Archive for April, 2008

Tuesday Tidbits

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 29, 2008
in blogging
. 0 Comments

More problems at X-Rite: As a person who makes a living in the color measurement side of our industry I read the following with a bit of distress this morning….X-Rite shares plummet on loan defaults from MLive.com.  According to the article X-Rite is now in default on two of the loan agreements tied to the acquisitions of Gretagmacbeth and Pantone and investors are concerned bankruptcy could be considered as an option.

State of Wisconsin grant cuts training cost by half:  Wisconsin employers can send employees to training sessions like the GATF Sheetfed Offset Press Operating Workshop at Institute for Graphics and Imaging (IGI).  This four day hands on workshop has a normal cost of $1,595 but is cut to $800 thanks to a very generous grand from Wisconsin.

Make sure you have control of you keywords:  As web-to-print grows and the importance of your web-site along with it, make sure you have control of you brand and your keywords.  If you don’t you might end up in court like these two Florida mortgage companies did.  While you may think you have the rights to your company name, your competitor with a similar name may not agree.  I think the world 0f web-to-print makes these types of disputes in the printing industry very likely.  (Oh boy, I just found more work for the lawyers….)

Kuler is not cooler - by Michael Jahn

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 28, 2008
in L*a*b*, blogging, calibration, color, gray balance and web-to-print
. 0 Comments

Michael Jahn, a JimRaffel.com reader replied to me via email about a previous post and I found his comments enlightening about how scary the world of color has become for those of us in the graphic arts that have to actually print this stuff.

So, for the first time ever (I think) a guest contributor at JimRaffel.com….

Hi Jim,

Read you blog about Kuler;

As I suggest in my subject like, I do not think Kuler is cooler.

Okay, I will give you it has a sweet looking thing to look at, but so was that Brazilian chick I dated.

example - go to Kuler - in the search tool, enter “swop”

notkloseinkuler.jpg

See attached (this is made from several screen captures - Kuler runs in a browser, so that is RGB - I did my screen captures in Photoshop building while in CMYK, profile was SWOP version 2 - not wanting to debate the fine points, as Kuler seems to have no real notion of CMYK that one wonders why they offer it at all…

So, my gripe is that if one were specifying in CMYK

– 50k should look fairly close to 50c, 38m, 38 y, 0k - in Kuler (TOP) they don’t, and in Photoshop, (BOTTOM) they do

and 50c, 50m, 50y 0k should look a bit warmish brownish, in Kuler it is neutral (incorrect) and in Photoshop it is a bit warmish brownish (correct)

I have no explanation as to why 19c, 0m, 0y, 38k should look like 50c, 38m, 38 y, 0k - in Kuler, or anything that might create, display, report proof, print or plate.

Clearly - This is not ready for prime time for color specifying in the world of print

–
Michael Jahn
Jahn & Associates
PDF Color Conversion Specialist

I’m Busy Darnit!

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 22, 2008
in blogging
. 2 Comments

I am really busy all of a sudden but I made a commitment to myself to provide more valuable content on this blog almost every day.  So, here are some links to start your Tuesday morning off right.

1. Scott Sheppard of Inside Digital Photo Radio who some of my readers may remember from the short lived Inside Print Radio Program (I was a guest once), has posted a little video clip with Vincent Versace sharing his thoughts on the X-Rite colormunki.  I am not sure if they intended it to be as funny as it is, but they made my kulermunki joke a few posts ago seem tame.

2.  Not to overplay my colormunki coverage, but it looks like it is shipping.  At least it looks like it is shipping in the UK.  If it is shipping here I just did not know.  The last press release I read indicated it was not shipping until June.

3.  OK, no link here because ColorMetrix and JimRaffel.com are “Going Green” and in order to save energy we don’t want you computer to have to underline another link in blue.  (The previous sentence was Jim’s weak attempt at sarcastic humor.)  Actually, our friends over at What They Think have some great Going Green coverage this week.

Wednesday  I hope to have a guest post by a industry veteran with lots of PDF and color knowledge.  I am just waiting for him to approve my use of a great email he sent me.

