|
|
|
|
GO TO PULSE COLOR ELITE MONITOR PROFILING GO TO PULSE COLOR ELITE CAMERA PROFILING GO TO Xrite GAMUTWORKS AND TOOLS
COLOR MANAGEMENT WITH X-RITE PULSE COLOR ELITE SYSTEM PART TWO: SCANNER AND PRINTER PROFILING
PROFILING THE SCANNER The X-rite Pulse device is needed for scanner and printer profiling and this is the spectrophotometer which is comparable to the Gretag Macbeth Eye-One system, just with the difference, that you can also calibrate a monitor with the Gretag Macbeth system but not with the X-rite Pulse device - for monitor calibration you need the optional Monaco Optix calibrator, as described on the webpage dealing with the calibration of a monitor. The same software as for the monitor calibration starts also both, the scanner as well as the printer profiling routine. Here the starting screen again
Now the information that PULSE is connected and synchronized is of importance - you can see that there are two information levels - Target and Device. Target will be of importance once we have scanned the color target for profiling, so I will explain it later. Device - it shows the battery status which you can update and if the battery is fully loaded, it will show it, otherwise it will tell you to what % the battery is charged. Status shows the calibration status of the device. For calibration you only need to place it on the "Pathfinder", which is a guidance accessory for the input scanning of the color target. This "Pathfinder" contains a well defined location with a white target to calibrate the Pulse device within a matter of a few seconds. Let's move on to the "Input Profiles" which means profiling of scanners and/or cameras.
You can select between scanner or camera - we do the scanner profiling and go ahead with the reflective target. This is the only one, which is included in the package which you get when you buy the Pulse system. Any transparent one, 35mm or 4x5inch, you need to buy separately from one of the many sources like Fuji or Kodak.
The next step is to scan the target - here comes a break in the flow of the program - you need to scan the target first, store it as TIF file and then continue with the profiling program. This break is not really a problem but a bit awkward to do compared to the comparable software from Gretag Macbeth, which does not interrupt the flow of the program as it has got the scanning step pseudo integrated into the program. Well, whatsoever, the scan is done quickly and the TIF file stored on your hard-disk. Next step is to load the scan into the software and make sure that it is oriented correctly - size and orientation matters of course.
Here is the TIFF scan of the printed IT8 target. You upload it and go to the next screen
As I mentioned before, the program instructs you how to orientate the scan and what size it must have got to allow the program to properly recognize it. Of course, now comes the data file, which is stored in one of the folders of your X-rite program.
You have to select the same reference ID code for the data file to get the right data for that scan - easy task as you are fully guided through this part of the program. Now you have selected it, you do the upload and go to the next step, creating the profile of your scanner. Before the computer can calculate the profile, you need to align the four corners of the target according to visual instructions - it is very easy, well explained and you got all visual help possible and so it is done within a few seconds. You can press continue and get to the profile creating page:
The profiling is done automatically and the only task you have to do is to select a name for the profile and that was all. Press the "Create Profile" button and the scanner profile is done and stored automatically.
You see, the confirmation page tells you the location of the profile and some key parameters. That was all and the whole profiling process can be completed in less than 15 minutes - I tried it out and yes, it can be done that fast. The last step in the chain of color management is to make sure that what you see and what you have scanned gets printed as accurately as possible - we need to profile the printer, that is the last and final task.
PROFILING THE PRINTER
Profiling the printer is the one and only task on the output side which is available with this program suite. As all my printers are RGB printers and I do not have any CMYK printer, my review is focusing on RGB printer profiling only (same as I have done it with the Gretag Macbeth Eye-One system). As before, the start is the initial starting screen of the program. You select "Output profile" and go to the next page
Here you are presented with two options - to create and measure a color target or to measure a previously created target. This second option is of interest not only if you want to measure a previously created target but also if you do some remote profiling - I'll get to this later. So, we create a target - next screen tells you how
Here you can select what type of a printer - RGB or CMYK, what target - the standard one is the 343 patches Basic target and what paper size it should be printed on - as I have done this with A4 paper, I had to choose A4 paper. Be careful, I made the experience that this target needs to be printed in a certain size within rather small variations otherwise the program does not read the color patches properly and you end up with nothing but error messages when you scan the patches into the Pulse device. Check your printer margins, do not select borderless printing, do not adjust the chart in size other than suggested in the default settings of the printer and see if it works. I needed three runs with different sizes to make it work - the two printers, I was evaluating, both Epson's, had different margin settings and the one worked immediately but the other one needed some fine adjustments for the printing size to make it work. So do not give in, adjust the size of the printed chart in case nothing works!
