software for Eye-One ( What are the options?)

[fotostudio.nl]

I am using the Eye -One for calibrating my monitors for many years now.

Making the wrong choice buying the Designer edition,
making printer profiles is limited.

An upgrade is possible, (Eye-One Match3)
but do I have a choice?
Is there other affordable software to make good printer profiles?

It has to work with win7 64 bit.

[RHPS]

Argyll CMS is well worth a look, and it's open source (free). The command line interface can be a bit intimidating but in reality it's not too difficult. Argyll is capable of making pretty decent printer profiles and lots more besides. A Google search will give you plenty of reading.

[Rhossydd]

An upgrade is possible, (Eye-One Match3)
but do I have a choice?

The choice comes down to calling X-Rite and seeing what exact options are still available for your bundle*, or using Argyll.
If funds are tight and you have the time, it may be worth the effort of trying Argyll, but it's nowhere near as user friendly as the X-Rite packages.

*Trying to find upgrade paths with X-Rite is a nightmare as all the bundles are called similar names, but can have very different costs. It's best to call them and see what they can do for you personally.
The latest software i1 Profiler is very good indeed, but do the sums carefully if they offer any upgrade to the newer hardware. i1 Pros don't last forever and if yours is an early one a new one might be a good long term investment.

[Simon Garrett]

Argyll CMS is well worth a look, and it's open source (free). The command line interface can be a bit intimidating but in reality it's not too difficult. Argyll is capable of making pretty decent printer profiles and lots more besides. A Google search will give you plenty of reading.

If you want to use Argyll, I recommend using the GUI interface "dispcalGUI".  This is simply a Windows interface to Argyll, and makes Argyll quite easy to use.  (Why it has a name that doesn't include "Argyll", and so you'd never find it if you didn't know, is as inexplicable as the Argyll command-line interface, but some things are not meant to make sense to even the cleverest human minds, only to geeks.)

See http://dispcalgui.hoech.net/, which explains how to install both Argyll and the Windows UI in words that make sense to mortals.  

PS - "I am using the Eye -One for calibrating my monitors for many years now."  Be aware that the dyes in the filters of colorimeters degrade with time.  You might find that your Eye-One isn't as accurate as it used to be.  Also, the Eye-One doesn't have a wide enough colour space to calibrate/profile accurately wide-gamut monitors.  You might want to think about replacing it at some point. 

[abiggs]

Simon, do you know if there is a GUI version for Argyll that can profile printers? I have been looking for a while, but all I have found is the link you provided and it looks like it only profiles displays.

[Czornyj]

Nothing spectacular, but you may try this:
http://colorhacks.blogspot.com/2008/08/guis-for-argyllcms-part-1-argyllcmsgui.html

[Rhossydd]

Nothing spectacular, but you may try this:
http://colorhacks.blogspot.com/2008/08/guis-for-argyllcms-part-1-argyllcmsgui.html

The author doesn't fill one with confidence on using this...

"Summary:
Very complex interface, which is basically a window for the command line programs existing in the Argyll CMS. By having the help included, people can look up the meaning of the parameters but many non-expert users will probably not understand the technical matters. The big plus is that all knobs available in the command line tools are available and the typical workflow (the order the command line applications have to be started) is included already. The big minus is that feedback to the user is virtually zero, hence errors are not displayed and users will not know what happened without starting a shell and typing the command line which is saved in the debug files. I personally see no benefit currently in using the tool because of the zero-user-feedback."

My emphasis

[fotostudio.nl]

..............................................
  Be aware that the dyes in the filters of colorimeters degrade with time.  You might find that your Eye-One isn't as accurate as it used to be.  Also, the Eye-One doesn't have a wide enough colour space to calibrate/profile accurately wide-gamut monitors.  You might want to think about replacing it at some point. 

Thanks for all the input.
I was not aware that the Eye-One would age in this way.
So far I experience no problems,
and always keep the meter in the dark and free of dust.

Some investments are unavoidable, either in time or money.

Sure will consider to buy a whole new set, that makes good printer profiles.

Third party software or open source is always more appealing to me.

[RHPS]

Thanks for all the input.
I was not aware that the Eye-One would age in this way.
So far I experience no problems,
and always keep the meter in the dark and free of dust.

Your i1Pro is a spectrophotometer - it does not use colour filters and should remain pretty stable for a long time. Also, beign a spectrophotometer it is suitable for wide-gamut displays.

[digitaldog]

I am using the Eye -One for calibrating my monitors for many years now.
An upgrade is possible, (Eye-One Match3)

If all you wish to do is profile and calibrate your display, downoad i1Profiler from X-rite and it should run fine with no upgrade at all. The old instrument should unlock that module. If you want to unlock more features, perhaps to build profiles, there IS an upgrade path from X-rite.

[Simon Garrett]

Simon, do you know if there is a GUI version for Argyll that can profile printers? I have been looking for a while, but all I have found is the link you provided and it looks like it only profiles displays.

Sorry, I don't know of one.

[Simon Garrett]

I was not aware that the Eye-One would age in this way.

I've no idea how fast it ages, and I might have just picked up an urban myth! 

[bill t.]

For old instruments, I believe X-rite can re-calibrate the puck and match it up with a fresh calibration tile.

[jaapb]

do you know if there is a GUI version for Argyll that can profile printers?

Andy,

Again nothing spectacular, and maybe already mentioned somewhere on this forum before, this webpage enables you to compose the desired commandline for profile creation for display, printer or scanner/camera. Subsequently copy the generated command line into Terminal (OSX) or Command prompt window (Windows) for executing. Javascript must be enabled in your browser. I haven't used this for a while though and it seems to be created in 2008, YMMV.
Hope this helps anyway.

Jaap

Edit: screengrab attached.

[StephaneB]

Be aware that the dyes in the filters of colorimeters degrade with time.  You might find that your Eye-One isn't as accurate as it used to be.  Also, the Eye-One doesn't have a wide enough colour space to calibrate/profile accurately wide-gamut monitors.  You might want to think about replacing it at some point. 

I have an Eye One Pro Rev. A I bought in 2004. This week-end, I started to explore ArgyllCMS to create printer profiles. This has showed me that my old Eye One is working fine. With it and ArgyllCMS I can produce profiles that are marginally better then an Epson one (Premium Luster) and visibly better than an Ilford one (Fiber Gold Silk), especially for B&W printing. In both cases, shadow separation is better with my profile. I also successfully profile Hahnemühle Baryta Fine Art, again marginally better than the profile from Hahnemühle.

So, after 10 years, I see no reason to replace it. I recently acquired an i1Display Pro 2 for display calibration and profiling, though. The provided software is a real let down, including for the quality of the profiles, but with DispcalGUI the result is fantastic.

I am returning a Datacolor SpyderStudio that I wanted to test against my new and old X-Rite units. For screen profiling, there is not much between the 2 solutions. Both work much better with DispCalGUI, giving results I cannot distinguish. For print, the Datacolor solution is workable, but very tedious in the measurement phase. You have to be extra careful and measure spot by spot to get enough precision. ArgyllCMS with my old Eye One Pro is more convenient and produces better profiles.