Phel Steinmetz Studio - UCSD Visual Arts

Phel's Work Area
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

I worked with Phel this week getting his workflow nailed down through using ICC profiles for his Sony Artisan and Epson 7600. One concept in question was the use of gamma in display calibration i.e using 1.8 or 2.2, ultimately a 1.8 gamma gave the best screen contrast to print contrast match. It's important to remember gamma is a relationship of tone contrast, a 1.8 gamma will appear flatter whereas a 2.2 gamma will appear to have more contrast. The choice depends more on your viewing environment. A D50 environment will generally like 1.8 more than 2.2 but the choice is purely subjective.

April Greiman - Made In Space

Door Space I
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

April Greiman is an innovator in Graphic Design and Communications and this week I had the pleasure of working with her company Made In Space and her staff of talented designers. We trained them on the fundamentals of color management and printing techniques to their new HP Designjet 5500. We printed on a few different media types and decided to mount the graphics to the entrance of the studio. It is a pleasure to work with such creative people. It will be interesting to see what creative ways they will use this technology. I am sure it will be intelligent and engaging. Thanks Made In Space!

Harvest Productions

Harvest Productions
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

This week we were busy building profiles for Harvest productions in Anaheim Hills, CA. Harvest is a premiere establishment dedicated to producing fine art reproductions. We were very impress with their level of professionalism and dedication to perfect color the first time. Their process are state of the art and employ the best the industry has to offer. Harvest is a big user of Onyx Postershop and have many wideformat inkjet printers. Harvest also use Iris' printing the most beautiful Giclee's in the business. Thanks Harvest, ColorCritical will work with you any day.

HP Photo Influencer Larry Sultan

Larry Sultan Studio Bookshelf
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

This week we worked with photographer Larry Sultan in San Francisco. Larry is considered an HP Photo Influencer and with that came ColorCrititcal customized training and color management services. Larry is using an HP Designjet 130 to print work for his portfolio. You can check out more of Sultan's work by going to www.billcharles.com. Bill Charles reps several art photographers including Larry Sultan. The 130 contines to impress it's owners with it's beautiful and accurate color from both the driver and optional RIP. The Premium Photo Satin paper is as close to a "C" print one can get digital. Look out Epson!

Disguise, Inc

Designjet 30n
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

One of our more interesting accounts is Disguise, a company owned by the Cesar Group. Disguise manufactures costumes from Sponge Bob to Zoro. Due to their Epson blowing a head, they bought a new Designjet 30n for their proofing needs. We were there to get it set up and calibrated and to build a CMYK workflow to match SWOP Standards. Along with their 30n they have the Designjet 5500 42" to run fabric for costum mockups. Its a challenge color managing the vibrant colors the designers expect out of these devices but we are always up for a challenge.

PMIndustries, Mexico

PMIndustries, Mexico
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

We have been working in Mexico at PMIndustries building profiles for simulating Cromalin Proofs through BEST ColorProof XXL and the Epson 9600. At the end of the day the simulated proofs looked like twin copies next to the Cromalin Proofs.

In the Office This Week Aug 30 - Sept 3

It's back in the office while Mark Gundlach is on the Onyx Tour in Orlando, Houston, and Detroit. I will be in Boston September 14 and New York City on the 16th. Meanwhile we had a good week catching up with clients here in San Diego. This week we trained endusers from Foto Finish Digital in Del Mar, they use an Epson 9600 and wanted a Fine Art Textered paper profile to be integrated into their workflow. Monday is a holiday to celebrate the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. It's a great day to celebrate! Cheers!

Office Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Onyx Tour - Chicago

The tour is in full swing and I have the week off while Mark Gundach is working the Orlando and Houston leg of the tour. I will follow up the Boston and New York City leg of the tour. We have had real postive feedback from the seminar attendees. The user comments have all been very positive and complimentary, especially on the color management component of Onyx. It's been quite a tour so far and we look forward to the next city, see you there!

Onyx Tour - Chicago Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Onyx Tour Minnesota

Here we are in Minnesota, working the new Compaq Presario R3000, a P4 2.8Ghz, 512 RAM, 60 Gig HD, DVD, CDRW, WiFi running Onyx Production House 6.0.0. Of course we are running the 17" Powerbook as well. The tour is going real well with great turn out and excellent questions. We managed to build two custom profiles for demonstration and set up a proofing scenerio to the HP Designjet 130 and demonstrated the cutter features of the Roland VersaCAMM printing the EcoSolvent Inks. Were off to Chicago next!

