After all my criticism aimed at i1Profiler I bought it, and an uvcut i1Pro. I've put in six days or so, cranked thru several targets, rc and fine art, on both a 3880 and a 3800. In no particular order here are my observances:
1. I've run into one real bug - if I start the profile process right after measuring the target it goes to 96%, spins awhile, and then abends (Windows 7 closes it down). The work-around is to always shut down i1Profiler after saving measurements, bring it back up and it seems to be solid. I've sent in logs, etc., to Chromix, no ahas! yet.
Certainly qualifies as an "ugly".
2. The interface is different; however, after some head scratching and usage it's workable, just quite a change from PMP. Once one puts a text editor on the various files it becomes clear how the data is organized; basically each step retains all the data from previous steps in XML form. Drop a completed profile anywhere and the system picks it up as legitimate data. I haven't tried to "fool" it, Andrew reported on the lack of error checking in his review. My opinion is gradually shifting from "bad" to at least closer to "good".
3. The contrast slider has a strong effect on the profile's performance, much more so than any of the others. The "Colorful" settings of +40 contrast (range is -50 to +50), +40 saturation (-50 to +50) and +75 gray point (0 to 100) is IMO way to "harsh" for rc papers, at least as compared to Classic Plus from PMP. For a good rc portrait porfile I had to go to -20 +20 50, although I couldn't tell you the extent of the effect of the last two numbers. Photoshop soft-proofing saves a lot of paper in terms of the relative effect of the controls, set contrast to -50, crank out a profile, and one ends up with a very flat rendering, would not consider using for printing. BTW the "Colorful" settings for fine art papers works out well, at least by my taste, makes for more pop without losing detail in the dark areas, true for both Red River Fine Art Natural and Hahnemuhle Photo Rag. The control provided is IMO "good", lack of info "bad".
4. The patch generation, after doping out the process, is great for filling up letter and super b targets. And it appears to create many more neutral patches than the PMP standards. There are no "counting" patches along the sides as for the PMP generation, allows one to cram in 1000 patches on a 13x19, but it's also easy to jump a line and receive no warning. The interface makes it easy to go back and re-read any line, just have to be careful and check position often. It still retains the white-black borders that enable scanning either direction. All in all, a "good".
So far I haven't generated a "bad" profile, although as I stated the "Colorful" settings for Red River Ultra Pro Satin made for high contrast. Still haven't played extensively with the sat, paper gray, and smoothness sliders, so can't really comment on how they affect the results.
Richard Southworth
