CHROMiX ColorNews Issue #31 - My Printer is Too Dark |
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Welcome to ColorNews, a periodic update on things related to Color Management. We strive for a newsletter of high value to our readers. Please let us know your interests so we can address these concerns in future issues. ======================================================== C H R O M i X C O L O R N E W S
Issue # 31 ======================================================== Table of Contents =================
1. CHROMiX News - - - MAXWELL.... 1st Public Release!! CHROMiX News ========================================
MAXWELL News So (drum roll please)... CHROMiX released the first commercially available version of Maxwell today, May 15th!! Originally announced in December 2006, Maxwell has come a long way to the final feature set for version 1.0. Thanks for your patience. We think you will find it worth the wait! Maxwell v1.0 features will include:
- Access Maxwell with any current web browser, anywhere, anytime.
- CHROMiX Measurement services available (extra fee... please call sales). Features to follow soon (expected to go beta in June)
- Compatibility with i1 Pro spectrophotometer for measurement uploads.
For complete Maxwell product information: www.mxwell.com or to register for a free trial 'Track' for 1 month, so that you can become familiar with and see how easy Maxwell is to use, simply email maxwellfreetrack(at)chromix.com or call CHROMiX Sales at (866) CHROMiX. (in fact, all tracks are still open for a limited time, so feel free to come play!) **Maxwell and IDEALink Verify software will also be facilitating the IDEAlliance SWOP Industry Proofing Study, as described in 'Industry News' below. Please read this important announcement.**
Interested in seeing Maxwell for yourself? Come by the site! We will be holding Maxwell Training Webinars regularly. If you're interested in attending, please send an RSVP email to this address: And yes, if you have responded to this list before you are still on it! We'll be sending a webinar notification soon. Also, thank you for all who volunteered for beta testing. We had many participants and were not able to accommodate all who applied. But! don't forget, Maxwell is a web-based service, we will be adding features regularly and can always use an extra set of eyes and hands. Come check it out!
CHROMiX now sells Alwan, Barbieri and Techkon products. We have been impressed by these fine product lines, and we think you will be too:
Alwan products help with controlling color at every stage by standardizing incoming files, produced proofs and the final print. This in turn significantly improves productivity and profitability with faster make-readies, better proof matching and significant reduction of ink consumption. Barbieri: coming soon -> Barbieri
Techkon is emerging as a new innovative leader in the design and manufacture of measurement instruments for the Graphic Industry. Techkon solutions range from high-quality densitometers, color measuring devices and software solutions for applications in the pre-press and printing industry. Oh, and in case you are wondering, it's pronounced "teshcon". NEC LCD monitors. CHROMiX also now sells NEC graphics and professional level LCD monitors. NEC monitors
SHOWS & EVENTS ================
May 21, 2008 - The Pacific Northwest Color Management Users Group Seattle Chapter
X-Rite raised most product prices May 1, 2008. This affects the i1, iO and iSis as well as most product lines. However, if you've been waiting for lower prices on any Eye-One Match Module Upgrades, these were in fact lowered by X-Rite on May 1st. For the new i1 Match Module prices: EyeOne modules
X-Rite and Pantone announced the ColorMunki. It's got a funki name and a novel design for an inexpensive all-in-one spectrophotometer. It measures and makes profiles for monitors, printers, etc., and is expected to appeal to those in the $400- $600 price range.
X-Rite will be allowing you to upgrade an older X-Rite device and receive an additional 15% off an Eye-One iSis X or iSis XL until July 31st, 2008. Devices eligible are the SpectroLino/Scan, DTP-41, or the ICColor. CHROMiX will be supporting this promotion. For the net price, just simply take 15% of of the CHROMiX price. Contact ColorGear Sales for program details 866-CHROMiX x1, or email sales(at)chromix.com
To sign up go to www.swop.org. When the study commences, you will download IDEALink Verify software to help facilitate the uploads and measurements required. There is no need to buy Verify to participate, it will operate for the purposes of this study in 'Demo' mode. The study will occur from June 1st to August 15th. Participants must have a spectrophotometer (preferably an i1Pro), have a hard-copy proofing system and conform to GRACoL #1, SWOP#3 or SWOP#5. Participants will also complete a short questionnaire, complete the Measurement Control exercise and provide proof data and hard-proofs weekly. Besides contributing and benefiting the industry, participants will receive an individual Proofing Quality Report Card, They will also receive recognition at the Spectrum 360 Conference (see above Shows & Events section) and in The Proofing Industry 2008 Report. Finally, participants will receive a copy of the Proofing Industry 2008 Report. Everyone qualified is encouraged to apply as well as tell others to apply. For more:www.swop.org
Other Tidbits -
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LaCie 324 Wide Screen LCD Review:
Our own Pat Herold has done a handy technical review of LaCie's new 324 LCD monitor. The 324 is a 24" expanded RGB gamut LCD for under $1000. It also has hardware calibration, meaning that LaCie includes their Blue Eye software for DDC level calibrations.
Pat's review: LaCie 324 review notes
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Color Perception Web Video:
Here's a 5 minute basic overview of color perception by Apple.
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Recent EIZO ColorNavigator software update:
If you are using an older EIZO display, you may not have the newest ColorNavigator calibration software. EIZO has released v. 5.2 of ColorNavigator in February. It can now support the newest instruments, and the newest operating systems (Vista and Leopard).
Eizo ColorNavigator software update
My Printer is Too Dark
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First off, I have a confession to make. The real title of this article is "My Monitor is Too Bright." But we've had a lot of articles on monitors recently and, given that we've had so many articles on monitors recently, you'd think we'd have exhausted the subject. However, judging by the volume of questions we get on this topic, it seems to be a hot button for many people right now.
