[scribus] Colour Profiles

[Hal V. Engel]

On Sunday 06 September 2009 04:35:33 pm John Beardmore wrote:
> > This is basically correct.  These services used to be expensive (like
> > $100 to $200 per profile) but in the last 5 or so years there has been a
> > lot of new service providers entering the market.  In addition the cost
> > of the equipment has come down significantly and these factors have
> > driven down the cost.  Now days it is not hard to find services that will
> > do RGB printer profiles for $25 and CMYK profiles for $35.  This makes
> > getting good printer profiles well with in reach for almost anyone.  It
> > is also a good idea for Windows and OS/X users to check with their
> > paper/ink vendor to see if free high quality profiles are available.  In
> > many cases they are and if your paper/ink vendor does not supply these
> > then perhaps you should consider switching media vendors.
>
> Are these widely available for laser toners or just inks ?

They might be available for printers that use toners.  Since I don't use laser 
printers I have not looked.  You need to check with your media 
(paper/ink/toner) vendor(s).  Many of them have sections of their web site 
devoted to this.  Again I know of at least three major media vendors that do 
this (Epson, MediaStreet and Ilford) because I use their products and I am 
sure that other vendors do this as well.  The 3rd party media vendors have 
learned over the last few years that they absolutely must do this or customers 
will take their business elsewhere.

snip

> > Back when this was first put into LProf (around 1999) the equipment
> > needed to do measurement based calibration and profiling of monitors was
> > fairly expensive at around $400 for the least costly devices not
> > including software.  Now days you can get measurement devices like the
> > X-Rite Huey for around $50 plus shipping including basic
> > calibration/profiling software.  The Huey is a better device than the
> > $400 device was a decade ago since it will hold it's calibration better.
> >   The older device would require re-calibration about every 2 years.  In
> > other words the hardware is both cheaper and better now days than it has
> > ever been.  There is no reason that anyone who is concerned about color
> > should not have one.
>
> Except that in most domestic and non specialist small business settings,
> CMS will just be too much trouble.
>
> I think this is something we need to recognise and be honest about.  The
> fact that almost anybody can afford it doesn't mean that the cost is
> justified, or that CMS would be more cost effective than having some
> manual control that you can use to set the desired curves for printing.

This is something that each person/business must decide.  If your work is 
color critical it is a no brainer.  Get a color meter and calibrate and profile 
your monitor and if you use a local printer for proofing or production work get 
it profiled or get high quality profiles from your media vendor if they are 
available.  

If you color requirements are not that strict then it becomes a wobbler.  But 
keep in mind that a box of high quality photo paper can cost $30 or $40 and 
when you start doing seat of the pants trial and error color correction you 
can go through a lot of paper very quickly and use a lot of time getting it 
close enough.  And you should add in the cost of ink/toner as well.   You can 
get a color meter like a Huey and a custom printer profile for well under $100 
and end up with a streamlined process that saves paper and effort and yields 
better more consistent results.  In the end it will actually be less costly 
but there is an upfront cost and learning curve.   A few years ago when a 
similar setup would have cost you closer to $600 it was very hard to justify 
but now days anyone who does color related work is probably better off with a 
basic hardware measured color managed setup.

Also keep in mind that a color meter can be used to calibrate and profile more 
than one monitor because you only need to use every few weeks.  So in a office 
setup you can share a single meter which makes the cost per user very low.

Hal