Digital BW, The Print

Being a fan of open standards and value, I've found that Open Office <http://www.openoffice.org/> makes a good, cheap, and cross-platform alternative to Microsoft Office.  (I'm also recommending Open Office to my gallery associates on Macs who don't want to buy MS Word.)

I generally use Excel to open and look at my PFP spectro data, using the Excel graphing capability (highlight the data and insert a chart).  With Excel I simply go to the relevant Export folder and open the data.  

The location of the data ("C:\Program Files\ColorVision\PrintFIX PRO\Data\Export" for Windows and PFP2, "C:\Documents and Settings\Paul Roark\Application Data\Datacolor\Spyder3Print\Data\Export" for PFP3) is such that I make a shortcut on my desktop (right click on the desktop) to get to it faster. 

The Open Office spreadsheet is a bit different than Excel.  If I simply try to open the PFP export data in the Open Office spreadsheet the format will not be correct.  So, I open a blank Open Office spreadsheet first.  Then I open the PFP spectro export data file with Notepad.  The data can then copied and pasted into the Open Office spreadsheet and the format will be correct.  Then I can graph the results.  For example, I first usually highlight the first column -- Lab L -- and Insert>Chart ("point and line" type chart).  If the results look good, meaning, for example, a smooth Lab L that will linearize well, I save the Notepad file to the desktop (just "save as" to desktop).  Then to make an ICC I simply drag and drop it into Create ICC (or ICC-RGB along with the curve used).  For the QTR rip the Lab L (first) column can just be copied and pasted into the Linearization tab boxes.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com