Datacolor User to User Support Group.

Hello Folks,

I bought off Ebay the PFP Suite which included the Spyder2PRO
colorimeter for monitor calibration, just before Colorvision had the
delay in shipping because of the dramatic increase in demand for their
fine product. I calibrated my monitor first as CDTobie has recommended
in the group's messages. Then I dove into the mysterious (for me)
world of color. I've lived in the BW world for 40 years or more, and
at a friend's urging made the giant step for Johnnykind into this new
realm. My first attempt was with the 225 patch readings which produced
an almost satisfactory result, but still with a reddish yellow cast on
many of my images. After checking and rechecking the printer, today
I'm starting on the 729 patch calibration patches. I think this will
produce a better profile, due to the fact that the squares are larger
than with the 225 patch printout on a single page. My old eyes had a
hard time really determing if the reading circle of the colorimeter
was truly on the square squarely and not overlapping a small portion
of the adjacent square. I'll post later today the results of the
larger 729 square test.

Your friend in Photography,

Johnny

Johnny,

Suggestion: (and this goes for everyone):

Reduce the size of the margins as much as you can, in the printer driver,
so that you get a larger print of the target patches.

Larger patches make measuring faster and easier. Since the targets auto-scale
to fit the printable area of the paper, reducing the margins will automatically
make the targets print larger on the page!

Also, make absolutely sure that you follow the instructions in the Help
about turning off color management in the driver before you print a target;
and about how to hook the profile that you've created into your printing
application, after you've built it.


Best regards,

David Miller
Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
ColorVision

>Hello Folks,
>
>I bought off Ebay the PFP Suite which included the Spyder2PRO
>colorimeter for monitor calibration, just before Colorvision had the
>delay in shipping because of the dramatic increase in demand for their
>fine product. I calibrated my monitor first as CDTobie has recommended
>in the group's messages. Then I dove into the mysterious (for me)
>world of color. I've lived in the BW world for 40 years or more, and
>at a friend's urging made the giant step for Johnnykind into this new
>realm. My first attempt was with the 225 patch readings which produced
>an almost satisfactory result, but still with a reddish yellow cast on
>many of my images. After checking and rechecking the printer, today
>I'm starting on the 729 patch calibration patches. I think this will
>produce a better profile, due to the fact that the squares are larger
>than with the 225 patch printout on a single page. My old eyes had a
>hard time really determing if the reading circle of the colorimeter
>was truly on the square squarely and not overlapping a small portion
>of the adjacent square. I'll post later today the results of the
>larger 729 square test.
>
>Your friend in Photography,
>
>Johnny
>

I'll post later today the results of the
> larger 729 square test.
> 
> Your friend in Photography,
> 
> Johnny
>

Which printer and inkset are you using Johnny?  Try setting the
precise light slider to -10 or so.  The gentleman reviewing the
package at NorthernLight had similar problems and it may be related to
metamerism of your inkset.

Anyhow his review can be found at:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/printfix_pro.html

The Epson R1800 seems to profile dead on but the inkset has very low
metamerism.

Hope that helps 

Tom T

--- In colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com, David Miller <dm2363@...> wrote:

> Larger patches make measuring faster and easier. 

He's not kidding ... 

Dave with the even slightly larger patches it takes me 15 minutes now
to do a 225 patch target.  Good tip to keep in your pocket!

Thanks for the ebay tip!  I am also a proud new owner of a print fix pro 
suite!

Randy Laskody

Johnny Eades wrote:

>Hello Folks,
>
>I bought off Ebay the PFP Suite which included the Spyder2PRO
>colorimeter for monitor calibration, just before Colorvision had the
>delay in shipping because of the dramatic increase in demand for their
>fine product. I calibrated my monitor first as CDTobie has recommended
>in the group's messages. Then I dove into the mysterious (for me)
>world of color. I've lived in the BW world for 40 years or more, and
>at a friend's urging made the giant step for Johnnykind into this new
>realm. My first attempt was with the 225 patch readings which produced
>an almost satisfactory result, but still with a reddish yellow cast on
>many of my images. After checking and rechecking the printer, today
>I'm starting on the 729 patch calibration patches. I think this will
>produce a better profile, due to the fact that the squares are larger
>than with the 225 patch printout on a single page. My old eyes had a
>hard time really determing if the reading circle of the colorimeter
>was truly on the square squarely and not overlapping a small portion
>of the adjacent square. I'll post later today the results of the
>larger 729 square test.
>
>Your friend in Photography,
>
>Johnny
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
>
>  
>

>--- In colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com, David Miller <dm2363@...> wrote:
>
>> Larger patches make measuring faster and easier.
>
>He's not kidding ...
>
>Dave with the even slightly larger patches it takes me 15 minutes now
>to do a 225 patch target.  Good tip to keep in your pocket!
>

That's getting closer! (I still hope you're talking about the total
time it takes you: measurements, plus doing things like a test print
through the profile as well).

As hard as I might try, I can't seem to go any slower than approximately
5 minutes to -measure- the 225 patch target; just steadily moving the
spectro across the rows and using the Return key to initiate the measurements.
Click... click... click... at around 1 second per patch.

