Digital BW, The Print

Greg - I completely agree that something like a GMB software-hardware 
package would be ideal - but my work flow would not justify the several 
thousand dollar expense. In my case, the two profiles I've made using 
PrintFixPLUS (not the PRO version, yet) are every bit as good as the two 
profiles I've just received from cathysprofiles.com. Cathy Stratton uses 
the latest version of the GMB software and hardware.

If I were a really high-volume professional, or if I were in the business 
of making profiles for other people, I would find a way to buy GMB. Other 
than that, it seems to me that my options are to buy each profile from a 
custom profiling service, or to make my own in some way. So far, by far the 
easiest and most accurate way I've found to do that is PrintFix - either 
the PLUS or the PRO version. My first two profiles took about 20 minutes 
each - that's total time, including  printing the reference image 
and  making prints of three of my own images, then making adjustments to 
achieve a perfect match between print and calibrated monitor. As you 
predicted, the profiles weren't absolutely perfect "right out of the box" - 
but they were surprisingly close. After printing out the test image 
supplied, and then printing out three different images of my own which have 
proved to be especially difficult to print, I wound up making a single 
adjustment, subtracting a small amount of yellow. Every other factor - 
brightness, contrast, saturation, and the colors other than yellow, were 
all spot on.

I'll try the PRO version of PFP for a while. If I don't seem to be getting 
perfect matches easily, I'll consider your advice about a true 
spectrophotometer - or, fo course, continue to buy profiles from Cathy.

Bill Hansen