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PrintFIX PLUS

Review of the PrintFIX PLUS printer profiling system

Keith has been reviewing the new PrintFIX PLUS printer profiling software from ColorVision. The software is a departure from usual profiling solutions in that you do not print and measure test patches.

The Apple Mac version of PrintFIX PLUS is covered here, but the PC Windows version is identical.

March 06 - updated with pricing information. The PrintFIX PLUS is being supplied as part of the Spyder2 suite and Spyder2PRO - see conclusions for latest info.
July 06 V1.1.1 is released - see at the end of this article for a list of supported printers
Dec 2006 A new version of the software -- V2 is available from ColorVision See Keith's Updated PrintFIX Pro review - better colour printing and B/W too...

What's in the software?

PrintFIX PLUS is a software package for making icm/icc printer profiles. Using printer profiles helps you produce more accurate prints and to get better results from your printer.

I've had quite a detailed look at both the original PrintFIX and the new PrintFIX PRO. Both rely on printing out test patterns on your printer and measuring them with some hardware device. The differences between the expected colours and what you measure are used to build an icc profile. The PrintFIX PRO review is also quite more detailed than this one - many features are relevant to PLUS as well.

If you are new to colour management you might like to read some of the other reviews (PrintFIX PRO) and articles (Introduction to Colour Management) as well as this review. There is lots of related information on this site that may also be of help.
if you are not already sure why you should have your monitor set up and calibrated -before- trying printer profiling then you need to learn more...

The PLUS version of the software - your serial number sets the mode Demo/PLUS/PRO - takes the novel step of dispensing with the measurement process.

Well, that's not quite true -- someone else does the measurements for you.

The idea is that you can get ready made measurement files from the ColorVision web site that you use to build suitable profiles. Some popular printer and paper combinations are supplied with the software, and others can be freely downloaded from the ColorVision web site.

Where do these files come from?

Updated version (June 06)
• The printer information files are supplied by ColorVision, but there is currently no mechanism for donating your own measurement files (See supported printers list) If your printer setup is not listed, you can try a similar set of measurements, but you are likely to have to do a bit more experimentation

If you want to see details of how the files get created, have a look at the PrintFIX PRO review, where I've shown how the process works.

Making your ICC profiles

Opening up the PrintFIX Plus application for the first time requires you to set some printer options for the printer that you wish to create the profiles for - this is a one off action.

The software is pretty self explanatory in the steps you take, but it is important to read the well written and comprehensive help. Just because you are not doing any test patch reading and using someone else's measurements, doesn't mean you won't benefit from an understanding of what is going on.

If you are going to get the best out of using profiles, then you owe it to yourself to at least understand the basics of what they do. It's not rocket science and you will get better results.

First of all make sure that your printer is working at its best.

There is a print quality check page that you can use to see that all is well (best to do a nozzle check first).

You make the print directly from the application.

Note the ability to print the test pattern in any corner of the paper - this saves paper if you need to do several tests.

Once you are satisfied with that, you can move on to building and testing a profile.

The available printer options are shown in a drop down list. It's probably worth ditching the files for printers that you don't have...

You can see from the example above that there are several generic paper options for different printers. You pick the one that best suits your particular printer/paper.

In this case I'm looking at using a glossy photo paper in my Epson Stylus 1290.

The patch chart for your particular choice is shown after you choose it. You can expand it into another window to look at it in more detail.

The chart shows both the colours sent to the printer when originally printed, and the measured values from the test print.

See the PrintFIX PRO review for more details of this process (and the significance of the red triangle - only in PRO)

The examples below show the measured values for glossy and matt papers with the 1290.

Although not so easy to see in these (reduced size) JPEG screen shots, the larger range of colours (gamut) with the photo paper is evident.

Measured values from glossy paper
Measured values from matt/art paper

The next step is to create the profile.

Give the profile a meaningful name that includes enough information to tell you about it when you come to use it 'for real'. It also helps to write it down somewhere - a collection of 33 profiles just named Test_prof1.icc to Test_prof33.icc may not be overly useful this time next year :-)

Notice all those sliders for adjusting parameters used for building the profile.

This is where you take the generic nature of the profile produced and fine tune it for best results on your own printer.

Printers have got better over the last few years, and more expensive ones like the Epson R2400 have much less variation between individual printers than for example an old well used Epson 890.

