YAAW - Yet Another Argyll Wrapper

riclin

Getting Fingers Dirty
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YAAW has received many major enhancements over the past few months, so I thought it may be useful to make the current version available to others. It does not in any way compete with the very excellent work undertaken by itsab1989 and his splendid ChromIQ. Rather, YAAW takes an alternate approach: it is deliberately simple, lightweight, and hopefully portable across platforms. It is more along the lines of LittleArgyllGUI, and is religiously committed to a KISS strategy, transparent in operation, and written in pure Python with tkinter. Directly or indirectly, however, YAAW provides access to the full range of relevant ArgyllCMS commands and settings, with man pages for each Argyll tool being accessible from the configuration page for reference. Developed and tested primarily on Linux Mint; other platforms should work in principle but may need path/default-command adjustments.

The initial config screen provides editable presets for the most common options for each of the Argyll tools, with each tool having an additional field for adding further arguments if required. Profile directory names are auto-generated based on the contents of the Printer/Paper/Ink fields, with the filenames and internal description fields adding "Argyll_<patchcount>" to the directory name. This allows a range of profile runs at different patch densities, and a reminder about how they were built, all identifiably stored within a sensibly named parent directory. To simplify startup, a config from a similar session can be loaded at the config screen and the Paper Name simply edited to suit the new job before proceeding.

The default patchcount and papersize settings are selected for generating targets for an A3 paper size which is then printed condensed onto A4 paper, with the target generated at the larger nominal page size, then printed scaled down by the printer/print workflow. Likewise, the A2R papersize may be printed onto A3 paper. These are sized for use with a ColorMunki and allow for 460 patches on a single A4 page, or 960 patches on a single A3 page. The A2R patch layout is rotated 90 degrees so patches, once printed onto A3 paper can be read using a guide sized for A4 paper. A guide for the ColorMunki is essential with these condensed targets, but even at these higher densities, strip reading has proven to be 100% reliable. Alternatively, the standard Argyll patch counts for each page size can be selected and the targets printed at 210 or 420 patches per A4 or A3 page as normal.

An option is available to inspect the Argyll commands prior to execution. Extensive logs are also maintained. Runtime records for each profile are retained as suitably named json files and include all configuration data for each session. These allow for an initial "printing session" where targets for as many papers as desired can be printed sequentially, with the targets subsequently being read and the ICC profiles generated once the prints are properly dried. Once an ICC profile has been created, a simple static gamut viewer is available to graphically view the profile limits and other pertinent metrics. YAAW tests for and warns against inadvertent overwriting of previously generated data, and includes crash recovery, restarting from the last active step in the event of a system crash.

Default directory locations are probably sensible in most instances but may be edited at the top of the script if necessary. Although developed and used with an x-rite ColorMunki, it is equally applicable for use with other spectrophotometers - although some of the "Patch" presets may need adjustment (other patch values can also be entered manually and will be saved in the json config file)

I have not uploaded V3.39 of YAAW to github, but it is available for download at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1agGBW3jbrBvRj9XGADbc0ulYD4Tvmu6q/view?usp=sharing

Feedback and/or critiques received with interest.

Richard (riclin)


Changes since v3.11:

- Added patch-count-aware Argyll basenames, e.g. Printer_Paper_Ink-Argyll_460.
- Separated YAAW working files from installed ICC profile output.
- Added editable path defaults near the top of the script.
- Changed default working root to ~/ColourManagement/YAAW.
- Changed default ICC output to ~/.local/share/color/icc.
- Added additional patch-count options
- Changed default patch count to 460.
- Changed default paper size to A3 and added 594x420 rotated A2/A3 workflow support.
- Added optional extra-argument fields for targen, printtarg, chartread, and colprof.
- Added one-click man-page buttons for targen, printtarg, chartread, and colprof.
- Improved handling of optional preconditioning profiles.
- Added overwrite/stale-file warnings before workflow steps.
- Added persistent per-project JSON config files.
- Added persistent per-project run logs.
- Added “Show Current Settings” audit/debug button.
- Added CGATS endpoint diagnostics for .ti1/.ti2/.ti3 files.
- Relaxed exact-white validation to allow valid printtarg near-white behaviour.
- Added zero-byte failed-profile cleanup.
- Improved quoting and extra-argument parsing.
- Updated About tab, version text, and MIT/license/assistance metadata.
 
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rjanowsky

Newbie to Printing
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Hi Richard,

I just did a first look at your work. Installation on MacOS was smooth. Just needed some time to get python-tk on the M4. Finally Homebrew was able to do it without any stress. The GUI looks nice and is very usable. In the next days I will print and measure for one paper at least and compare the profile with a ChromIQ built profile.

Ronald
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