Profile Assessment

[Emulator]

crenedecotret,
You may have a point, you could make up a single file of combined B/W images and a single file of combined RGB images or a single file of both. The question I would ask is does ColorMunki have a limit on how many samples it takes from the image file for the optimising profile? I suspect it does. We really need to now the answer to that.

The assessment of the subsequent real life pictures, does I am afraid, always tend to be subjective. How often do you look at a print and say that's fine. Then later see the same print produced through a different route and think that's better. I have been trying to find a more technically based method of judging profiles and print results, without resorting to pages of numerical data, which in the end become meaningless.

Regarding the question: Is it worth more than two optimisations? I think it can be, when you notice something doesn't look right and you deliberately choose a suitable image, you can correct the defect.

I will continue to use the new four optimisation profile and see how it goes.

P.S. Using Adobe RGB 1998, the gamut volume of the primary profile is 664573 and the 4th optimisation has a volume of 679992.

 

[Emulator]

I wonder if anyone can comment on the quality of scanner performance. The only scanner I have is built in to an HP PSC 1610 all-in-one. I want to use the scanner in the GamutVision Print Test as described in this link:-

http://www.gamutvision.com/docs/printest.html

It is suggested that the scanner should be profiled, which I have never attempted and am not sure of the best way to do this.

I don't want to buy a high quality scanner, but am I wasting my time on the HP?

 

[The Hat]

I am currently using an Epson 4490 scanner and I played around with it’s settings for quite a while
to calibrated it for my artwork and it seems to work out ok for me.

But when I use my old Epson SCSI 7000 scanner ages ago for photo/artwork projects,
I got a software package with it to help profile my monitor, Epson printer and scanner all together.

It involved printing out four different colour pages with a set of 150 12 mm squares to a page
then scanning them into the scanner and printing them straight back out to the printer again,
after manually adjusting the monitor first to start with.

Next checking them against the monitor, making adjustments and repeating the same procedure
all over again, in all six time with 24 pages total, it was a right pain in the ass, needless to say
I didn’t do that ever again, O' it did work but what a huge waste of OEM ink at the time..

 

[Emulator]

I can't find much info on the 4490, I had a look at Amazon and there is a V37 Epson for £64, which may be all I require? Or the 370 at £89.99? Any comments?

 

[Grandad35]

It is suggested that the scanner should be profiled, which I have never attempted and am not sure of the best way to do this.

To profile a scanner, you need a test chart, a data file giving the colors of each patch and a profile generating program.

For a scanner operating in reflective mode, you need an IT8.7/2 chart for the color patches. This link says that Vuescan and Silverfast both have built-in profile generation capability if you have a test chart and corresponding data file giving the colors of each patch, as well as giving sources for the charts. Some printer profiling packages include the ability to scan your own chart to generate the data file, but this will obviously limit you to the colors that your printer can generate. Hopefully, a commercially printed chart will cover a larger gamut than your printer.

 

[Emulator]

Thanks for the information, getting the chart is the problem, unless one comes with the scanner. I also found http://www.booksmartstudio.com/color_tutorial/scanners.html which seems self contained, what do you think, the ColorMunki should be able to do the job?

 

[Grandad35]

Thanks for the information, getting the chart is the problem, unless one comes with the scanner. I also found http://www.booksmartstudio.com/color_tutorial/scanners.html which seems self contained, what do you think, the ColorMunki should be able to do the job?

A chart came with my I1.

That link covers the procedure for the I1, but I'm not sure that the ColorMunki software supports scanner profiling. I seem to recall reading that they used to have it, but removed it a few years ago. I couldn't find any mention of it on their website.

Do you have Vuescan or Silverfast?

 

[The Hat]

I can't find much info on the 4490, I had a look at Amazon and there is a V37 Epson for £64, which may be all I require? Or the 370 at £89.99? Any comments?

I think the nearest one to the 4490 is now this one.
Epson Perfection V500 Photo

 

[Emulator]

The v500 is too pricey for this non essential experiment!
No I haven't either of Vuescan or Silverfast. If I proceed with the experiment, I hope I can rely on the scanner's software (which is not detailed in the advert).
I have answered my own question regarding the HP PSC, I scanned the Gamutvision print and the scanned output was indescribably bad!

Thanks to both for the input

 

[Emulator]

On the question of ColorMunki optimisations, the gamut volumes of the 5 versions of the profile according to Gamutvision are:-

Colorimetric Gamut Volumes in L*a*b* volume units (Delta E^3)
Primary profile 664573
Optimisation (1) 679383
Optimisation (2) 680726
Optimisation (3) 682676
Optimisation (4) 679992

The volume of Adobe RGB 1998.icc in the same units is 1225088.

All but the last increased the volume. The last image used was a scene of green grass and trees with many wild flowers of different colours and a grey wooden seat (see post #19 for details of other optimisation images). This reduced the volume, but a trial print of the image looked fine. So my conclusion that ColorMunki optimisations beyond the second are effective, is I think justified.