The amount that you need to alter the settings depends both on your printer and the particular paper you are trying. It's best to start with the default settings (do check any notes that came with the data for suggested adjustments)

There are many combinations of adjustments you could make. Take time to read the suggestions in the help, since just randomly fiddling round with settings is a good way to use up ink and paper - not to make good profiles.

The two bottom settings deserve special mention.

These allow you to adjust how the profile compensates for different print viewing conditions. For example if you know prints are going to be looked at under Tungsten lighting (ordinary light bulbs) you could create a profile for warm lighting. The numbers themselves are somewhat arbitrary, since actual changes depend on paper and ink issues and vary from one profile to another.

I'd suggest that viewing light compensation is probably not the first adjustment to try, but it really depends on what you think needs 'fixing' in your profile.

Evaluating profiles

You need to see how good your profile is, and that requires a test print.

You can print a test image in any corner of the paper to enable easy comparison of prints.

Once again, do keep notes ... it is easier than you think to get confused (OK, for me it is:-)

The default rendering intent for these ColorVision profiles is saturation, but different images may look better in perceptual or relative colorimetric. Absoloute colorimetric is mostly used when proofing for other devices and not for printing your photos.

When evaluating profiles it is important to use a known image, not just any old photo you like the look of.

It's fine to test profiles on specific images later on, but at the beginning we are looking for a consistent approach.

The test image

The information below is about the included PDI test image and is quoted from the on-line help. It gives an idea of the detailed information present and why you should take the time to read it all.

A Smooth even gray ramp on the right of the image, without visible colour casts or breaks in the gradient.
Good skintone colour throughout the range of different skin types and their shadow areas, especially the difficult pink skintones in the second face, and the areas where the skin transitions into the hair on the third face.
Dark areas in the hair of the first model that show detail without clogging.
Bright, saturated, colours without loss of detail in the robot, the beta fish, and the coloured beads.
Good deep tone detail in the purple sand in the fish bowl and the background of the tapestry.
Bright sunflower yellows in the sunflower, distinct from the lemon yellows of the lemon.
Good saturated blues in the vase and its stem.
No problem tones in the dark areas of the lemon, the peach, the orange, and the apple.
A rich range of greens in the cactus and the sunflower leaves.
Rich brown tones in the binocular case, transitioning well into the dark areas.
A good range of varying warm highlights in most areas.
The tint of each shadowbox section is effected subtly by the contents of each box.
Cool blue highlights on the optically brightened golf balls.
Good detail in the coloured areas on the elephant, without bleeding from the blacks.

All those things in the PDI test picture are there for a reason -- another reason not to initially use your favourite picture to test profiles The Freeware test image supplied with the software. The original comes from http://www.photodisc.com -- we have a copy available for download

Don't forget the need for consistent viewing conditions when you're evaluating profiles. If your prints are always going to be viewed in tungsten lighting, then evaluating profiles under fluorescent lighting is unlikely to produce good results...

How good are the profiles

This review is based on a pre-release version of the software, and as such had a limited range of data files available. I hope to be able to update this part of the review when I can make a few more direct comparisons. I've heard from another person testing the software that they got good results using 3rd party inks and a couple of adjustments in the profile building process.

I made a profile for an unbranded glossy photo paper for my old Epson 1290 -- the same printer I used for the original PrintFIX review several years ago.

The default setting produced a pleasing print, with a fairly neutral greyscale. The contrast could do with a slight increase, but I have to admit I was surprised at the quality from generic data.

Since I've been looking at the PrintFIX PRO, I was looking to be able to compare results with my own measurements and in particular the different results with 729 patch data, rather than 225.

Unfortunately the PrintFIX PLUS data file that I'd have used for my Epson 9600 and EEM paper looked to have slight problems (the profile generated, had a few glitches visible in the Mac OSX ColorSync utility tool) so I've had to delay the tests.

...but I have to say, if you have a 9600 why are you looking at using the PrintFIX PLUS! ;-)

This brings me to one area of concern, if I take a popular paper with a popular printer, then how am I to know that the version of the data file I download from ColorVision is any good? There are ways of checking profiles for obvious faults that ColorVision could apply before posting data for a particular combination, but deciding which is the best of 10 sets of measurement data requires some thought. For the very best results, professional profile makers will often average results from several sets of readings...

I believe that this may well be addressed in future versions of the software

Just for curiosity sake, I've got the obligatory profile plot..

