So, with the help I received on this forum I made my first profile for Hahnemuhle Photo Rag this weekend using the i1 Pro 2 and the iProfiler software and it went well. I then used the Digital Outback profile test image that you folks recommended to test my profile vs the one that you download from Hahnemuhle's website. They were pretty similar. It seemed like mine was perhaps slightly more vibrant in the yellows and reds by just a bit. The blacks looked similar as did most other parts of the evaluation.
My question relates to the black squares. My blacks looked a little lighter at level 24 than the canned profile. In bright light and tilting the paper I could see, on my profile, a slight, very slight difference of the square from the surrounding black down to level 4 or 6 while in the canned profile it was 8 or 10. I could see a slight amount of ink in the level 253 square in both and perhaps just the tiniest hint in the 254 square of both. The white squares at high levels were easier to define than the black squares at low levels.
What isn't exactly clear from the article on evaluating the image is if this result is 'good' or if you should be able to discern different levels of black all the way down to level 2 or not with your eyes (I will admit from a vision standpoint my eyes are not the most perfect). If you should easily be able to do so would using the Media Configuration Tool with Canon printers to optimize the paper handling (and dare I even mention playing with the ink laydown which scares me a bit
likely something that would improve this....or is it very good already?
It passes in all other aspects of the test image described in the article!
Thanks
Howard