Ink Reviews - Accurate Colour

[THRobinson]

What apps do you guys use when you are trying to set your white balances?

 

Photoshop... LightRoom... anything else?

[THRobinson]

One thing to mention (since nobody else seems to have):

A friend of mine was telling me a number of years ago about trying to scan some calligraphy and illumination for a brag book. And she was going to copy centers and having to have the machines re-calibrated to cut the red [i guess technically magenta] by something like 50% in order to get the colors come out accurately on the page.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Ya, photographers have that issue as well. Which is also why they use a grey card for white balance. It's a neutral starting point. If on an uncalibrated monitor and you adjust things to look good on your screen, the printer doesn't know that.... it just knows that the file had the red pumped up 10% so prints 10% more red.

 

Printer may be off as well, but at least if the file was set with a neutral white balance, it will probably take less tweeking to get it right. Assuming of course that the printer was somewhat calibrated to being with.

 

It'll never be 100%, because going from RGB to CMYK, different paper, even the lack of texture will throw it off (thickness of the ink on the paper). But, having a good baseline to begin with, cuts down on the tweeking.

Edited April 23, 2015 by THRobinson

[amberleadavis]

 

Yup... already did.

 

But, again, talks about manually setting a white balance based on what your screen looks like. And knowing that your screen is not calibrated and different from everyone else's screen, you're basically doing more harm than good to the image.

 

Tonne's of sites and YouTube vids out there why setting a WB is a good idea, and how using a grey card is the easiest best way to do so.

 

There are a lot of factors that can't be controlled when doing ink reviews... paper, ink, pen, flow, pressure.... I'm just trying to focus on the 1 factor that can be controlled and consistent.

 

If your monitor is off by 10%R-5%G-0%B, at least this way, all the reviews on your monitor will be off by 10%R-5%G-0%B, instead of every review being off by all sorts of numbers.

 

Well, weekend I'll post something... I think at this point, if anyone reading still doesn't understand why having a baseline is important, again, there are some good websites and videos that may do a better job explaining than me.

 

 

I do a work around. I try to do reviews and compare them to known inks. So, you will see a lot of Asa Gao in my CRVs (co reviews). A lot of people own Asa Gao and can compare to see if it looks the same. It's not a great comparision, but I hope it helps. Otherwise, I'm in the "just scan it" bunch.

[PS104]

That's ok then. I guess I can sleep tonight.

Sweet dreams

[strictlyobiter]

Ink is so subjective, with all the will in the world I think it would be difficult to show anyone on a screen what >they< will see in real life. I could read 4/5/6+ reviews of inks that I'm thinking about purchasing and the ink will look different every time and different again when I have it in front of me. That's one of the fun facets about ink for me. You know in theory what you're getting, but you don't really know until it's in front of you.

 

I get why this would be irritating for you given your professional background though. I have an internal rage every time I see legal urban myths and horrendous legal advice on the Internet. We can't save them all

[lapis]

"All that" is one of the reasons I love inks, especially their reviews and comparisons. It's not just the pen and paper etc but also our eyes (as said above, and that for centuries). Even if an ink can have its own chemistry and physics nailed down exactly -- or even a whole person as re his DNA -- there'll always be others who love or even hate them just for any old reason. All the more reason to collect them.

 

Mike

[A144]

What apps do you guys use when you are trying to set your white balances?

 

Photoshop... LightRoom... anything else?

 

I'm personally using LR4 for processing RAW files and PSE8 for other stuff and specific photoshoppy tasks. Unfortunately I tend to use the crappy camera on my phone rather than my DSLR since it's more convenient... I really need to get a grey card and start using it with my DSLR/scanner.

 

Anyways, I wanted to mention that the free photo editing software GIMP is a pretty nice alternative for people who can't afford/don't need the capabilities of Lightroom or Photoshop. It's not as pretty and can't do everything LR/PS can, but it will definitely work for color adjustments, etc.

[THRobinson]

Ya, I was thinking I may have to try a freeware app and see how it works and do something for that... like GIMP, or I think Picasa is a free Google one, but never used either.

 

Always had Adobe Suites, CS6 right now. I also have LightRoom 4.4.

 

But definitely want to grab a freeware app since I doubt anyone would pay a few hundred bucks for doing reviews. Buy a few nice pens for that.

[THRobinson]

It's still coming... had a kerfuffle with the mail, but those cheap colour balance cards finally came early last week.

 

I am rebuilding a '79 CX500 motorcycle and I restore old smoking pipes as a hobby, so will take a break from those and get some reviews done and a How-To guide (pdf) for people to use. I figured pdf would be easier to do than trying to type it all here.

 

Then I can do some reviews, have 8-10 small samplers on my desk waiting to be opened.