Are there any affordable printer profilers?

[dmpbyrdwatcher]

Eons ago I purchased an XRite package that included DTP94 and EZColor software.  I'm still using the DTP94, but with Coloreyes Display Pro software to calibrate my monitor.  However, I had continued to use the EZColor software with an IT8 color target to profile my scanner and printer. 

I know this scanner solution for profiling a printer has never been considered an optimal solution, but it worked well for me.  I got better results doing this profiling than not doing it, and better results than using canned profiles. I never compared it to purchased custom profiles.  My needs and finances are simple as a hobbyist and my overall system is not geared for expensive calibration/profiling tools - I use 2007 iMac with the bright glossy screen and my printer is an equally old Canon i9900.  So it would not make sense for me to spend a ton of money buying professional profiling equipment.

EZColor is Rosetta only, so I can no longer use it after updating to Lion.  My question is whether there is anything like it as a replacement or do I need to look at custom profiles now? 

[Czornyj]

ArgyllCMS

[Jeremy Roussak]

ColorMunki photo has had some appreciative reviews: Keith Cooper wrote one here, for example.

I've not tried it myself.

Jeremy

[eronald]

ColorMunki photo has had some appreciative reviews: Keith Cooper wrote one here, for example.

I've not tried it myself.

Jeremy

+1
I've never heard any complaints about this from its target market, and user reviews seem good.

The wonderful thing about this product is that it can do any type of measurement (emissive, reflective, ambient) and should be able to calibrate just about any screen as it is a spectro. It's also compact and can travel. I used mine to measure the patches on my Colorchecker to check some camera profiles, the software lets you move the measured colors into photoshop easily, I think.

Edmund

[PhilipCummins]

As others say the most affordable solution to handle both printer & monitor profiling is the ColorMunki Photo (~$400), however you get limited options on patch counts unless you break out Argyll (dual 50 patches + optimisation patches). The next step up would be the SpyderStudio (~$550) which is more flexible in that regard. After that you would be best to go for the i1 Photo Pro 2 (over $1500 usually) for the dual-illuminant handling and most of the features you'd need for RGB printer profiling. Keith Cooper's reviews on Northlight Images should assist in figuring which one you should go for. Note that scanner profiling hit the wayside of late on X-Rite in i1Profiler, you'd require ProfileMaker Pro or some other software to continue to profile the scanner.

[Czornyj]

or some other software to continue to profile the scanner.

...namely ArgyllCMS It can also do the IT8 trick for printer profiling, not to mention it's most affordable (~0$).

[francois]

ColorMunki photo has had some appreciative reviews: Keith Cooper wrote one here, for example.

I've not tried it myself.

Jeremy

ColorMunki gives very good profiles at an affordable price. If one needs more, it's easy to use the ColorMunki hardware with Argyll CMS.
I've no experience with competitor DataColor Spyder solutions.

Other more professional offers are definitely more expensive than either ColorMunki or Spyder.

[Mark D Segal]

As others say the most affordable solution to handle both printer & monitor profiling is the ColorMunki Photo (~$400), however you get limited options on patch counts unless you break out Argyll (dual 50 patches + optimisation patches). The next step up would be the SpyderStudio (~$550) which is more flexible in that regard. After that you would be best to go for the i1 Photo Pro 2 (over $1500 usually) for the dual-illuminant handling and most of the features you'd need for RGB printer profiling. Keith Cooper's reviews on Northlight Images should assist in figuring which one you should go for. Note that scanner profiling hit the wayside of late on X-Rite in i1Profiler, you'd require ProfileMaker Pro or some other software to continue to profile the scanner.

Scanner profiling for positives can be done directly from within SilverFast 8 Ai Studio or Vuescan Professional using an IT8 target, so any one needing to profile their scanner and using either of those products can do so without spending additional money on another software package.

[dmpbyrdwatcher]

Thanks, everyone!

I'll take a look at the suggestions.  I'm especially intrigued by ArgyllCMS.

[elolaugesen]

I use spyderprnt3 and now the monitor and camera tools from datacolor Works like aa charm.    May be more pro apps at higher prices around..  But these are easy to use and "solved my  problems with matching, screen, etc....  Works for a good price. Print colors are great..

But like all products   Not everyone likes them.    I do.      Cheers

[ComputerDork]

I've been using the ColorMunki Photo since last year and am happy with it. I'm pretty sure it's the least expensive spectro you can get. It's obviously not a high-end spectro with selectable uv cut filtering, fancy bundled software, nice ergonomics, etc, but it's quite respectable for the price. For printer and monitor profiling it's quite good. (After profiling my Epson R3000 the rough average in a few test samples I took from the printer went from about 10 to 5 DeltaE.) My only complaint is the somewhat awkward industrial design which really only becomes annoying when you want to take spot measurements.

If you get a Munki, certainly do check out Argyll CMS even if only to use the 'spotread' utility. The Argyll spotread utility will let you get full spectral data from the hardware (SPD plots, etc) with the only issue being that it's a command-line utility with no fancy GUI. So even if you don't find you need or want to mess with Argyll CMS for actual profiling, at least check out 'spotread' because it's the only free software I know of that lets you make full use of the hardware for spot measurement.

[francois]

For those tempted to dive into Argyll CMS, Stefano Lassini wrote a few useful articles (here).

[digitaldog]

...namely ArgyllCMS It can also do the IT8 trick for printer profiling, not to mention it's most affordable (~0$).

But no free bundled Spectrophotometer? Bummer <g>

Seriously, you need a good instrument (a true, not fake Spectrophotometer). If you don’t own one, just get a ColorMunki, use the very easy to use software and build very good printer profiles quickly and easily.

[ComputerDork]

FYi, if you somehow qualify for academic pricing, mac-on-campus has the ColorMunki for $300:

https://www.mac-on-campus.com/Shop/Products/Color-Management/X-Rite/For-Monitors,-Printers-amp-LCD-Projectors/ColorMunki-Photo.aspx

I think that being enrolled in a single photography class at an accredited college of any sort (even a community college with low tuition) is sufficient to qualify.

Sometimes you can find similar deals with rebate offers, or perhaps buy one used.

BTW, I'm not real keen on the concept of the SpyderPRINT since it's sort of like a "reflective colorometer" (they call it a "spectrocolorimeter") as it only measures a very few bands of visibile light unlike even the low-end colormunki that will measure something like 100. Apparently the SpyderPRINT won't create CMYK profiles (not a big problem for most ink jet printers, but I'd be unable to profile my laser printer with it) which you may run afoul of. I don't get the point of it since it's only $50 less MSRP and it seems like you're losing way more than $50 worth of capability vs the colormunki.

Excellent post for the Argyll tutorials. The software is complex enough that tutorials are always helpful.