ColorVision PrintFix Pro - Anyone Use/Have One

[ARD]

Been looking at buying a printer profiler, but as I would not use it too often don't want to spend big bucks on it.

I have been reading about the ColorVision PrintFix Pro

It seems to get mixed reviews.

Does anyone have experience of this, or can recommend a similar device of similar price

Thanks

[francois]

Read this article. Try to search in the forums, the only recent discussion that I remember of is here.

[canlogic]

I just bought one of their new systems for use with my epson 7880. Initially I had some problems but it turned out I got a bad unit. Support was very good though working with me and once they had determined I had a bad unit they Fedexed me one over night. While I found you can print the targets on 8x10 paper I found it a little easier to print a larger target. Use the 225 patch target and I liked the results when also going the extended greys. So far I have profiled 3 papers and I find the results very good. I also use Imagprint rip for my 4000 so I can sort of compare. I find prints from the profile I did for premium luster to look very close to those from IP.

[mikeseb]

Read this article. Try to search in the forums, the only recent discussion that I remember of is here.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=160977\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'm the person who started the thread Francois has linked. I urge you to read it.

My experience was not positive, in that I couldn't get things to work with my particular system. It was positive in that the Colorbyte people were very helpful. In the end, they refunded my purchase price cheerfully.

You might contact them directly to make sure the system will work with the printer you have in mind.

[KeithR]

Been looking at buying a printer profiler, but as I would not use it too often don't want to spend big bucks on it.

I have been reading about the ColorVision PrintFix Pro

It seems to get mixed reviews.

Does anyone have experience of this, or can recommend a similar device of similar price

Thanks
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=160887\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I have been using the PrintFix Pro for almost 2 years now, and have not experienced any problems with it. They have just recently announced an upgrade to the product line, but for the PFP it was a software change and a free download to v 3.0. They have a ColorVision group on Yahoo that the DataColor people (CD Tobie & David Miller)answer questions that people have.  Very helpful.

[jerryrock]

I have been using the Datacolor PrintFix Pro package for about 10 months now with excellent results. My computer is a MacPro and my printer is the Canon iPF5000.

I have profiled all of the papers I use with the 729 patch target and the extended gray set. The 16 bit profiles  produced by PrintFix Pro render more accurate color than the canned profiles that come with the printer. The profiles created can be modified at a later time to compensate for the ambient light the finished print will be displayed in.

This system is about 1/3 of the price of the other available profiling systems and is limited to RGB printers.  It  takes longer to read the patches as they must be read individually and not in one swipe, but well worth the time and effort.

Jerry Skrocki
Photography & Graphic Design

[GerardK]

I've written two articles on the use of PrintFix PRO with a HP Designjet 130 and more specifically the comparison of various profiling packages with Gamutvision. The short answer is that the results with PrintFIX Pro were in the end suprisingly good, not as good as with much more expensive packages but close, and certainly much better than canned profiles. The articles were published here on LL.

http://luminous-landscape.com/reviews/acce..._graphics.shtml

and

http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/fancy-graphics2.shtml

Gerard Kingma
www.kingma.nu

[dealy663]

I agree w/Gerard

PFP is surprisingly good for the cost. I'm pretty pleased with the product and with the level of support provided by the folks over at Colorvision. They are very responsive to all queries that occur on the internet forums that I frequent.

If you can afford a higher and product from the likes of X-rite/gretag macbeth then I would certainly get one of them over PFP due to the very manual target measuring. But since I can't afford that I'm sticking with PFP!

I'm currently in the midst of printing the biggest job I've ever done and it has all been w/profiles created by PFP. Everyone who has seen these prints is very complimentary of their high quality.

Derek

I've written two articles on the use of PrintFix PRO with a HP Designjet 130 and more specifically the comparison of various profiling packages with Gamutvision. The short answer is that the results with PrintFIX Pro were in the end suprisingly good, not as good as with much more expensive packages but close, and certainly much better than canned profiles. The articles were published here on LL.

http://luminous-landscape.com/reviews/acce..._graphics.shtml

and

http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/fancy-graphics2.shtml

Gerard Kingma
www.kingma.nu
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=161162\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

[ARD]

Many thanks for all of the replies. I'll now go and read the posted links  

[T_om]

I have been using the PrintFix Pro for almost 2 years now, and have not experienced any problems with it. They have just recently announced an upgrade to the product line, but for the PFP it was a software change and a free download to v 3.0.

Um, I just checked the site and the software is still listed as ver. 2.1

Where is the upgrade?

Tom

[schrodingerscat]

Um, I just checked the site and the software is still listed as ver. 2.1

Where is the upgrade?

Tom
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[a href=\"http://www.colorvision.com/index_us.php]http://www.colorvision.com/index_us.php[/url]

If starting from scratch, you want the Spyder3Studio.

If you already have PrintfixPro, you can upgrade to Spyder3Print to use with your existing hardware. Look under support on the homepage.

Just got through building a profile for an R1800 and a CIS and the results were excellent.

[Slaughter]

I have used this product (Colorvision PrintFix Pro + Spyder Pro) for a long time and I am very happy with the result. I generated many ICC profiles for color printing on R2400 et R1800 and IMHO they are good. I also intensively use their colormeter (densitometer) for measuring densities and creating B/W ICC profiles for adapting and proofing Epson ABW engine.

I must say that I am very pleased with the level of support provided by the folks at Colorvision. They are very responsive to all queries. Nice, nice, nice! In the past, I had problems with one of their products (concerning supported printer) and I have nothing negative to say about their support: it was really good.

(skip the remaining of my posting if you don't want criticisms about Gretag client support)

I have heard that there are probably better and more expensive products such as X-rite (the company that also bought Gretag) but their responsiveness prevents me from buying their products. Along the years, I have never had any reply from them when asking for dealers in Switzerland (neither from Gretag in the past or from X-rite today). When I said "no reply", it _is_ "no reply" at all.  I have read in some forums that they apparently treat you like s... (you know what I mean) if you are not ready spending many thousands of $$$ in their products. I have never understood their way of acting since I was ready spending 1000$-2000$ in their products. I have been disgusted, so I gave up. If in my company we had treated our potential clients the way Gretag and X-Rite did with me, my company would have been down a long time ago.

I am not affiliated at all with Colorvision. All what I wrote is IMHO of course.