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Author Topic: Would a high quality scanner be able to produce quality printer profiles?  (Read 3065 times)

gnomore

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I have seen that some of these spectroproofers are up around 1500 dollars. Would a flatbed scanner in that price range do the same quality job in creating printer profiles?

Question #2, would it be possible to create monitor profiles using a color chart and D300?

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Mark D Segal

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No. If you mean using a scanner to read the patches, don't make printer profiles from a scanner. I've not known this approach to produce high-performance profiles. You would probably be better off with a ColorMunki at 1/3 the cost. I don't understand your second question - what is D300, and what color chart? A monitor profile is made with a colorimeter and software that throws gray and colour patches onto the display for the colorimeter to read, in order to characterize the display, from which a profile is created.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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gnomore

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Would a colormunki be good enough to calibrate our monitors and different media for our epson 7900?
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Mark D Segal

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I recommend you read all the reviews of this product. There is a plethora of material on the internet about the performance of ColorMunki. I don't have an Epson 7900, don't know what monitors you are talking about and I use other profiling systems, so I can't answer your question with first-hand knowledge, but from all I've read of testers whose judgment is usually quite reliable, this product has undergone substantial improvement over the time since it was first introduced. I don't think it would be fair to compare its accuracy with professional systems costing multiples more, but what you need to spend depends on what your needs are. Inexpensive systems can be "pretty good" and may suffice - again depending on your needs.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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howardm

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there are 2 'ColorMunki' units.  The 'Photo' version (approx $450-500 often on sale or rebate) can and profile both printer and display.  The 'Display' ($170ish) can only do, well, displays :)

gnomore

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Well most of my prints are network diagrams and graphic sales media, *short run posters, flyers* etc. My wife does photography and we have been sending out all her prints, now with the 7900 we want to bring that in house so she has some more control. We arent looking for perfection, but what we would like is when we make a printout from lightroom or photoshop or visio, if we hold that print up to the monitor 9/10 people will agree that they look the same. For my wifes photography she is okay with having to do some finer adjustments if necessary so most of the color calibration is me never wanting to have to go in and adjust color levels in photoshop / illustrator/visio once everything is initially set.

In short I am looking for a way to automate my daily workflow to deliver monitor to printer results that your average user will go, *yep thats a color match*. So basically for myself, if I were to hit print on this website. The luminous landscape banner, menu, and the grey backgrounds would look spot on. My wife is fine with fiddling for her more precise needs.
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Mark D Segal

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The monitor and the print versions will never look "the same" - if by this you mean "identical" - because of inherent differences between transmitted and reflected light that are partially but not totally overcome by softproofing. I recommend you buy the Reichmann-Schewe Camera to Print video tutorial and watch it - especially the colour management material, but also other segments on image adjustment, where you will learn a great deal you will need to know about controlled print making.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8....."

gnomore

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Will do - Appreciate it :)
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Ellis Vener

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I have seen that some of these spectroproofers are up around 1500 dollars. Would a flatbed scanner in that price range do the same quality job in creating printer profiles?

Question #2, would it be possible to create monitor profiles using a color chart and D300?



In my experience, no. First of all you'd need a really high quality scanner, like a Creo. Secondly, you'd need to profile it. Both solutions will cost you a lot of money and time and still not do the job properly -as people who used to try to do that with the old Monaco EZprint set up can testify.

Can a ColorMunki Photo  do an a good job of profiling displays and a high quality printer? In my experience yes to the display question and yes to the printer side as well - but not as good as the i1 Pro Photo set up with i1 Profiler. However if you have not created a printer/paper profile before there is a steeper and longer learning curve with i1 Profiler as there are more options.

Depending on how many papers you are planning on profiling it may be more economical to have Eric Chan, Andrew "The Digital Dog" Rodney, Chromix.com, make your printer/paper profiles. You should also check out buying media from booksmartstudio.com as their profiling services are exemplary.
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Ellis Vener

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I also recommend the Schewe/ Reichmann Camera to Print tutorial package.
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digitaldog

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Re: Would a high quality scanner be able to produce quality printer profiles?
« Reply #10 on: January 26, 2012, 10:16:16 am »

Would a colormunki be good enough to calibrate our monitors and different media for our epson 7900?

Yes. The hardware is quite good. You can spend more for more capability (speed, ability to control UV measurements or not), but as an entry level product, it will work fine.
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gnomore

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Re: Would a high quality scanner be able to produce quality printer profiles?
« Reply #11 on: January 26, 2012, 12:03:47 pm »

I also recommend the Schewe/ Reichmann Camera to Print tutorial package.

On the 11th video already :)
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ErikKaffehr

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Re: Would a high quality scanner be able to produce quality printer profiles?
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2012, 12:05:43 pm »

Color Munki Photo would be OK for that, IMHO.

Best regards
Erik

Would a colormunki be good enough to calibrate our monitors and different media for our epson 7900?
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Erik Kaffehr
 

gnomore

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Re: Would a high quality scanner be able to produce quality printer profiles?
« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2012, 09:59:15 pm »

Well I was able to trade my wacom cintiq 21ux for an i1publish pro today. Never really used the wacom. The i1publish pro is overkill for my needs, but didnt cost me any money out of pocket. The power of the internet. :D

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