Subscribe in a reader

« 
 »
Nov 23 2007

X-Rite i1, get your colors right!

Posted by jeff in News, Uncategorized, tags: , , ,

First of all, I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. Now on to something that everyone loves, ICC Profiles! What’s that, you don’t love ICC profiles and color matching and trying to get your prints to match your monitor? Well neither do I. I think it is probably the most painful and frustrating part of the process. I’ve tried most everything to make this work. I let Photoshop handle the color, I’ve let the printer handle it, I’ve profiled my monitor, I’ve downloaded custom profiles from the paper manufacturers, and nothing ever really worked. I was using a Spyder Pro2 colorimeter for my monitor profiling which made my monitor look great. The problem is that I had great looking images on my monitor and still had crap coming from my printer. I’m glad to say though that all is not lost. I finally found my printing salvation in a piece of hardware from X-Rite (Gretag/MacBeth) called the i1 PhotoSG.

i1 and accessories

The first task when using the i1 is to profile your monitor, which is very much like any other system. You start the software, hang the colorimeter in front of your monitor, and it basically does the rest. This is not unlike other monitor profilers I have used. Here’s where the magic happens, once you profile your monitor, you do the same for your printer. What a concept! Using the same colorimeter, you print a sheet of color swatches and then scan them. This is the missing piece to the printing puzzle. Now my monitor is displaying proper colors and my computer knows what colors my printer is outputting and can match them with what is being displayed. You can create different printer profiles for each type of paper you use, and with one little exception, the prints roll off the printer looking great on my first try. The little exception I speak of is in the brightness of the print. I find I have to lighten up the image slightly before printing but I believe this is due to the fact that I have an LCD monitor. The difference being between transmitted light (my monitor) and reflected light (my print).

The i1 PhotoSG allows you to do the following:

  • Calibrating and profiling all of your monitors – LCD, CRT and laptops
  • Profiling your digital camera environment, including capturing flash and ambient light.
  • Profiling your RGB printers to ensure your output is as brilliant as your work.
  • Profiling your CMYK printers using Easy* mode for those quick comps you need.
  • Profiling your digital projector so your presentations will shine.
  • Profiling your scanner so you can easily convert analog photos to digital art.
  • Allowing you to edit your profiles – giving you the ultimate in control.
  • Measuring spot colors that you can incorporate in your work or use to make sure the colors in your photo are exact.

    • So here is the downside of the i1, and that is the price. With a list price of $1695, this is not exactly a purchase for the monetarily challenged. But if you are serious about getting quality from your printer then you need to go the extra step for a complete profiling system, that is unless you want to drag your monitor around with you every time you want to show off your images.

    The i1 Photo system is available at Amazon. You can find it by clicking here.

    Related posts:

    1. Epson 2880 Earns the “Gotta Have It” Award
    2. Chasing the Perfect Print
    3. ImagingUSA Mini Round-Up and Review
    4. New Schedule Released for the Epson Print Academy
    5. Tulips and Camera Profiles

    This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 12:52 pm and is filed under News, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    4 Responses to “X-Rite i1, get your colors right!”
    Trackbacks
    1. Life Insurance blog says:
      March 5, 2008 at 4:56 pm

      the insurance companies don’t want you to know

      Information on the life insurance industry

      Reply
    2.  
    Comments
    1. Mike Palmer says:
      November 23, 2007 at 5:32 pm

      Hope your holiday was great – good points on your post, but $1695 is a long way to go, I use the EyeoOne Display 2 to calibrate my monitior and print with Epson R2400 and do not seem to have a that much differance, I am wont say its perfect, but I try to soft proof before printing in CS3 with paper ICC and sometimes need the tweak or use relative VS perceptual. I seem to have my biggest issue as to what light to view my print on. Where my computer is kinda dark most of the time and find that when I am disappointed with a print and if it is daylight, I take it outside, or under the chandilier in the dining room the more subtle highlights are there. What about the shiny monitors VS reg lcd? does that factor in? What is the best “photographic monitor? Lacie? Did we get out of the darkroom, only to have to find we have to make a room, with the perfect amount of ambient light, and some artificial light source to judge our prints? I do agree that this color management process is one of the hardest things to get you head wrapped around as a digital photographer. I hate it and wish someone would come out with a total package system, CPU, Monitor, Printer configurable to your camera profile or something like that – but then if we were not chasing that perfect print, what fun would it be? Have a great weekend

      Reply
    2. X-Rite Densitometers says:
      October 28, 2009 at 7:34 pm

      It works great! X-Rite’s Densitometers are something else. We use them for all our monitor and printing calibration needs.

      Reply
    3.  
    Leave a Reply