You see, you need to print the target unless you have printed it already some time before according to recommendations. As you know, you should allow about 30 minutes at least before measuring the target to let the print dry and the color settle in. Do not forget to turn off all color management and color adjustment routines of your printing program (usually to be found under printer preferences)
The next screen tells you what you should see and what to do and what not - go to the next screen, that is now the measurement screen
Now it is getting exciting - you have to measure that printed target. There are two ways to measure it - with the USB cable connected to the Pulse device or without the USB cable. This is a rather unique feature and if you got not too much space on your desktop, you'll love that feature - one cable less! You put the printed target under the "Pathfinder", a plastic guide which we used before for calibrating the Pulse device, and you start measuring the target row by row, starting with the top identification row.
As soon as the top row has been measured, the grey patches become semi-colored which shows that the program had recognized the target ID properly. You cannot do anything wrong - before you measure, you press the front part of the device, a beep comes and you glide with the Pulse device over the row to be measured. You are guided well and the device glides very smoothly over the guiding surface - a very easy job. Do one row after another, you can also do the rows as you like - left to right, right to left, you do not even need to be sequential, the device memorizes the rows and their content. When you have measured all rows - in case you measured without USB connection, reconnect the cable and the screen tells you now that the Pulse device is online and synchronized - press the button "Transfer data" and the initially empty chart as shown above is filled row by row with data. You can see this as the grey patches fill with color
I have done part of the measurement with USB cable, then interrupted the measurement - the device memorized the rows measured and when I connected it, I got the message that I should transfer the data and go on - again, you cannot do anything wrong here and if something is wrong, the program tells you as you can see on the next screen
OK, rescan that strip of patches and continue with the remaining ones. Regarding the speed with which you can glide over the strips - you find on the "Pathfinder" a line of black and white vertical stripes - these are guidance and orientation stripes which are very practical - they tell the device where it is. With the Gretag Macbeth system, you need to be a bit careful regarding measurement speed - it does not have this "bar code", but here, the allowed range for the measurement speed is wider - you can almost rush it through and it still works well. Again, if you are too fast, you get an error message as shown above.
Here you see that I have measured after the top ID row the rows 1 and 2 and then row 7 - no problem as I mentioned before. You cannot do anything wrong in this measurement step - the device will tell you if it did not recognize a row properly
All rows have been measured properly as you can see, you can press "Continue" and go to the next step - the creating of the profile
The next screen comes and you are almost done with the printer profiling procedure
As you certainly know, the color rendition depends on the viewing color temperature - the default setting is the standard daylight D50, which is the white at 5000K and which is used very widely for all color work illumination - not only for monitors but also for soft proofing, light tables etc. If you like another color temperature, no problem, you can choose three other well defined viewing conditions.
This is now the final screen for this procedure - choose the file name and create the profile. As always, all is done automatically and you need only to make sure that your image editor is set accordingly to use that profile for printing. But be careful, if you tell your image editor to choose that profile, you should then print of course without any additional color management settings, otherwise you double all color adjustment effects. So either tell your printer to use unmanaged files and apply that profile for printing or (better and more consistent) tell the image editor to use that profile for printing and turn all additional color management of your printing program off.
That was all, the entire process can take less than 15 minutes (not counting the drying time for the color chart printout ) and is very easy, well explained and a straight walk-through. It is clear, that the profiling process for slides, either 35mm or 4x5inch, is very similar to almost identical with the only difference that you need to scan the slide (which does not come as standard with the Pulse package) instead of the printed target
But the program suite contains more options, very interesting for photographers - one is called "Gammutworks" and the other is called "Tools" - here are the links to these options
GO TO PULSE COLOR ELITE MONITOR PROFILING GO TO PULSE COLOR ELITE CAMERA PROFILING GO TO Xrite GAMUTWORKS AND TOOLS
|
|
Send mail to
Webmaster with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
