Creating Custom Profiles...

[davidh202]

with a scanner and software vs using a  Spectrophotometer.

I know that you can purchase profiles from many sources for individual paper-printer combinations but some are simply not available.  You can also have them custom made. I am new to printing and would like to start using or experimenting with new paper choices and it starts getting expensive.
Is it cheaper to just get a 'tool' to do it yourself?   Is a program like Mike Chaneys  Profile Prism or Laser Softs SilverFast with ICC Printer Calibration utilizing my Microtek i900 scanner good, or is purchasing a Spectrophotometer and necessary accessories better?
One thing that intrigues me with the Laser soft system (software), is they now have an optimized Kodachrome workflow built into the scanner software and can do profiling also.I am very interested in transferring some of my better Kodachrome work from 'back in the day' to digital files and printing so it seems I could have my cake and eat it too.

[Rhossydd]

Don't waste your time with scanner based profiling solutions. In my experience they're unreliable and don't produce good profiles.
If you think you need to build your own, buy a spectrophotometer based product. If you don't expect to need very many custom profiles, just use a specialist company that uses decent kit (Spectro etc), prices have fallen so much in recent years that5 buying the full kit for home use isn't really economical.

[digitaldog]

Don't waste your time with scanner based profiling solutions.

Ditto, absolutely a waste of time. Get a Spectrophotometer.

[probep]

Excuse me but did anyone compare profiles created with a good scanner (using a good target) and with an i1Pro (or any other popular spectrophotometer)? I have never seen such tests. What is the color difference for the ColorChecker for example?

[digitaldog]

Been years since I played with scanner based profiles but at the time, those profiles were just awful in quality.

Is anyone still offering scanner based solutions anyway?

[Rhossydd]

Excuse me but did anyone compare profiles created with a good scanner (using a good target) and with an i1Pro (or any other popular spectrophotometer)?

Yes. When I first took a serious interest in getting good colour from my printers I sent a lot of time and fair bit of money trying to get Profile Prism to deliver a profile that was acceptable. After months of effort I never really managed to get anything as good as the default OEM printer profiles (and they weren't anything to write home about 7 years ago).
First attempts with iMatch and an iOne Pro delivered outstanding profiles and better than anything else I'd managed with PP or from any OEM.

[probep]

Thank you both. One more question: is a colorimeter (such as Datacolor Spyder3Print) much better than a scanner for printer profiling?
By the way I know people that use even photocameras for printer profiling.

P.S. I use spectrophotometers and have never had a good scanner.

[digitaldog]

One more question: is a colorimeter (such as Datacolor Spyder3Print) much better than a scanner for printer profiling?
By the way I know people that use even photocameras for printer profiling.

Yes its going to be better than a scanner but its not a real Spectrophotometer (they use a kind of made up marketing term like Spectrocolorimeter). Its slow too. If you are in that price point, you’ll probably want something like a ColorMunki, a true Spectrophotometer that is far faster and flexible.