X-Rite i1Studio - Any feedback?

[FactorDesign]

I've been tasked with finding a spectrophotometer so that we can make an attempt to resolve ongoing color consistency issues with our Epson S50675, but without spending a ton of money.
A regular i1Publish Pro 2 is around $2800, vs 'only' $500 for the i1Studio.
The feature sets of both seem similar, though I'm sure the i1Publish is superior, I'm not sure if it is enough to warrant the price difference.

We use Onyx v11 which came with the machine. I haven't been able to come up with any information on compatibility with the i1Studio, and I'm not sure if this budget spectrophotometer will even really meet our needs.

If anyone has experience using an i1Studio, or has other ideas for ways we can improve our color matching workflow (which is right now: guess at a cmyk, manually create a test grid of variants close to that color, visually inspect to see if it matches the specified color, repeat until satisfied), I would greatly appreciate it. This has become a real problem for a few jobs and if I can get the proper tools to do my job, I feel like it will make everything much smoother.

 

[ColorCrest]

You'll be needing i1Publish Pro 2 for your machine and full control.

Studio was not designed for professional large format, although a knowledgeable person could get a profile for your printer using Studio, it's not practical in the long run.

 

[FactorDesign]

You'll be needing i1Publish Pro 2 for your machine and full control.
Studio was not designed for professional large format, although a knowledgeable person could get a profile for your printer using Studio, it's not practical in the long run.

I was afraid of that. I wouldn't call myself knowledgeable on either this specific printer or onyx in general. They both seem pretty locked down (at least this version of onyx that came with the printer), and our printer in particular has almost zero for support and profile availability, so being able to make our own profiles would be ideal, rather than using the one 3m profile, and one oracal profile that we've been able to locate. Thank you for your feedback on the i1Studio. I'm not too sure I can talk the boss into an investment in the i1Publish Pro2, so I guess I'm stuck with our canned profiles and barbaric 'color matching' methods.

 

[unclebun]

In Onyx you need to be using Production House level or higher to do color profiling. The version that comes with the printer cannot do it.

 

[Asuma01]

Even buying the scanner doesn't guarantee that you can create a good usable profile. Check out www.correctcolor.org Mike is a good guy that might be able to help you out. There is also www.digitalcolorconcepts.com and Rick Martinko over there is very knowledgeable as well. They both offer custom profiling services.

 

[ColorCrest]

I'm not too sure I can talk the boss into an investment in the i1Publish Pro2, so I guess I'm stuck with our canned profiles and barbaric 'color matching' methods.

If at all possible, invest $500 in yourself and purchase Studio as much of an education. Learn the process of profiling all your personal devices including any camera even if only a phone camera. From the exercise you'll discover that you can print the color targets, as small as they are, on your large format machine. Read the targets from your personal machine (I doubt Onyx will drive Studio anyway) and charge the profile back to your employer if you can. Yup, I think about $500 would be fair. Each. Media. Yup. For. Sure.

You can also learn from Studio that all things concerned, concern "gray." So now, go ahead a print all those Onyx control images supplied in the Onyx folder to see what your current gray looks like. You should already have previous prints of these from months ago, correct? Also, print the same files using the Epson AccuPhoto channels if you're not already. AccuPhoto is sort of the "Studio" process / expectation.

Both prepress and press operators deserve the proper tools to perform their job. Your superiors should know they have a superior print machine. (Race car but with no tachometer.) Once a profile is properly created for the machine / ink / media combination, it is valid for so long as years unless the combination changes. Your machine does not drift. Period. (Much better than a race car.)

 

[FactorDesign]

If at all possible, invest $500 in yourself and purchase Studio as much of an education. Learn the process of profiling all your personal devices including any camera even if only a phone camera. From the exercise you'll discover that you can print the color targets, as small as they are, on your large format machine. Read the targets from your personal machine (I doubt Onyx will drive Studio anyway) and charge the profile back to your employer if you can. Yup, I think about $500 would be fair. Each. Media. Yup. For. Sure.

You can also learn from Studio that all things concerned, concern "gray." So now, go ahead a print all those Onyx control images supplied in the Onyx folder to see what your current gray looks like. You should already have previous prints of these from months ago, correct? Also, print the same files using the Epson AccuPhoto channels if you're not already. AccuPhoto is sort of the "Studio" process / expectation.

Both prepress and press operators deserve the proper tools to perform their job. Your superiors should know they have a superior print machine. (Race car but with no tachometer.) Once a profile is properly created for the machine / ink / media combination, it is valid for so long as years unless the combination changes. Your machine does not drift. Period. (Much better than a race car.)

Hey ColorCrest,
I was actually able to get one of the i1Studios. My problem is now that Onyx seems to have a canned list of devices it will recognize, and the studio isn't one of them. Maybe one of the many listed is compatible, but I've tried some with no success so far. X-Rite customer support said they could only help with their own software, which is understandable. Onyx customer support won't answer even a basic question without $85 up front support charge since we aren't on a contract with them.

My attempt so far:
Loaded up the i1Studio software, printed a 2 page color chart on IJ180Cv3. Scanned that chart with the reader, which seemed to work great, no errors. Now it has been trying to build a profile to print a second test chart for about 20 minutes. Not sure if it has crashed, or if this ancient PC that handles RIP duty just doesn't have the horsepower to figure out the colors.... or if the colors are so far off it can't find a solution, probably because Onyx throws it's own profile on top of the image that comes out of i1Studio, which in my mind would invalidate the whole process, but maybe I'm overthinking it?

Any chance at all you (or anyone reading this) has actually used the i1Studio? I really think it's intended purpose is for photographers with desktop aqueous printers, not wide format eco-solvent. I'm trying to come up with a workflow that will allow me to print the color charts without any interference from Onyx, while still being able to import the resulting ICC into Onyx for actual print jobs. Boy this is all confusing.

 

[ColorCrest]

.... or if the colors are so far off it can't find a solution, probably because Onyx throws it's own profile on top of the image that comes out of i1Studio, which in my mind would invalidate the whole process, but maybe I'm overthinking it?

Yes, you are correct, your profile would be invalid if you were able to proceed. When you print the charts you need to set Onyx to "All Profiles OFF" and actually verify Onyx has followed your command. You are also correct in your thinking iStudio is more for photographer's RGB workflow.

I did advise earlier that you learn the process on your own devices.

 

[unclebun]

The i1Studio is not supported by Onyx. Here's the list of supported devices: https://www.onyxgfx.com/supported-devices/colordevice/

Do you have a version of Onyx that includes profiling software? You have to have Production House or higher to actually complete a profile.

 

[FactorDesign]

Yes, you are correct, your profile would be invalid if you were able to proceed. When you print the charts you need to set Onyx to "All Profiles OFF" and actually verify Onyx has followed your command. You are also correct in your thinking iStudio is more for photographer's RGB workflow.

I did advise earlier that you learn the process on your own devices.

Just to at least make an attempt at this... can you point me to where the 'All Profiles Off' setting might be in Onyx Color-Rip 11.12? It is probably some huge flashing button right in front of my face, but I'm not seeing it.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

During job setup:

 

[FactorDesign]

During job setup:

I don't have quite that same screen, but I was able to create a preset with All ICC Off and load that, trying a print now. RIP-Que and Media Manager are the only parts of Onyx that load for me. Probably because its the software included with the printer rather than a full version.