Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software

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  • Elliot Puritz
    Elliot Puritz
    Silver Member
    Posts: 77
    Printing Colour Management
    on: August 6, 2021 at 9:53 pm

    Wonderful article Mark, and many thanks.

    The basic question:  Will the results of the profiling workflow produce calibration that is noticeably better than provided by the software sold as part of the new iProfiler Pro instrument or Spectra View Software which is from NEC?  Both of these programs are simple and intuitive to use and in my admittedly informal testing provide results that are very similar.  Basic Color Software is costly.  Demonstrably better calibration?

     

     

    Mark D Segal
    Mark D Segal
    Silver Member
    Posts: 930
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #1 on: August 6, 2021 at 10:26 pm

    Elliot, if you are referring to me and my February article about basICColor Display 6 Pro, I have not tested the comparative accuracy of i1Profiler, the new i1Pro3 spectrophotometer or NEC Spectraview for monitor profiling. They probably all do a satisfactory job of producing eminently usable display profiles. The combination I tested in that article happens to be particularly good, with a number of unique bells and whistles which are handy to have if you think you’d need them. If you are pleased with the solution you are using and don’t need the unique features of the basICColor software, then it would make sense to just carry on using what you have. If, however, you are in the market or the mood for trying out a change of approach, you can download a demo, and use it with whichever device you have to see whether it constitutes an improvement that you would consider worthwhile investing in. The basICColor workflows, by the way, do facilitate rather easy and intuitive procedures.

    Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

    Elliot Puritz
    Elliot Puritz
    Silver Member
    Posts: 77
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #2 on: August 6, 2021 at 11:01 pm

    Thanks as always.   Might try the download and compare.

     

    Elliot

    Mark D Segal
    Mark D Segal
    Silver Member
    Posts: 930
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #3 on: August 7, 2021 at 9:28 am

    If you do compare, please let us know what you observe. That would be interesting.

    Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

    Andrew Rodney
    Andrew Rodney
    Participant
    Posts: 390
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #4 on: August 7, 2021 at 1:59 pm

    IF you use an SpectraView display, you really, really want to only use SpectraView software; it controls the panel that cannot be controlled by other products.

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management" (pluralsight.com)

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Andrew Rodney.
    Elliot Puritz
    Elliot Puritz
    Silver Member
    Posts: 77
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #5 on: August 7, 2021 at 4:13 pm

    Hi Andrew:  Hope you are doing well.

    Can you expand on your comments, i.e., which panel are you alluding to?

     

    Elliot

    Elliot Puritz
    Elliot Puritz
    Silver Member
    Posts: 77
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #6 on: August 7, 2021 at 5:03 pm

     

     

    Might I pose another question?

     

    Referring to Spectraview and other profiling software:  Is it preferable to set the white point and contrast ratio different for different papers?   I suspect that the Photoshop setting that enables one to turn “paper color” on and off is meant perhaps to obviate the need for multiple monitor profiles for multiple papers.  Do you find the “paper color” box at all useful when soft proofing?

    Mark D Segal
    Mark D Segal
    Silver Member
    Posts: 930
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #7 on: August 7, 2021 at 5:27 pm

    You may ask as many questions as you need answered – hoping we can answer of course.

    So on this one, no. Beat set a white point and contrast ratio that best suits the purpose of the photo output and its viewing conditions. Use soft-proofing with each paper’s own profile, and keep Simulate Paper and Ink checked ON.

    I should add: basICColor Display Pro 6 has a number of different workflows with predetermined settings to suit different output purposes. You can just select one and use it. It also allows you to create custom workflows in case the canned ones need tweaking for your requirements.

    Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Mark D Segal.
    Mark D Segal
    Mark D Segal
    Silver Member
    Posts: 930
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #8 on: August 8, 2021 at 4:43 pm

    Further to the comments above, firstly, full disclosure, I do not claim expertise on Spectraview. Even though I use an NEC PA series monitor, I have not used that software. As well, there is a problem doing apples-to apples comparisons of monitor profiling accuracy because each software provider has its own internal algorithm for testing it and producing those round-trip dE verification results and we have no way of knowing how comparable these algorithms are, so where differences would arise in verification results, we’d have trouble identifying whether the differences are due to differing profile performance or differing test algorithms.

    However, being quite experienced with basICColor Display software going back many years up to and including the most recent professional version, I was somewhat surprised by Andrew’s comment, as I had experienced no problem managing whatever needed to be managed on this display to get it very reliably colour-managed , so I brought this thread to the attention of Franz Herbert who wrote basICColor Display as well as other display profiling solutions going back decades now, and with his permission I am reproducing here his response:

    < It has been a while since I compared SpectraView to display 6. To my knowledge it doesn’t do anything that we don’t do, and display 6 does a lot more than SpectraView.

    <The quality of the SpectraView calibrations depends a lot on how well the SpectraView engine in the monitor works, I have seen very good results and not so good results. That is not the case with display 6, we go through a much more elaborate calibration procedure.
    <One comment was that our software is costly, I don’t think you can say that with display 6, the basic version is only $89 at Chromix.com.>
    Full disclosure: Franz is associated with basICColor.
    So Andrew, if you would care to elaborate on the specific panel controls where Spectraview is needed that basICColor Display cannot reach, that would complement our understanding.

    Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

    Elliot Puritz
    Elliot Puritz
    Silver Member
    Posts: 77
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #9 on: August 8, 2021 at 5:13 pm

    Thanks for the additional information Mark. I would be interested to know what information Display 6 provides that other software omits.

    I wonder how one would objectively evaluate and compare the calibration achieved with various software on a given monitor Mark.  Is there another “software” that compares the results obtained with each of the calibration software that we are discussing? I am aware of  the fact that readouts of results can be obtained and that there are programs that visually display the results and compare such to standards such as Adobe RGB.

    My understanding is that Spectraview was particularly recommended by NEC.  I am not sure if such recommendation is still the case.

    And perhaps a key consideration: Will small differences really matter?  Objective readout numbers are interesting and allow unbiased comparisons.  However, one wonders if such small differences can be parsed by those looking at a color chart on a monitor.

     

     

    Mark D Segal
    Mark D Segal
    Silver Member
    Posts: 930
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #10 on: August 8, 2021 at 5:54 pm

    I don’t know of an application that can do a comparative parsing of the verification algorithms that each of these applications use.

    As Sharp/NEC is the owner of Spectraview you would expect them to recommend this product.

    By definition, dE values up to 1.0 should not be disturbing to human visual perception. Depending on the colour, one can go higher than that before perceived inaccuracy would become an issue. So depending on how “small” is “small” for the differences you have in mind, they may or may not matter. Now how’s that for a decisively indecisive answer? 🙂 (Sorry, I can’t do better on this one – if anyone knows better, please speak-up.)

    Anyhow Elliot, as all of these products are available in demo versions, whichever support your measuring device may be worth trying and comparing the result against a standard printer test print to see which display version compares best with your test print, of course under softproofing for the printer/paper profile.

    Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

    Elliot Puritz
    Elliot Puritz
    Silver Member
    Posts: 77
    Re: Basic Color vs. Other Profiling Software
    Reply #11 on: August 8, 2021 at 6:00 pm

    Good suggestions Mark.

    As soon as convenient I will download a trial of basiCColor, etc.

     

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