Onyx Tour Minnesota Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Onyx Tour San Mateo

We just finished the San Mateo (San Francisco) leg of the Onyx Tour for GIA. We profiled the new Roland VersaCamm using a glossy vinyl and proofed it with the Designjet 130 from HP on Glossy Proofing Paper. The tour is going well, the next city is Seattle and I hear the sun is out and people are dance in the streets when that happens. I look forward to it. If your curious about the image, I shot it with the cameraphone and the output is the onyx quality test file found in the samples folder in your onyx directory. Cheers!

Onyx Tour San Mateo Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Onyx Tour North Hollywood

Well we have kicked off the "Become an Onyx Expert" tour with the Graphic Intelligence Agency. We had our first seminar Wednsday the 11th in North Hollywood for 29 atendees. It was a great sucess despite we had to extend the presentation due to too much content not enough time. This tour which will be presented by myself from ColorCritical and Mark Gundlach from the GIA will come to a city near you. More information can be found at www.graphintel.com however here are the next few cities where I will be next: August 17 : San Francisco August 19 : Seattle August 24 : Minneapolis August 26 : Chicago September 14 : Boston September 16 : New York City September 28 : Calgary I shot this image of Mark discussing Renfering Intents, an uber color geeks favorite discussion topic. Our presentation is very dynamic and goes over most important aspects of the very powerful software RIP Onyx Production House. We had a Roland Versacam to profile and demonstrate cutting techniques and an HP Designjet 130 for inkjet profiling. Look for more info as the tour continues.

Onyx Tour North Hollywood Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

JP Reprographics Aug 2 - Aug 6

ColorCritical is in Palm Desert, CA working for JP Reprographics. We are setting things straight with Onyx Production House, HP 5000, 5500, and Indigo Press by color managing their ink on paper. One interesting note is that they are using UV Chromoink by Colorwen International. I am really impressed by the color gamut on Kodak Satin and Gloss media.It's a little warm here in Palm Desert but I am adapting by sitting by the pool at a friend's warm hospitality in Rancho Mirage. Thank's Kim and David! Look for more posts and next week starts the Onyx Tour!

JP Reprographics Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Graphic Intelligence Agency

Friday was spent buidling profiles at the GIA. We are working on the Mutoh Falcon II Outdoor which uses an Eco-Solvent Ink. There are many more variables in profiling these types of devices. First, distance adjust, head height, substrate thickness, and four different heaters need to be set to give desired results. All of this needs to be done before you even determine an ink limit and linearization. Look to Clear Papers written by the GIA to describe this process in more detail.

Graphic Intelligence Agency Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

In the Office! 7/26 - 7/31

I am back from Norway and in the office this week. This last week in Noway has been interesting working with Fotophono. We produced a methodology to track drift in the resultant linearization of the LightJet 430 Agfa matte paper. They have been finding the densities to be well within spec but there has been a slightly noticible difference in their grey scale. We measured this difference and calculated a .5 delta e in i1 Share and i1 Spectrophotometer. The next day it drifted another .7 delta e. We have come to the conclusion that a threshold needs to be established and whenever the delta e is over that threshold they will need to re-profile. This seems to be a good working model. Devices will drift, it's just a question of how much and will it make a difference. You would think the process of re-linearization would produce similar color but it only produces similar density.

Office Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

End of the day discussion on profiling.

ColorCritical is in Norway, working for GretagMacbeth and Graphic Intelligence Agency training a well known imaging lab in Oslo called Fotophono. We trained them on proper profiling of the Lightjet 430 using Onyx, ProfileMaker Pro, i1 Spectrophotometer, iQueue, Caldera's Cameleo running the Xerox ColorGraphx X2. The stillness in everyone is due to the typical shock one can get when they see an well working ICC workflow.

Fotophono Oslo Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Profiling the Epson 2200

We are working this week with Tim Mantoani Studios here in San Diego profiling a few fine art papers by Hahnemuhle, the Photo Rag and Torchon. It's important to let the target sufficiently dry before measuring otherwise differences in ink density will yield unlinear results, The results can be a bad profile where some patches are dry and have stopped fading yield accurate measurements, whereas others can be even slightly damp and not be finished with dry time yield different density, therefore measuring unlinear.

Mantoani Studios Originally uploaded by Mountain Goats.

MC Designs

Today we worked for Mitch at MC Designs, Mitch ownes a print shop out of his garage. He has an Encad and an HP 5500 Large Format Printer. We built him a custom profiled workflow and a custom workflow for simulating pantone colors he used to get on his Encad. This is always a challange, make one device produce similar color to another device. We accomplished this with ICC color management. Mitch produces some excellent quality and we are very fortunate to be working with him at MC Designs.

MC Designs Originally uploaded by Mountain Goats.