This shows the gamut of profiles for generic Epson 1280/90 glossy(outline) vs. Epson's own 1290 profile for their PGP paper (solid). As I said when looking at the PRO version, I'm always wary when I see profiling products reviewed that have large tables of data and lots of diagrams like this one. Sure it looks impressive, but beware when you are looking at such reviews that you do not mistake the appearance of lots of data for meaningful information ;-) Picture from the OSX ColorSync Utility tool.

Lab views of profile gamuts for the Epson 1290

Conclusions

The PrintFIX PLUS software was very easy to set up and use. The instructions are clear and the included help files very informative.

I'm looking to make some more detailed comparisons once more data files become available, but the one sample I tried produced a fairly good print that with a bit of tweaking might well look quite acceptable.

A new idea

I must admit I was initially rather sceptical about the idea of profiling printers, without even making any test prints.

However modern printers are being manufactured to have less variability and inconsistencies, so the principle could well work. A lot depends on the availability of measurement data for you to make your test profiles. The repository for this data is the ColorVision web site - look for data files appearing that match (or even sound similar to) your printer/paper/inks.

Do remember that to get the best results, you really do have to have an idea what you are doing - read all the help pages and learn why colour management works.

A novel idea, that if it takes off, could improve a lot of peoples' print quality.

However...

Remember that some printers just aren't much good, and some papers just won't work very well with some inks. No profile is going to help much for some combinations. Some printer driver software does an awful lot to get acceptable prints, and when you go the 'no colour adjustment' route, a lot of the fancy internal tricks are disabled. Printer quality has improved a lot over the past few years, but sometimes you just have to accept what the printer is giving you - or not.

Black and White

With the normal icc based printing aproach, it's hard enough to get good monochrome results with the very best ($$$) profiling software and hardware. PrintFIX PLUS is not really going to help there. (More info on B/W printing)

Pricing and options

This software only solution is being provided as part of the Spyder2 suite and with the Spyder2PRO. Details below are from ColorVision http://www.datacolor.com/products_digital.shtml

Spyder2 Suite - $169
ColorVision® Spyder2 Suite™ provides both monitor and printer calibration for the advanced user. Spyder2 precisely calibrates all of your CRT, LCD, and laptop displays. PrintFIX PLUS software creates high-quality printer profiles without using a third party scanner.
Spyder2PRO - $279
ColorVision® Spyder2PRO™ is the professional’s choice for monitor calibration combining the award-winning Spyder2 colorimeter and the most feature rich calibration software available today. Pro features include multiple monitor matching, custom targeting and the innovative Ambient PreciseLight™ feature, and even calibration of front projector displays. PrintFIX PLUS software is also included for creation of custom printer profiles.

Summary

The PrintFIX PLUS allows you to use preexisting measurement data to create your own icc printer profiles. You can download appropriate files from ColorVision, and manufacturers/suppliers can provide their own measurement data via the ColorVision web site.

Once made, profiles can be fine tuned to optimize results on your own printer.

Top of page

Supported printers

These are the names of the data files in the V1.1.1 release.

The names refer to printer make, model and paper type. Some of the Epson files also distinguish between using matt black or Photo black ink.

For more detailed info check the ColorVision site, since I believe that new printer support files will be available there.

There is a current list at http://www.colorvision.com/store_pfplus-printers.shtml

More Info

The PrintFIX PRO - review
The PrintFIX - original review
An Introduction to colour management article by Keith and collection of CM info.
The Viewing page - basic monitor set-up
Colour management links on this site
Colour Management Check-up kit review
Eye One scanner profiling - review
Using the Eye One with a scan target to get better results form your film or flatbed scanner.
The Spyder2 PRO - review
The Eye one Display 2 - review
Printer profiling with the Eye One Photo
Review of the printer profile editor in Eye One Match.
Black and white printing with MonoChromePro inks and QuadToneRIP
A review of a specialist B/W printing ink set. The Eye One is used to linearise curves for the shareware QuadToneRIP package.

Other areas of our site that may be of interest...

NEW -- Create your own customised A3 size wall calendar from a choice of 90 of Keith's images. Choose your own images for your own custom printed calendar - 12 months starting any month of the year - many all new images not yet in our main gallery.

Digital Black and White. Keith was recently interviewed about digital black and white photography for a magazine article. We have an expanded version here covering some of his thoughts, techniques and tips for those thinking of trying black and white.

As well as our Commercial Photography services and Training there is a growing collection of photography Articles and Reviews on the site aimed at helping you get the best out of your own photography. We also have a growing collection of Photography related information and links that we hope you find useful.

New site features and some of Keith Cooper's latest work are always covered in the What's New page.

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