ColorMunki - Coating Targets

[Alan Davis]

I have been using the ColorMunki for several months now and am somewhat satisfied with the profiles for my Epson 9900 and BC Lyve canvas combination.

Has anyone tried letting the targets dry overnight, then coating them with (in my case Glamour II) and letting them dry another 24 hours before actually scanning them?

Will the software just sit there for 48 hours and wait for the scans?

Regards,
Alan

[digitaldog]

It will wait, or there should be an option “I have already printed the target” (or something like that). Then you can move to the next step.

[Alan Davis]

Thanks, Andrew.

I'm gonna give it a try!

[Alan Goldhammer]

What you really need to double check is whether you can wait to read the second target.  I have a Color Munki but cannot remember whether the option to read the target later applies to the second target.  As Andrew notes, it certainly does for the first one.

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

You can't wait to read the second target.

What I had to do was go to the printer dialogue and then cancel the print.  The ColorMunki dialogue then allows you to skip the ‘drying process’ and then scan the target.  A bit convoluted, bearing in mind the overall slickness of the ColorMunki software; but they don't seem to have factored-in the necessity to let prints dry overnight.

I was sceptical of the necessity of waiting for drying-down until I had a largely grey-toned print of fog on the Bosphorus, which dried-down slightly green from a profile made with only 30 minutes of drying time.  Making a new profile from targets which had dried-down overnight cured this problem.  There seems to be little change after 24 hours, but I am still in progress of measuring a test print (sorry off-topic - a bit).

[digitaldog]

What I had to do was go to the printer dialogue and then cancel the print. 

At last on the Mac, you can do the following as well.


1. Put your Epson and Canon print queues on hold.

2. Print your file. You will get a dialog saying something about the print queue being paused and there's a button to "add to queue" which is what you should click on.

3. You can then go to the queue and delete the print job without fear of the printer starting before you are ready.

[Scott O.]

The problem is that the 2nd target is custom based on the scan of the first target.  There is a check box to avoid reprinting the 1st target, but I don't know how you could get around printing the 2nd target, putting the computer to sleep,  and then having to wait a day or so to scan it.  Maybe there is a workaround I'm not aware of.

[digitaldog]

You have to print the 2nd target based on the first target, no question. If you print with the queue trick I mentioned, it will remain in that queue until you print or delete it, even if put the system to sleep or reboot (at least on the Mac). Its a kludge but works.

[TimBarker]

Maybe worth mentioning that when asked the X-rite (colormunki) support people suggested the above methods of printing the first one out then skipping then printing the second one out after printing the reading the first (24hrs later).  The problem is more having a 24 hour gap between the 2 prints and not really being sure that the final 'reading' is based on the 'correct' first or second print.  Anyway I copy the tech support commentary below...

Hi Tim,

basically this is possible and you have to proceed as follows:

- Go to "Profile my Printer" and print out the first test chart
- Close the application and let it dry for 24 hours
- Start ColorMunki and go again to printer profiling
- When it comes to first test chart, check "I have already printed the test chart", go to the next step and measure the chart
- Go ahead to print out the second test chart
- Close the application and let the second test chart dry for 24 hours as well
- Go again to printer profiling, measure the first chart (without printing it again)
- Go ahead to the second test chart to be generated again
- Press the print button and cancel it afterwards (do not print the chart again)
- Go ahead to measure the second test chart and create the profile

as mentioned pretty much the process suggested earlier in this thread.
my reply
Understand the reasoning behind the method but this assumes that there is no change in the reading of the first print over the second period of 24 hours.  I agree there probably shouldn't be but perhaps the process needs to be pausable or to allow one to skip the first stage in the process if you have already been through it and created an 'interim' series of readings.

theirs
Tim,

we understand that such a „pause” feature would be helpful in this case, but this might cause other problems:

The patches of the second test chart are strongly dependent on the measured values of the first test chart.
So if there are for example a couple of measurements on hold, there is a danger that things become mixed up
resulting in poor profile quality.

Anyway I can suggest such a feature to the product manager in charge, but cannot promise that this will be realized.

Regards,

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

Um.  Seems complicated.  Perhaps I didn't get it ?  Here's what I do.

1:  Print the first target.  Quit ColorMunki Photo.
2:  Allow the target to dry for 24 hours.
3:  Re-open ColorMunki Photo.  When you come to print the first target select the 'I have already printed the test chart' option.  Scan the target.
4:  Print the second target.  Quit ColorMunki Photo.  Allow the second target to dry for 24 hours.
5:  Re-open Color-Munki Photo.  When you come to print the first target select the 'I have already printed the test chart' option.  Scan the target.
6:  'Print' the second target but cancel the print dialogue or delete it from the print queue (as described above).
7:  Scan the second target.
8:  Bob's Your uncle (or somesuch).

Methinks a nice idea for X-Rite to consider would be a "I have already printed my TARGETS" option so, having printed both targets (as above) you could just scan them in without all the printer gymnastics.  "Simples ?!". 

[ghaynes754]

Color shifting in 24 hrs.  If that is happening to such a degree that your targets are reading differently I would think that you have larger problems.

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

"larger problems" ?  Such as ?

I'm puzzled, since 24 hours drying-down time seems to be an excepted "norm".  However, that said, some papers dry-down faster than others.  And 24 hours is a convenient time to remember.