As far as the "tip", PrintFIX PRO 1.1 software will present it to you in
an alert when you go to print a target. (And this alert can be turned off for
future sessions, since reading this once or twice will be enough for most
people).

-- 
David Miller
Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
ColorVision

--- In colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com, David Miller <dm2363@...> wrote:
>
> >--- In colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com, David Miller <dm2363@> wrote:
> >
> >> Larger patches make measuring faster and easier.
> >
> >He's not kidding ...
> >
> >Dave with the even slightly larger patches it takes me 15 minutes now
> >to do a 225 patch target.  Good tip to keep in your pocket!
> >
> 
> That's getting closer! (I still hope you're talking about the total
> time it takes you: measurements, plus doing things like a test print
> through the profile as well).
> 
> As hard as I might try, I can't seem to go any slower than approximately
> 5 minutes to -measure- the 225 patch target; just steadily moving the
> spectro across the rows and using the Return key to initiate the
measurements.
> Click... click... click... at around 1 second per patch.
> 
> As far as the "tip", PrintFIX PRO 1.1 software will present it to you in
> an alert when you go to print a target. (And this alert can be
turned off for
> future sessions, since reading this once or twice will be enough for
most
> people).
> 
> -- 
> David Miller
> Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
> ColorVision
>


Yup ... that was from print to finish so to speak :-)

"Johnny Eades"  wrote:
>
>My first attempt was with the 225 patch readings which produced
> an almost satisfactory result, but still with a reddish yellow cast on
> many of my images. 

What might help is adding one or two sheets of the same paper underneath the target before 
profiling. The table surface color could influence a color bias in the profile.

--- In colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com, "Doug Lenos" <dlenos@...> wrote:
>
> Comment on PRINT to Finish... if that means you printed the target
and immediately measured it you may want to consider waiting at least
3-4 hrs and better yet overnight... some inks colors set and change
slightly as they dry - depending on ink/paper combo it can be pretty
dramatic.

Yes I know :-) The pigmented inkset from the Epson R1800 on instant
dry paper don't seem to shift that far when drying.  If you look at
the most recent help file posted in the files section there is a write
up on that very subject(nice addition btw)! I also wanted to get this
print out for my co-worker.  He got a new digital SLR camera the other
day and got a "lucky shot" of his son born this year.

I'm going to go back and create a 729 patch profile for the paper
since I really like it.  You have to admit though .. if in 15 minutes
I can get a quick profile for a new paper that someone likes ... dash
out a test print and bring it to them in under 15 minutes thats
impressive.

--- In colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com, CDTobie@... wrote:
>
> 
> In a message dated 3/7/06 9:10:30 AM, jeades1@... writes:
> 
> 
> > 
> > I bought off Ebay the PFP Suite which included the Spyder2PRO
> > colorimeter for monitor calibration, just before Colorvision had 
the
> > delay in shipping because of the dramatic increase in demand for 
their
> > fine product. I calibrated my monitor first as CDTobie has 
recommended
> > in the group's messages. Then I dove into the mysterious (for me)
> > world of color. I've lived in the BW world for 40 years or more, 
and
> > at a friend's urging made the giant step for Johnnykind into 
this new
> > realm. My first attempt was with the 225 patch readings which 
produced
> > an almost satisfactory result, but still with a reddish yellow 
cast on
> > many of my images. After checking and rechecking the printer, 
today
> > I'm starting on the 729 patch calibration patches. I think this 
will
> > produce a better profile, due to the fact that the squares are 
larger
> > than with the 225 patch printout on a single page. My old eyes 
had a
> > hard time really determing if the reading circle of the 
colorimeter
> > was truly on the square squarely and not overlapping a small 
portion
> > of the adjacent square. I'll post later today the results of the
> > larger 729 square test.
> > 
> 
> If you are on Windows, reducing the Windows margins will increase 
the size of 
> the patches, and especially for those with any problems that would 
effect 
> reading, can make the process both faster and easier. It would be 
possible to 
> produce a ruler for guiding the Spectro. My testing showed that 
such a ruler 
> actually slows fast users down, but for others, it might provide 
more guidance, 
> less neck bending, and a less stressful process. I'll look into 
that.
> 
> C. David Tobie
> Product Technology Manager
> ColorVision Business Unit
> Datacolor Inc.
> CDTobie@...
> www.colorvision.com
>

I agree with that statement, David. On my second target I decided to 
try using ruler to guide the Spectro. It seems that the ruler, while 
certainly helping to keep the Spectro along the row, was actually 
slowing the process down (at least in this simplest -just the ruler- 
implementation). Time spent aligning the ruler along each row 
(certain distance from the edge) plus the effort to keep the ruler 
in place while reading the row plus you still need to make sure that 
the Spectro is correctly over each tile... In the middle of the 
target I turned back to the 'unruled' approach. It was faster and 
required less effort (especially since margins on the page were 
minimized which made patches bigger).
Maybe if one would implement the ruler with some sort of frame with 
guides and paper holder...

Alex