QTR-Quadtone RIP

Mike

I bought the printfixpro suite on Ebay for around $550. That included the
spyder II monitor calibration. I don't see any units on ebay right now.

The 810 is definitely cheaper. As always, it's a cost benefit tradeoff. With
the 810, only the visual density readings are useful for digital printing.
It can read so-called Status A RGB values, but there is no conversion
available from these to, for example, LAB. With printfix you get the density
measurement PLUS you get colour. That means, for example you can prepare ICC
files that will give you a complete softproof of your toned QTR images, you
can prepare ICC profiles for 3rd party inks for colour printing, and most
interesting to me, you can create ICC for printing with reduced gamut
inksets like Paul Roark's UT3D inks. I haven't tried this last one yet.

By the way, I realize this sounds a little too enthusiastic. I have no
personal interest in printfixpro. I just happen to own one. If all you want
to do is make QTR curves, the 810 will do fine and is not a big investment.
They're built like tanks and, so far, xrite continues to provide parts like
bulbs and calibration paques.

With respet to the readings, the printfix spectro reads LAB values. QTR can
use L values as well as density values so they don't have to be converted.
If you want to know the densities the L can be converted to density.
Although David Tobie states that there is no "formal" conversion from L* to
density, there are several sources on the web for the conversion math,
including a spreadsheet that I created and placed in the files section of
the QTR mailing list. Formal or not, the conversions were useful to me.

Tom Moore

> -----Original Message-----
> From: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com [mailto:QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Mike Dawson
> Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 12:54 PM
> To: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: X-Rite 810 densitometer
> 
> Thanks for the response Tom.
> 
> --- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "Tom Moore" <r.t.moore@...> wrote:
> >
> > If you get a unit without calibration plate you can buy one from
> xrite. I
> > don't remember the price other than they're fairly expensive. The
> reflective
> > calibration plates are metal with what looks like an enamel
> surface. They
> > have a data sheet giving their measurement values used in the
> calibration
> 
> The reflective calibration target looks to be about $70 from xrite.
> I guess I'd need to weigh out the value of an 810 that came with the
> calibration target but out of date vs. just buying a new target.
> 
> > As a more flexible alternative buying an 810 and a patch, you might
> want to
> > consider the PrintfixPRO package. It does everything the 810 does
> as far as
> > supporting QTR is concerned, plus it also measures colour, creates
> ICCs for
> > colour ink sets and calibrates your monitor too. Of course PrintFIX
> doesn't
> > do transmission densitometry.
> >
> 
> Interesting suggestion.  The issue I see is that the PrintfixPro
> package is $500.  If I can get a used 810 for around $130 plus $70
> for a new target that's only $200.  But as you say, you're getting a
> lot more with PrintfixPro.
> 
> As far as QTR goes can you give an indication of how you use the
> spectrophotometer?  I assume you can use the spectrophotometer
> outside of the PrintfixPro software package?  When doing so are you
> measuring the L values of the gray patches (as opposed to the density
> readings of the densitometer)?
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
>