This is a dedicated 'print only' profiling tool aimed at
professional photographers, fine art printers and 'production
professionals'. The complete kit consists of a USB-connected spectro-colorimeter,
a guide to assist patch measuring, a calibration cradle and the
driving/editing software. The system allows for profile making, profile
editing, spot measuring and separate fine-tuning of neutral greys.
Installation
This was trivially simple; we 'played' the DVD, rebooted and were ready to
start – as simple as that! For the record we were using Windows Vista as the
test operating system.
Profile Making
Profile-making is wizard driven and reasonably easy to understand. Datacolor
have worked hard to keep things simple. The colorimeter measures one patch
at a time; you do not sweep the instrument across a multitude of patches.
This is a tedious process which takes about 3 seconds per patch. A big
target of 729 patches would therefore take around 40 minutes to complete. It
is mind-numbing work but you have also to keep your wits about you.
Initially we worked far too fast, missed patches and mis-read others. The
resulting profiles were shown to be poor by examining a Granger Chart, using
the soft proof facility of Photoshop (see screen grab). Suitably chastened,
we slowed right down and worked very slowly and methodically. The yellow
patches were the most difficult to align as there was little differentiation
between them and their white, dividing strokes. The other problem to watch
for is that you must make sure you do not scrape the feet of the colorimeter
over the unmeasured portion of the target. The drag of the USB lead is a
perpetual source of irritation when moving the instrument around. The
measuring guide is one of the better ones we have tried but its roller feet
were so sticky that they started by ripping the front of the print clean
off!
On the fourth attempt we made a profile that passed the initial Granger
Chart examination and we moved on to colour-audit the outcome. We had
deliberately chosen a non-Epson paper so that the profile had some work to
do, picking the Costco Kirkland paper. This is a cool blue base tone paper,
high gloss and with a moderate amount of optical brighteners.
The comparison boils down to a shoot out between taking this 'rogue' paper
and running it with the installed Epson profile and putting it up against
the bespoke profile made with the Spyder. The mean statistical error values
were quite similar, 4.34ΔE2000 for the Epson profile and 4.67 for the Spyder
profile. However, as always, the devil is in the detail. The major component
of the Spyder error was in the lightness channel.
Across the Macbeth Swatch set, the average lightness value was 5% too dark.
At this stage, the software provided with the Spyder comes into play. You
can edit the profiles, a facility that only comes available on competing
systems at a much higher price. We dialled in a 'minus 10' on the Brightness
slider (see screen grab) and re-ran the audit to obtain a result within a
hundredth of a point of the aim lightness average, with a corresponding
tumbling of the other statistical errors (see table for detail).
Significantly the white differentiation of the audit print was retained, the
brightness tuned only the mid-tones (as we would have hoped). Overall the
audit print was very good quality. The skin tone saturation, which is
typically depressed by the profiling process, held up well and once the
lightness was corrected, very accurate skin tones were created. The average
error was reduced below 3.0 ΔE2000 across the Macbeth set, always a good
sign!
The table displays the errors for various colour sets. Every
value is improved (lowered) in the right column using the Spyder profile
with a tweak to the brightness.
Spot Colour Measuring
As a diagnostic tool, the ability to measure a colour takes some beating,
but you first have to get to understanding Lab measurements. For our part we
measured the same Macbeth Chart with both the Spyder and an X-rite DTP 22
Spectrophotometer. The Help files of the Spyder were silent on the matter of
colour temperature so we are unsure of the temperature at which the Spyder
is calibrated. We tested the calibration at both D65 and D50. The residual
average differences across the Macbeth Chart were 3.50 and 2.32 Lab ΔE. This
is the average error, the maximum recorded values were 13.7 and 6.7 Lab ΔE.
These error values are considerably larger than the demands for professional
contract proofing. Even so the usefulness of spot measuring should not be
underestimated when you are trying to assess the merits of a particular
reference print. If you take our testing of the Spyder as an example, once
we had ascertained that the Lightness parameter was down by 5% we knew
exactly what we had to do to amend the profile. If we had not taken a spot
measurement we would have had to guess a correction and then iterate towards
the answer over a series of prints.
Summary
At £339.99 RRP (but available from Colour Confidence at £228) the unit is
quite a sound investment for somebody who wishes to step outside of the OEM
paper/ink set-ups. We tested the Spyder against our (very expensive)
spectrophotometers and found it to be accurate enough for everyday
professional photography use. The claim on the box of the Spyder being a
tool for 'production professionals' is a little far-fetched. It has no CMYK,
linearisation or ink limit facilities, it is miles too slow and the accuracy
is a little off for contract proof work (not surprising at this price point,
you need an investment of thousands to get up into that sort of territory!).
Building a decent profile needs the larger patch targets to be used; there
was detectable banding in the Granger Chart from the smaller target. Many
enthusiasts, however, will be prepared to devote the time and effort to
tuning their output.
The Spyder is also equipped with the facility to fine-tune monochrome output
and even interfaces with the QuadTone RIP (www.quadtonerip. com). This is
much beloved by the black and white printing fraternity and there is a lot
of discussion and advice on the use of the Spyder on their forum, especially
for use with the Quad Black ink solutions (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/).
For those with the time to tinker, this is an endless source of
entertainment; we stormed off in a sulk when the measuring wizard ditched
our hardearned work and asked us to go back and start again. The 'Advanced
Black and White' driver that is built in to the Epson system removes the
need to tune monochrome output with outside devices as all the facilities
you could wish for are already present.
Join SICIP today and receive a fantastic free gift: Apply here
