A basic guide (see post #1) to setting up ARGYLL CMS profiling on your computer

I wouldn't use a .jpg (this one was saved as a PS level 6) for a color chart because the compression affects the colors of the pixels, as shown by this detail. This is a particularly bad area, but it shows that even the colors deep within a patch can be affected.

This is the histogram for the .jpg, showing that there are lots of pixels that have been affected, some by quite a bit.


For reference, here is the histogram from the .tif - that's why this lossless format is used to save color charts.

Grandad35 said:

I wouldn't use a .jpg (this one was saved as a PS level 6) for a color chart because the compression affects the colors of the pixels, as shown by this detail. This is a particularly bad area, but it shows that even the colors deep within a patch can be affected.
View attachment 1239
This is the histogram for the .jpg, showing that there are lots of pixels that have been affected, some by quite a bit.
View attachment 1241

For reference, here is the histogram from the .tif - that's why this lossless format is used to save color charts.
View attachment 1242

Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't have believed it. But as you say those colour discontinuities could easily influence the colour reading. So the practice of sending a .jpg patch file by email to generate a profile for someone is possibly going to deliver a sub-standard result. As the email limit is typically 10MB it would not be possible to send an accurate .tif patch file without compression.

Emulator said:

...snip... it would not be possible to send an accurate .tif patch file without compression.

Click to expand...

True, but since the LZW compression of a .tif file is lossless, just compress it. When computers were much slower and not every OS made it so easy, it may have taken a little time and effort to compress/decompress a file. Today, there is no reason not to compress a .tif file.

sampheap said:

@Emulator, can't believe you have all in set!!! I would pay to have one set of this too if possible.
Can you share your .tiff file because I tried a few times, mine is nowhere close to 4MB and once printed, it's cut off though I didn't scale anything in borderless print?!

Click to expand...

To use the CAP480.bat file it is necessary to generate your own file, together with the .ti1 and .ti2 files, you cannot just use some other .tif file, it will not work. You will have to solve the problem in your system.

Argyll generates colour patches randomly, each .tif patch file is different and has .ti1 and.ti2 files which store the colour data for use in generating the profile against the colour data collected during the reading operation.

If you run CAP480 several times and examine the .tif file images you will see each one is different.

One moment:I presume your HP printer has a native resolution of 300 dpi instead of my 360 dpi profile. I recommend to choose to print at 300/360=83.33 % to get the whole file printed, but you still have to print in borderless printing and no expansion.

The readings of the printed 480patch.tif target determines the results of the ultimate 480patch.ti3 file. From this file on, ArgyllCMS will calculate your profile and write the final profile.

@Emulator, I used the text file you attached in the first post by changing to CAP480.bat file. Then double click on it. choose option #1 and #2 as instructed, so 3 files created: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36098737/09-05-2014-targen480.zip

As you can see my .tiff file is so small comparing to the expected size which you mention around 10MB and it comes this small in patches too, which makes me think I might have done sth wrong.
I would be really appreciated if you can guide me more or share your .tiff file as I am also using ColorMunki Photo.

sampheap said:

@Emulator, I used the text file you attached in the first post by changing to CAP480.bat file. Then double click on it. choose option #1 and #2 as instructed, so 3 files created: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36098737/09-05-2014-targen480.zip

As you can see my .tiff file is so small comparing to the expected size which you mention around 10MB and it comes this small in patches too, which makes me think I might have done sth wrong.
I would be really appreciated if you can guide me more or share your .tiff file as I am also using ColorMunki Photo.

Click to expand...

You should not double click on CAP480.bat.

You should read through post#1 again, carefully and make sure you have followed all the actions including those in the Argyll documents mentioned.

You should have a file structure similar to:-
C:
Argyll_V1.6.3 (This contains all programs including the bin folder, which contains the .bat files)
Argyll_V1.6.3 Profiles (The folder you work from and contains the created profiles, .ti and .tif files)

CAP480.bat should be placed in the C \:Argyll_V1.6.3\bin folder, or whatever you have named your Argyll installation. As you have added this folder to your PATH command, the command line can locate CAP480.bat automatically.

Open the command line and type CAP480, you will then have the numbered options, chose 1 and ENTER, the verbose mode program lines will move up the screen, you will then be asked to press any key, you then type 2 and ENTER. More lines on the screen, you have created the ti2 and .tif files and you press any key again. You can type 5 and ENTER and you leave the command line program. You can now crop and resize your .tif file to A4 in an editor. Print your target without colour management on an A4 sheet.

Hopefully you will achieve what you are trying to do.

(@pharmacist, I had set printtarg to -T300 in CAP480 in post#1.)

@Emulator, "Argyll_V1.6.3 Profiles (The folder you work from and contains the created profiles, .ti and .tif files)"
So I will need to create one more folder in the bin 'Profiles'? Are .ti 1 and 2 created first or after executing the CAP480?

And about the .tiff file, is each .tiff generated from one computer different and cannot be shared or used by another then how is it possible we handed the .tif file to a few friends to print their patch? Are the .ti files to be re-generated each time we do the read?

I am sorry to ask so many questions, but I am really a bit lost here.

Grandad35 said:

True, but since the LZW compression of a .tif file is lossless, just compress it. When computers were much slower and not every OS made it so easy, it may have taken a little time and effort to compress/decompress a file. Today, there is no reason not to compress a .tif file.

Click to expand...

I had a look at the .tif files as generated by Argyll and they already were using LZW compression. The file sizes before cropping and resizing to full A4 were 3.234MB and after resizing 11.472MB. So even with LZW you could not send them through the typical email system.

Emulator said:

I had a look at the .tif files as generated by Argyll and they already were using LZW compression. The file sizes before cropping and resizing to full A4 were 3.234MB and after resizing 11.472MB. So even with LZW you could not send them through the typical email system.

Click to expand...

Both of my I-One targets have 459 patches and are 720x504 pixels (10"x7"@72 pixels/inch). I upsized them to 1440x1008 and 2160x1512 pixels and saved them with and without compression, with the file sizes given below. The last column gives the pixel count x3 (for R/G/B), indicating that the .tif file is largely a raw table of data. The difference between the 1st and 3rd columns indicates that in addition to the table of data, there is a 27 Kb header table for each file.
..Pixels...Uncompressed..Compressed..HxWx3/1024
0720x0504....1090Kb..........072Kb........1063Kb (=1090-27)
1440x1008....4279Kb..........114Kb........4253Kb (=4279-26)
2160x1512....9595Kb..........164Kb........9568Kb (=9595-27)

This raises the obvious question - how many pixels are in your files? Why are more pixels (3.234Mb==>11.474Mb) required to print the patches? We normally want about 300 pixels/inch to print a quality photo, but the 72 value used by I-One is more than adequate for an application such as this. The original 3.2Mb file can be sent by email.