Digital BW, The Print

In a message dated 1/17/06 12:57:39 PM, barry@... writes:


> You sure as hell make me want one!
> 
Well, the goal is always to make a product that is "wantable"... 
(desirable?); the only question is whether it is appropriate to the rather esoteric needs 
of this specialty group, as opposed to the general printing public... I joined 
back up on a couple of B&W lists (I have to quit all my lists when traveling) 
mostly to see what is currently what, and get a feel for the currrent needs, 
as I look at the possibility of special B&W functions for PrintFIX PRO.

>  I would like a Eye One but I can't
> afford one at the moment. I do have a couple of questions though,
> please forgive if these have already been answered.
> 
Not here, there's been little actual discussion of the product so far on this 
list...

> 1.  How suitable is the Printfix pro for making gray profiles, such as
> I might need using QTR?
> 
PrintFIX PRO, in its current form, focuses on one thing: ICC color profiles. 
These color profilies can be used for printing B&W images with color inks, 
with pretty good results, but there is the issue of light source specific 
metamerism. There are even controls in PrintFIX PRO for adjusting for specific 
viewing light brightness and color temperatures, but again, this is not the same as 
a specialized B&W printing system to reduce metamerism, it just allows a 
correction for one, fixed, situation.

PrintFIX PRO also takes L*a*b* value readings from any printed patch you 
choose to place the spectro on, so you can use that info (either as immediately 
displayed spot readings, or series of saved values to be reviewed later) for 
such tasks as linearizing RIPs, or building special profiles. 

What PrintFIX PRO does not currently do is convert these L*a*b* values to 
density values, which would be handy for QTR curve purposes... thats not too 
difficult, but the focus for initial release was on the standard color profiling 
workflow, thats the major market. As you've seen, there are those who wish to 
shoot the product down on every possible detail, so we wished to have the 
initial release as well detailed as possible for its main use, to minimize 
opportunities for criticism.

PrintFIX PRO also does not offer text file export in the initial shipping 
version. This will be an even simpler item to add than density support, and I 
suspect we may add it to a beta version in the near future. Anyone who was a 
pre-release beta tester for PrintFIX PRO, or who purchases a release copy, and 
wishes to test interum betas with possible features such as text export, or 
density values, should send me a private note (PLEASE do not reply to the list, 
just to me; don't clog the list with personal email!) and I will see about adding 
you to the ongoing testing.


> 2. Is there a software utility to output a txt lab file for use in
> another profile program such as Monaco Profiler?
> 
> At one time there were color software companies, and color hardware 
companies. Both types of products were expensive, but the software supported various 
instruments, and the instruments supported various software. More recently Logo 
was purchased by Gretag, Monaco was purchased by X-Rite, and Horses and 
ColorVision were purchased by Datacolor. Now all three combined companies sell 
bundled solutions, at the affordable end, that only support their own products. At 
higher price points, there is still some interoperability, but given that 
usually the combined products cost less than either the hardware alone, or the 
software alone, did a few years ago, there's not too much to complain about.

All that said, the text export function of PrintFIX PRO could be used to read 
targets from other packages,as long as the targets did not exceed 729 
patches. You could even read them in sections if they were larger than that. But 
there is no hardware-only option for purchasing the PrintFIX PRO spectro, so you'd 
end up with two software solutions for profile building. You could see which 
you preferred for RGB profiles, and use the other package if you wanted to 
build CMYK profiles, which is not an option with the current PrintFIX PRO 
software.

C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Unit
Datacolor Inc.
CDTobie@...
www.colorvision.com



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