknowledge from the mistakes that other people make is a particularly easy way to learn valuable information in a short amount of time. Find an extensive list of our previous myths gleaned from our newsletters here.

Myth #35: Wide gamut monitors are the best! Everybody should have one.

Modern backlighting and LCD panel technology has made it possible to make displays that can produce much more saturated colors, that have a larger gamut than the typical displays we're used to. Obviously it's great to have a display that is capable of producing more colors in order to view what you're sending to a printer that also has an enlarged gamut.

So they really are marvels of modern science, but they are not for everyone. If you work only in web design, then you will want to keep to the sRGB gamut which is the standard for internet images. You'll have no use for all that added saturation. It could naturally even give you a false sense of how colorful your images are. Most of these wide gamut displays can also be "dumbed down, " can be calibrated to emulate sRGB, but then the question is why get one if you're not going to take advantage of the benefits of a wide gamut?

Wide gamut displays also carry the possibility for banding because with the common 8-bit workflow most of us are working with, there's only barely enough steps to smoothly define all the colors in a normal display. So that adding a whole extra range of colors to define makes it more likely that some banding might occur. This is generally not a big problem for displays with built-in graphics capabilities like Eizo and NEC, but the possibility is something to be aware of. More information on banding is here.

Myth #36: A wide gamut monitor will show me all the colors my printer can print.

I know what you're thinking... Finally! Now that I have a wide gamut display, something that can display 98% of the AdobeRGB gamut, I can finally truly soft-proof all the colors that my printer can print!

Hey, I don't blame you for falling for this myth. The size of these gamuts are breathtaking. AdobeRGB is a large color space and these displays get you almost all of it. But printers have been gaining ground in developing new ink sets and they have been producing more saturation in recent years too.

Keep in mind also the fundamental nature of these two coloring systems. A printers's gamut is shaped something like a round hole and a monitor's gamut is shaped like a 3 cornered peg. And you know what they say about putting an odd-shapped peg in a round hole.

Like most things in the world of color management, it all depends. In this case, your printer gamut will depend on your printer, your inks and especially your paper. And we often find that a modern inkjet printing onto good quality glossy paper can produce an abundance of cyans and yellows that are well outside the gamut of your AdobeRGB display.

Myth #37: Lab is perceptually uniform

When you open up the ColorThink Grapher and view a gamut of a profile, you're viewing it in a representation of CIE L*a*b space. Lab is supposed to be perceptually uniform, so that a distance between any two colors in one part of the color space, gives the same basic difference as the same distance in another part of the color space. For most purposes, it works well for what it is, but there are times when it is good to keep in mind that this Lab space has a subtle warp to it. You'll see this in action any time you bring a printer profile into the ColorThink Grapher and observe how the blue end of the spectrum twists around in a slight counter-clockwise direction. In most cases, it's not that your printer's behavior is skewed, it's that a good profile will have this "twist" in the shape in order to give you good color in a twisted Lab space. This is sometimes the reason that older profile building software would give you blues that turned slightly purple, yellows that were green and reds that were orange.

Myth #38: Delta E 2000 is not a good equation to choose; I've heard that xxx is better.

Delta E is a unit of measure that indicates how far apart two colors are. A delta E of 1 is the smallest change between two colors that the trained human eye can see. Delta E values are thrown around a lot in the industry when you're talking about how far off a colors is. We have a little history of the development of delta E in this ColorNews article.

DeltaE 76 was the first method of calculation developed soon after the CIE created the L*a*b* space in 1976.

It was a simple formula and it turns out that it was not consistent in all areas of Lab space. (See the myth "Lab is perceptually uniform" above.) A solution to this was published soon after 1994 called delta E 94. Many people still swear by dE 94, but it has the drawback of not being symmetric in its calculations. It does not work the same way both ways. Using dE 94 you can get a different results when you compare color A with color B - than you get when you compare color B with color A. Occasionally we hear from people who have connections with the garment industry that they like to use a calculation called CMC.

With delta E 2000 (developed around the year 2000), the general structure of dE 94 was taken and improved. It is the latest thing in color distance calculation. This is a well-proven formula and the official word from the CIE (the official body that make rules about these things) is that CIE2000 is officially the recommended color-difference equation. It has been shown to be more accurate than dE94 and CMC.

see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/col.1049/abstract
and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15603061

Myth #39: Curve3 will make my printer print GRACoL

We have touched on this in our series on G7 Myths, But this issue comes up often enough that it is worth clarifying. Curve3 (as well as Curve2 and the original IDEAlink Curve) has some very useful functions besides just giving you G7 output curves. The "Analyze" tab will allow you to compare your press with the actual ink requirements for specifications like GRACoL and SWOP.

You can look at the "spidergraph" and see how your ink colors lay out. The shape of the "arms" of the graph give you an idea of how smooth your ink curves are, as they stretch out in the direction of the bullseye circles that represent where your color should end up according to the specification that is selected.

Curve3 is fundamentally a linearization tool. It helps you define your curves from 0 to 100. But note that you always start at 0 and end up at 100.

People get into trouble when they look at the 100% target bullseye in the spider graph and somehow expect the Curve software to yank the solid ink color over to where the bullseye specification is. There is no amount of curve adjustment that can ever make an ink solid change its color. (That would literally be like a leopard changing its spots.) The color of an ink solid is determined primarily by the color of the ink itself, as well as your choice of ink limits, with a little influence by the color and nature of the paper or substrate and how it reacts with the ink.

So Curve3 will do a fabulous G7 linearization for you, and it will tell you how close you are to GRACoL, but you have to take care of some of the basics if you are aiming for a specification like GRACoL.

Thanks for reading,

Patrick Herold
CHROMiX

   To read this article with images in ColorWiki, click here

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Entire Contents of CHROMiX ColorNews (c)2013 CHROMiX, Inc. CHROMiX, Maxwell, ColorThink, ColorNews, ColorSmarts, ColorGear, ColorForums, DisplayWatch and ProfileCentral.com are trademarks of CHROMiX Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. CHROMiX ColorNews is intended as an informative update to CHROMiX customers and business associates. We are not responsible for errors or omissions. You may not copy or reuse any content from this newsletter without written permission from CHROMiX, Inc.