We have dealt with the general subject of how to get the display to match the printer output in other ColorNews articles.
We have a service called ColorValet where we make custom-made printer profiles. Occasionally a customer will call up and report that the profile is too dark. Upon deeper investigation, we find that the user is comparing the print to their display, and their display is a newer LCD (and perhaps recently purchased.) Perhaps the customer has confidence that the display is accurate because they have calibrated it with a colorimeter.
If you were that customer, you would have good reason to assume that what you see on your screen is accurate. If you get a new printer profile from CHROMiX and, when you use it, your printer prints out prints that appear too dark, it's natural to assume that there's something wrong with the profile.
Well now, hold on a minute.
Without even printing anything you can see if your printer will ever be able to look like the display: Check to see if the white of your monitor matches the white of your paper. Think about it this way:
Suppose you have an image of a snowman, in front of a white house, with lots of puffy white clouds overhead - a picture with a lot of white. When it gets printed on an inkjet printer, there's not going to be very much ink on the page. Much of the color and brightness will be determined by the white background of the paper, and has relatively little to do with what the printer does. How can you ever hope that this print will match the display if the display is naturally a lot brighter?
You really have to get the white of the paper to match the white on the display if you ever hope to get your pictures to match. This is surprisingly hard to do. Emissive light (coming from a display) does not register in our eyes quite the same way that reflective light (bouncing off your page) does, but the idea is to do the best you can. There are two ways to accomplish this:
ADJUST THE DISPLAY
This is usually the quickest and easiest way to attack the problem. Turn down the brightness on your monitor. Calibrate again. Does it match the print white? If not, adjust the brightness and calibrate again.
Q: Wait a minute - I bought this colorimeter so I could eliminate these subjective judgments and know my monitor is accurate. Now we're going back to doing things "by eye"?!
A: Well, yes. When it comes to setting the brightness of the monitor, the "correct" setting will vary depending on the environment. Once you have determined what your brightness should be, then your profiling software will make sure your colors relate accurately.
Surround the image with several inches of white border. This can make an image appear significantly darker. If you doubt how much this affects perception, switch to a black background and see how much lighter your image looks.
Q: I've turned the brightness on my monitor down to zero, and it's still too bright compared to my print white.
A1: See if your display has an "economy" mode, where it will use less power, and also produce less back-light.
A2: Turn down the Red, Green and Blue levels equally in the monitor controls. This usually reduces the overall brightness, but it does so by depending on the liquid crystals in the LCD display to block the light - not the ideal way to accomplish this. This will tend to reduce your contrast ratio, might reduce the color repeatability of your profile, and should only be used sparingly.
A3: Refer to the instructions for increasing your print illumination (below).
A4: Buy a profiling software package that can make use of your computer's graphics card to reduce the brightness beyond what the monitor's controls can do.
Most monitor profiling software systems have you turning down the brightness at the monitor, and they depend on you being successful at doing that. The rest of the calibration procedure determines the color adjustments that are made in the graphics card.
There are only a very few that can reduce your brightness by lowering the curves in the graphics card. ColorEyes Display Pro, and the MeasureTool module of GretagMacbeth's ProfileMaker suite will do this.
The ProfileMaker suite, while very good, is a bit of an overkill for someone just wanting to get their screen looking good.
ColorEyes Display Pro is available as software-only, which is handy for those who already have a colorimeter device - although still a bit of a shock for someone who thought they had this color stuff all figured out until they bought their latest new LCD display.
Shades
Another wrinkle to worry about while you're reducing your brightness on your display is that it will make banding more likely. When you let your video card handle the color adjustments without asking it to reduce luminance, it will have approximately 256 steps of resolution. But when you bring that curve down by limiting luminance, it will have a smaller resolution grid. It might have, say, only 200 or less steps to use to define a gradient from black to white. So transitions from one subtle color to another might not be very smooth. Displays with internal graphics cards, that have say 10-bit or 12-bit processing ability, can handle these curve changes with more resolution, and make banding less likely.
(Now you're starting to see why those upper end displays cost a bit more.)
ADJUST THE LIGHTING
That piece of printer paper does not have some kind of inherent color or brightness in itself. Leave us not forget that reflective color is a process whereby an illuminant reflects off of a surface, enters our eyes and is interpreted by the brain. To a large extent, that print will be as bright as the light that is used to illuminate it.
Under a bright light, look closely at the print that you think is too dark, and you might very well find all the shadow detail that you see on the screen. Because it is not normally lit up as brightly as the screen version, you perceive it as too dark.
There are various controlled lighting solutions available. We have an entire section of our online store devoted to lighting products. Those big, overhead florescent tubes, even if they say "daylight balanced" on them tend to have sharp spectral spikes. Try to stay away from those. A nice, budget-minded solution for the do-it-yourselfer is to use Solux bulbs in a track lighting setup. www/solux.net
Typically, a print will come off your home inkjet with some white border around it. If this is what you're using to compare to the display, then your print will appear darker because of the white border. Cut off the white border or, better yet, mask the border with some black material so that only the image shows through. (This is essentially the opposite of what we did before with the monitor.) Give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the scene, or go away and come back in a few minutes and you will be amazed at how much lighter the image got while you were gone!
Okay, now if you're about to skip what I just suggested because you don't really think it'll make any difference - just humor me on this. Go get some black cardboard, fabric or paper - and cover the four white borders of your print. It makes a difference.
A few final points to keep in mind:
- When you are comparing the print to the display, you don't want to hold the print in FRONT of the display so that the light from the display shines though the print and makes it appear washed out.
Again, there is much more information on these subjects in our ColorNews archives in previous articles and color management myths, so check out the Reserved Articles section of www.colorwiki.com for more information.
-Patrick Herold
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