Datacolor User to User Support Group.

Seeing all of the postings about guides for reading patches, I decided  
to see what I could make with simple tools and scrap materials.

It took me about 30 minutes to make the guide shown in the picture I  
just uploaded.

I drew a line across a piece of *thin* Plexiglass (no more than 2mm  
thick, and thinner if you have it available) with a thin marking pen,  
set it on top of a printed target and marked the left-hand edge of  
each patch on the line (the edge is easier to find than the center).   
Then I drilled 3/8" holes centered on each of the marks, using an  
electric drill and a brad-point bit. If you go slowly, friction will  
melt the Plexiglass and the hole will be fairly neat. Then I smoothed  
up the holes and edges with a piece of 150 grade sand paper.

The Plexiglass has to be thin or the reading snout on the reader will  
not sit flat against the target.  The thinnest I had lying around was  
2mm, but I'm pretty sure something thinner is available.

You can also make the guide from aluminum or other thin metal, but  
being able to see through it is probably an advantage.

I haven't tested the guide in the heat of battle, but it certainly  
does eliminate the head-almost-on-the-table bad posture I normally  
exhibit when reading patches.

Myron Gochnauer

> For some reason this issue brings out the Rube Goldberg in everyone  
> (for those of you who don't go that far back, think of the game  
> "MouseTrap". I've been sent photos of a wide array of homemade  
> devices, many of them very clever, but most of which are specific to  
> one target, on one paper size, with one margin set.

...which is why my version is home made ... you mark it out  on your  
ordinary printed target.  I have found the 225 target on 8.5x11 paper  
quite satisfactory for all of my needs. I have no idea what margins,  
if any, I use... I just do the same thing every time.   And if I want  
a different number and/or size for more than one or two papers or  
inks, 30 minutes isn't much time to spend to save a crick in the neck.

Constructing your own special-purpose "jigs" is a time-honoured  
technique for wood workers. There is no need to implicitly insult  
people who do this for a photometer rather than a table saw.  Valuable  
and commercially viable are not the same.

MLG