I Still Love Print

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 21, 2008
in blogging
. 0 Comments

Yesterday we unveiled the blurb.com book to my father.  While I am a big fan of digital photography and all the new media, there is just something about a printed book.  In this case a picture really is worth a thousand words….well two pictures.

blurb-outside.jpg

blurb-inside.jpg

Yes, I am proud to say that is my Mom and Dad.

Virtual Proofing - Oh Boy!

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 17, 2008
in blogging, calibration, color, inkjet, measurement, monitors and proofing
. 1 Comment

I believe virtual proofing is at the same cross roads ink jet proofing was around 2001.  I am both hearing and observing information that provides growing support in my own mind for this position.  First, I am not going to name any names in this post.  Why?  Because gut feelings and intuition are not fact.

Think back to 2001 and earlier as it relates to ink jet proofing.  For a frame of reference think Print ‘01 in Chicago, just try not to remember that 9/11 fell right in the middle of the show :(   We finally had a good stable pigment based printer.  We had a few good RIPs emerging from the pack, but you still really needed 3rd party color management software to make the whole thing work.  Of course there was the nightmare of the day which was trying to find a suitable media for Graphic Arts proofing purposes.

The reality was if you understood all the steps involved (or hired a good color management consultant) you could make decent ink jet proofs that rivaled the standard analog and digital proofs of the day.

Now think about virtual proofing today.  While I believe there are at least two (and quite likely more) solid products capable of producing virtual proofs rivaling the ink jet proofs now carrying the standards flag; getting even those two systems to work in multiple locations can and does prove tricky at best.  This is no knock on the virtual proofing software vendors, but instead really an issue of hardware.

Putting together a solid ink jet proofing system requires an end-user to source a printer, media, a RIP, a computer to run the RIP, and probably a good color management consultant as well.  Putting together a solid virtual proofing system requires sourcing a display…let’s stop right there.  There is more to it, but the display is proving (at least my gut tells me this) to be a huge thorn in the side of virtual proofing working in multiple locations.

I am hearing some crazy numbers like less than 1 in 10 “qualified” displays can be used in a 2 or more location virtual proofing set-up.  If this is true (and I am starting to think it is), than it is no wonder virtual proofing is being used more and more for intermediate color (as I predicted in a previous post) and good old reliable ink jet proofs are still being produced as a final contract proof.

I still believe virtual proofing will continue to make gains over hard copy proofing.  I just think it may be a little slower than we thought until this display issues gets worked out.  Part of the problem is that measuring displays is not the easiest thing in the world to do….but that could be a whole post or even a complete white paper.

IGI Names Dahl as Executive Director

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 16, 2008
in blogging and education
. 1 Comment

Pewaukee, WI - The Institute for Graphics and Imaging has chosen as its new director Ron Dahl.  I am sure an official press release from the IGI is not far behind this post and will contain complete biographic information about Mr. Dahl.  I sat down with Ron late yesterday afternoon (his first official day on the job), and got some insight into his plans for bringing the world class IGI facility to full utilization quickly.

He has some exciting plans that may include a resumption of the ColorMetrix User’s Group Meeting sometime in August after a three year hiatus.  As for the rest of his plans I believe it would be prudent to let Ron and the IGI make those  announcements.

Here in southeastern Wisconsin there is a whole lot of support directed at getting this vastly under utilized world class facility up to speed.  It goes all the way to the top of state government as Governor Jim Doyle make provisions for a $250,000 state grant that will help companies reduce the cost of training their employees at IGI over the next two years.

I believe I can safely speak for the southeastern Wisconsin Graphic Arts community when I say Welcome, and we stand ready to assist you in our combined efforts to make IGI the great success it can be.

kuler - Another Big Company Reinvents Spelling

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 15, 2008
in blogging and color
. 2 Comments

A while ago I ran across a cool Adobe Labs web application called kuler. I guess it is geared more to the design community, but if you love color (note C O L O R not k u l e r) like I do you will have fun playing around with it. (Oh, I suppose colour would be OK as well.) If you have never looked around at Adobe Labs, I would suggest you take a few minutes (or hours as I did) to look at the kind of projects they are working on.

