If you are responsible for maintaining Macs in a production environment, it might be wise to take your time and do proper testing before rolling out OS X 10.8 and Adobe Creative Suite 6.
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Mountain Lion & Color
Mac OS X 10.8 seems to be a more incremental update than 10.7. It is still a good idea to check compatibility for your production software before upgrading.
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Bad profiles [Video]
Another great video for ColorThink users – how you can use ColorThink to troubleshoot “bad” printer profiles:
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Fogra 48, 49 & 50
Fogra and ECI has released three new reference characterization data sets, and three new ICC profiles based on these.
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i1Pro 2 [Video]
New promo video from X-Rite showing the details of the new i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer:
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Color Management News Roundup
A quick look at the recent news from X-Rite, BabelColor and ColorLogic: Danaher buys X-Rite
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ColorThink Tips & Tricks
Chromix have just started a series of videos, showing useful tips and tricks for their ColorThink utility software. The first installment details how to use ColorThink to check and evaluate a printer linearization. Future videos will be posted both on YouTube and Chromix’ own ColorWiki.
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Spyder4 Introduction
Datacolor is now shipping their new Spyder4 monitor calibrator. This video gives an in-depth introduction to the 7-filter sensor, and the new features in the Spyder software.
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How-to: Profile Epson R800 [Video]
Datacolor has posted an instructional step-by-step video on how to calibrate an Epson R800 desktop inkjet printer with the Spyder3Print package.
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News Roundup: Premedia
Recent color management news for premedia:
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First part of Altona Test Suite 2.0 released
The Altona Test Suite is a well-known set of test forms (PDF documents and hard prints) for checking the color management and PDF/X handling of your workflow. The suite is being upgraded to version 2.0, and the first released part is Technical Page 2. This test page is suited for checking font and transparency handling [...]
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Working with abstract ICC profiles
Abstract profiles are a special class of ICC profiles that are seldom used in production workflows. They could not be used in Adobe Photoshop before CS4, and most users are not even aware they are available – or what for. If you have ventured into the advanced Convert with Profile dialog in Photoshop on a [...]
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FAQ: Device Link profiles
What can I use Device Link ICC profiles for? A normal ICC profile will convert all colors from a source color space to the destination space through a PCS – Profile Connection Space. This intermediary connection space is usually CIELAB, and in some cases CIEXYZ. Device Link profiles does not use the PCS, but goes [...]
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ColorChecker Passport [Video]
In-depth instructional video from AdoramaTV on how to use the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport.
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New Self-Calibrating Eizo [Video]
Last year Eizo released the CG245W monitor with a built-in calibrator. This year the same functionality came to a bigger monitor, the 27-inch CG275W.
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FAQ: EyeOne Pro & Mac OS X Lion
What X-Rite software can I use with my EyeOne Pro after upgrading to Mac OS 10.7? Several readers have written in about this. The answer depends on what software package you previously have been using. There are several X-Rite applications that are not supported on Lion:
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Optimizing your color workflow
Where are the opportunities to fine-tune your color workflow? I recently had a conversation with Karl Koch, CEO of basICColor GmbH, about several areas of optimization: Monitor calibration, soft proofing and better ICC profiles.
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New NEC sensor
At last week´s PhotoPlus Expo in New York, NEC launched their new SpectraSensor Pro monitor calibrator.
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[Video] SpectraCal and DISCUS
SpectraCal shows how they will use the basICColor DISCUS with their video calibration software:
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[Video] basICColor Discus
This video from ColorAcademy shows the new basICColor Discus monitor colorimeter in action. It also demonstrates how colorimeters can be better for measuring shadow colors on a monitor than all-purpose spectrophotometers.
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New measuring instruments
Color management vendors keep coming up with new innovative measuring solutions for monitors, prints and light sources. Here is an overview of 6 new instruments from a range of manufacturers:
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[Updated] OS X Lion: Software compatibility
As color management users we often depend on specialized software packages. These does not always play nice with big operating system updates. A few resources are available if you want to check if specific programs and instrument drivers can be used with the new Mac OS X Lion:
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[Video] Optimizing measurement data
Good ICC-profiles depends on good measurement data. German color management developers ColorLogic has developed a specific tool for smoothing and correcting characterization data. Watch the video for an introduction the ColorAnt software.
