X-Rite Ships New i1 Professional Color Management Solutions

X-Rite Ships New i1 Professional Color Management Solutions for Photo, Pre-press, Publishing and Digital Printing Markets

New collection of profiling and color control tools for end-to-end imaging workflows now available worldwide

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., April 6, 2011 – X-Rite, Incorporated (NASDAQ: XRIT), the world leader in color management, measurement and communication technologies, today announced that its new portfolio of i1 Professional Color Management Solutions is now available from X-Rite’s online store (North America), and from the company’s worldwide network of resellers. Designed to accommodate all levels of proficiency and expertise, these high performance solutions consisting of a combination of hardware, software and comparative color targets are specifically focused on meeting the unique needs of photo, pre-press, and publishing professionals, providing exceptional value at very attractive price points.

The new portfolio is comprised of i1Basic Pro, i1Photo Pro, i1Publish Pro and i1Publish (software and target suite). All four feature groundbreaking new i1Profiler software technology designed to accommodate all skill levels, and provide the power and control needed to create the highest quality color profiles, as well as the new PANTONE Color Manager color swatch bridging software. ColorChecker Proof, a new ColorChecker target for direct viewing analysis against a printed target and ColorChecker camera calibration system are also featured.

i1Basic Pro is a fundamental solution for high-end monitor profiling, monitor and printing quality verification, and spot color measurement. Designed for an imaging professional’s unique needs, i1Basic Pro is ideal for an effective workflow in a color-managed ecosystem. i1Basic Pro includes i1Profiler software, PANTONE Color Manager software and an i1Pro spectrophotometer.

i1Photo Pro is specifically designed for discerning photo professionals to manage their RGB workflow from camera to display and projector to print. Thanks to the iterative profiling capability of the i1Profiler software, professional photo users will enjoy the highest quality color results that especially target highlight and shadow details and delivers greater color accuracy for more neutral grays and natural skin tones.

“i1Profiler has allowed me to build very smooth profiles on first attempt, with subtle and fine gradient definition, while using only a small number of color patches. With i1Profiler I have been able to optimize my profiles for specific images, and spot colors. I’ve also used it to deal with problematic devices, raising the bar on color expectations with ICC profiles. I love the new ergonomic and user-friendly user interface and the fact that I can now confidently expect color fidelity at its best, each and every time,” commented Neil Snape, from Neil Snape Photography a Paris-based beauty and fashion photographer.

i1Publish (a standalone software package) and i1Publish Pro are the ultimate, fully-featured ICC profiling solutions for graphic arts professionals that need to organize and manage their complete RGB, CMYK and CMYK+N (CMYK plus any 4) prepress workflows, complete with new assurance validation and verification functions using digital standards. This includes a display QA function to check soft proofing for ISO (G7, SWOP, PSO, Japan Color) and a printer QA function to check print quality using ISO media wedges (IDEAlliance ISO Control Wedge or Fogra Media Wedge).

“The difference in quality, smoothness between i1Profiler and the previous generations of profiling software is night and day. The new i1Prism color engine is spectacular! To test i1Profiler, we built profiles for output to some digital presses. For one set of presses, 48 ECI targets measured and averaged into a CGATS Lab file. This was then imported into i1 Profiler. We used many images and synthetic data files to test the output. One has 60 some pages of very special gradients that all fit within the color space of the source data we use for these presses. The results on press were truly impressive, with excellent color transitions,” added Andrew Rodney, Digital Imaging Consultant at The Digital Dog, a training, consulting and service business dedicated to digital imaging, electronic photography, color management, and Adobe Photoshop.

“The quality of i1Profiler's profiles is outstanding and unlike anything we've seen before. The i1Prism engine addresses a number of the challenges that profiling packages have struggled with for years like CMYK separation optimization, edge gamut saturation, natural skin tones, and correcting non-linear tonal variation. Devices that suffer from non-linear tonality become remarkably well behaved and produce perfectly smooth granger rainbows once profiled with i1Profiler, using a small number of color patches. The difficult task of reproducing black and white images on full color printing processes has never been easier or better looking. i1Profiler's perceptual rendering offers fantastic edge gamut saturation, natural skin tones and gray balance. i1Profiler is an impressive display, projector and printer profiling solution that makes it easier to get better results than we've seen in the past,” commented Scott Martin, Color and Workflow Consultant at Onsight, a capture-to-print training and consulting business that helps digital imaging professionals optimize their workflows for quality and efficiency.

i1Photo Pro and i1Publish Pro include i1Profiler software, an i1Pro spectrophotometer, PANTONE Color Manager software, ColorChecker Proof target, mini ColorChecker Classic target, and ColorChecker camera calibration software. i1Publish includes all of the above except for the spectrophotometer.

X-Rite products are available at B&H.