Today I would also like to mention a web-site I ran across called Prepress Pilgrim authored by DJ Dunkerley. I did not so much run across DJ’s site as he did mine. One of the neat things about WordPress is I get an alert when someone else links to one of my posts. Thanks for the cross-link DJ.

So, what is with X-Rite spelling MONKEY munki and Adobe spelling COLOR kuler? Does that mean would should have named ProofPass.com PruufPass.com? Oh wait, I need to go register that domain before I publish this post….I’m kidding really I am!

…I’m back…so if X-Rite and Adobe merged would it become the kulermunki?

X-Rite colormunki

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 14, 2008
in blogging and color
. 0 Comments

More than just a few of you have been asking for my thoughts and comments about the recently announced X-Rite colormunki.  Because X-Rite has clearly positioned this device for the Photography and Design markets, for now we at ColorMetrix are taking a wait and see position.  Rest assured I have plenty of thought and comments and they will be coming once I get the opportunity to personally test a colormunki out.

Until that time, I did find a good review over at Photographyblog.com.  Jon Canfield posted this review on April 9th, and he seems to be impressed.

I am going to be trying to make more short posts like this as I find content on other web-sites that I think my readers will be interested in.  I will then summarize them in a (hopefully) weekly  e-mail that may or may not contain one of my now famous Golden Nuggets.

Bithday Post

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 13, 2008
in blogging
. 1 Comment

While I would like to say today is about me (since it is my birthday), it is really about my mother.  44 years ago today I remember nothing, but for her I am sure it was a very special day.  I mean what more could a woman have wanted in 1964 than a 5th child? Her 4th son I might add (and quite probably her favorite child - I sure hope you are all getting the sarcasm here).  Thanks Mom!

Anyway, it is my day so the post is just for fun.

First, I share the day with Thomas Jefferson.  While he like all human beings was far from perfect he is one of the people I strive to be more like each day of my life.  I have been fortunate enough to visit his home Monticello on several occasions.  Most recently we visited during the very hot summer of 2005:

monticello-2.jpg

Second, do me a favor for my Birthday and go vote for my friend Shellie Hall as she tries to win a chance to host a daily internet news show.  Her quest is called Mahalo Idol, and if she wins you could say “I helped her get that job!”  Mahalo.com looks like a potentially cool web-site concept, but I will let you all make your own decision on that matter.

All I really want for my birthday is a Brewers win this afternoon against the Mets.  It is 2-1 Brewers in the top of the 2nd as I type this.  I would also like the Brewers to win the division title this year and not drop it to the cubs in the last month of the season.

The Blurb.com Books Arrived

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on April 11, 2008
in blogging, new media and web-to-print
. 0 Comments

Late yesterday afternoon UPS showed up with our box of 20 books from blurb.com.  Put simply we are impressed.  First, the packaging was professional with each book individually shrink wrapped and then all 20 books neatly stacked in an appropriately sized box with packing material to fill the extra space at the top.  Second, my visual assessment of the print quality (I knew I should have worked a color bar into the design somewhere!) is quite favorable.  They even made the scans of old pictures look pretty darn good.  Third, it’s cool having a coffee table quality book that we produced sitting on our coffee table :-).

I made a comment in my previous post about the BookSmart templates being somewhat limiting.  Earlier this morning I read with great interest a post about the success of a promotional postcard web-to-print company by Adam Dewitz over at PrintCEOBlog.com.  Following is a huge quote from that post (Adam I hope I didn’t quote too much):

… In the monograph I present the concept of deterministic print production workflows. These “workflows rely on catalogs of predefined attributes and rules or logic to dictate the design and production of a print product. The limits placed on the design parameters such as paper stock, color versus monochrome printing, bind-ing and finishing methods, and product dimensions allow for highly automated print production systems to be engineered. These turnkey print production systems are highly efficient and require little human intervention. In fact, they might be the ‘Holy Grail’ of computer-integrated manufacturing the print industry is attempting to achieve.”

It appears that this is precisely what PostcardBuilder has done. …

Two comments to finish this post; 1. It appears that is precisely what blurb.com has done as well; 2. It is time to download Adam’s monograph about web-enabled print architectures.