[argyllcms] Re: New to color management
- From: Geert Janssens <info@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: argyllcms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:51:49 +0100
On Thursday 24 January 2008, Lars Tore Gustavsen wrote:
> On 1/24/08, Geert Janssens <in> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Let me start by saying I am new to Color Management. I would like to
> > start profiling my work environment. I am working on linux, and my quest
> > for decent profiling tools on that platform brought me to Argyll CMS.
>
> First what do you mean by work environment. Are you indicating
> printer, monitor, camera,scanner and the ambient light in the room?
>
My work environment would be all of the above. I have
* at least two, and possibly four computers I would like to calibrate, so that
makes four monitors.
* one networked Epson inkjet photo printer, used by all four the computers,
* one Epson flatbed scanner attached to one pc, but useable by all other pcs
over the network
* one Canon EOS 400D camera
I have no idea (yet) how important ambient light is, and how to compensate for
it. The primary PC is relatively far away from any direct outside light, and
there is always artificial light in that room. The other PC's are more
exposed. One is a laptop, and moves, so it will be hard to compensate for
ambient light all of the time for it.
My workflow is mainly consists of:
* Input: different kind of scans, like images, drawings, and rather
particularly in our case: real 3d jewellry. Additional inputs will be
pictures taken with the Canon 400D
* Processing in ICM-aware programs like Gimp
* Output: partly for web, partly for print. Ideally our own printer should be
useable for reasonably natural color representation. This is especially
important for the jewellry. In the current configuration, all subtle color
variations in for example gold are lost (it's currently not possible to
distinguish a jewel in red gold from a jewel in yellow gold when printed).
> > I am not sure what profiling device (of spectometer ?) I should buy. None
> > are officially supported under linux by their respective
> > vendors/manufacturers. I found Argyll CMS does support a number of them,
> > so that's why I am here. I still have a few questions though before I go
> > out and buy one. If I am on the wrong list with these questions, you can
> > just point me to the correct one.
>
> I think you mix up colorimeter and spectrometers. You can read more
> about the different instruments in chapter 4 of the book Understanding
> Color Management by
> Abhay Sharma online either at amazon.com or at books.google.com.
> I also think you are on the perfectly right list. There are a lot of
> pages on the net with buying recommendations and tests. The problem
> with this is of course that they normally write about the bundled
> software and the accuracy of the profiles created with that software.
> I guess you are interested in the quality of the hardware.
>
I am indeed mixing up colorimeters and spectrometers. I think I read about the
difference even in the Argyll CMS documentation, but I didn't realize it was
that important.
What I am mainly interested in is what tool do I need to get at least
reasonable results. At first I thought I would require a spectrometer in
order to accurately profile my printer. The Argyll CMS documentation also
explains how to do this with a scanner, and explains the limitations of this
method. But I have no idea how much accuracy I would loose with this method.
What are others people's experiences here ?
> > * Is there a lot of difference in profiling quality between the different
> > spectrometers ? I mean, given that all of them would be used with Argyll
> > CMS, would one spectrometer result in a better (more acurate) color
> > profile than another ?
>
> Someone else may answer this.
>
> > * If that is the case, what can you recommend ? What's your experience
> > with different spectrometers ?
> > * Reading through the Argyll CMS documentation, I read that I would
> > require some test charts to profile printers and scanners. Are such test
> > charts provided with the spectrometers or do I have to buy them separatly
> > ? If so, where could I buy these ?
>
> The short answer are, it is possible to create printer charts with
> argyllcms. You need a spectrometer or a scanner to "read" the chart.
>
Ok, thanks.
> I think the odds are close to zero for using the spyder3 with argyllcms.
> The spyder2 should work fine but you have use firmware stripped from
> a dll file. Normally people on this list recommend the eye-one display
> 2 or the cheaper huey, because of the firmware workaround. All this
> devices are colorimeters. If you are looking for a spectrophotometer
> look for a package called eye-one photo LT.
>
I suppose you mean that the firmware workaround required for the spyder2 makes
it less recommended than the eye-one display or the huey ?
I looked around a bit for the two recommended models, and it seems I may find
them. I also found one site that sells an eye-one photo package and was
surprised of the difference in price: it's about 5 to 20 times more expensive
than the colorimeters. I can begin to understand why the latter are popular !
Anyway, thanks for the explanations.
Geert
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