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Lion is here – where are the ICC profiles?
Apple has released the new OS X Lion operating system. If you have trouble finding your ICC profiles, it is because the users´ Library folder is hidden in the new OS. On the Mac, most ICC profiles are stored in ColorSync/Profiles folders, either in the “username”/Library/ColorSync/profiles or the “harddisk”/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folders. To access the user’s Profiles [...]
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ICC: Next generation color management
Almost everyone that works with color management utilizes ICC-based technology in some way or another. The ICC consortium was founded in 1993 by eight industry vendors, but now have a much larger membership. Currently the ICC is working on the “next generation” ICC system. This will surely be backwards compatible with the V2 and V4 [...]
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[Video] Designing For Metallics
How to use the Color-Logic system to design for metallic printing:
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New calibration solutions from X-Rite
New color measurements instruments just keeps coming. X-Rite is now announcing two new instruments dedicated to monitor and projector calibration. These are two new colorimeters that are fine-tuned to use with the latest LCD flatscreen technologies:
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[Video] Eizo CG245W
Macwelt reviews the Eizo CG245W monitor, with a built-in calibrator that fully automates monitor calibration:
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How Good is Your Color Vision?
Can you trust your eyes for color evaluation? X-Rite has an online version of the classic Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue test. Click on the image below to go to the online color test:
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[Video] Photo Printing From Photoshop
How to choose correct printer settings and ICC profiles when you print photos directly from Adobe Photoshop, without using a RIP:
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Eizo Handbook for Download
A year ago I reviewed the latest edition of Eizo’s Desktop Color Handbook. It’s a very well laid out book on color management, with a natural focus on monitor calibration and soft proofing, being published by Eizo. Now Eizo has made large parts of the book available as PDF downloads.
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[Video] ColorMunki and Spyder3 Review
A nice overview of the X-Rite ColorMunki and Datacolor Spyder3 offerings.
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FAQ: Fogra39 or Fogra39L?
What is the difference between Fogra39 and Fogra39L, and which version should I use? Fogra39 and Fogra39L are two versions of the same characterization data set. Characterization data are measurements of a particular printed test chart. In the case of the Fogra data sets, often averaged and smoothed data from several print runs or measurements. [...]
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Gamma 1.8 or 2.2 on Macs?
What’s the right gamma value to use – 1.8 or 2.2? That’s a frequent question when it comes to monitor calibration on Macs. For a color managed application like Adobe Photoshop, you can argue that it doesn’t matter because Photoshop and the operating system will use the ICC profile in the image plus the ICC [...]
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X-Rite’s new profiler: i1Profiler
X-Rite has announced the release of their new ICC-profiling package later this year. While i1Profiler is still in development, X-Rite showed a preview at last month’s IPEX.
Besides a cleaner and more intuitive interface, I found these new features interesting:
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Desktop Color Handbook 09/10
Once a year Eizo publishes the Desktop Color Handbook. The 2009/2010 edition is a well produced and interesting color management handbook for designers.
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Interview with ColorLogic – the device link specialists
Device Link ICC technology has become part of the color management mainstream due to the popularity of ink saving solutions for offset printing, but there’s also a big potential in other areas. DVL technology can be applied in prepress workflows for better RGB-to-CMYK conversions. There is also a need for both ink optimization and fine-tuning of conversions in digital printing. I recently had the opportunity to discuss these issues with Dietmar Fuchs, product manager for the German color management developers ColorLogic GmbH.
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Is it a proof or a print?
A digital printer, whether it’s inkjet or toner based, can produce beautiful prints of a PDF. That doesn’t mean that it’s a proof – meaning an accurate simulation of a production print. The only way to control if the print is actually a “proof” is to measure how well the proof can simulate the colors we expect from the final print. To do that, we need an industry standard color bar on the proof. If there’s no color bar, it’s not a proof, it’s just a color print.
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Fine-tune your Photoshop grayscale conversions
When converting RGB or CMYK images to grayscale in Adobe Photoshop, you’re not necessarily confined to the preinstalled dot gain curves. A very simple procedure lets you take the black separation from a CMYK ICC-profile and use that for grayscale conversions too. If you have a 4-color profile where you like the results on the black plate particularly well, you can use this for your 1-color images as well.
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