Description

Track each your instrument stability and reproducibility.

That means – you will know if instruments will change the way it used to measure due to one of the typical reasons (dirty calibration plaque, dirty optical path, accidentally instrument drop-down or any other reason. Frequent instrument checking will give you knowledge about it condition and will inform you whenever you need to send it back to the factory for fixing. This works like permanent self-recertification.

Tracking is the fundamental feature and can be done for both spectral and colorimetric instruments but of course, spectral analysis is more advanced.

For tracking purpose you may want to use one of Instrument Inspector Targets – depending on your expectation you may want to choose printed mid-term stable X-42, B-42 or I-42, PVC made ColorChecker from X-Rite, metal-based basICColor MesCal or ChromaChecker/ LUCIDEON  — enhanced set of BCRA ceramic Standards produced by LUCIDEON (formerly CERAM).

Tracking Instruments means the frequent measurement of selected Target. Multiple measurements may be averaged to create BASELINE – fingerprint of how instrument measure Target

Compare instruments

It is very easy to compare any already tracked instrument. Performing this evaluation user can learn which is a real inter-instrument agreement. Whenever in one workflow there are different instruments involved this information may be critical to find a real reason for overall system inaccuracy. You may want co compare instruments of the same kind or quite different. You may see what are real differences between different models, vendors. From hi-end in-line instruments to small and cheap, spectrophotometers and colorimeters. To increase accuracy we advice to compare Baselines. For one Instrument/ Targer user may create more Baselines.  The default Baseline for tracking (E-factor) may be different from another used for Harmonizer.

Share and compare

You may want nay only compare instrument within your organization, but also check how different are instruments of your customers or co-producers. Share option makes it very easy – you will see shared instrument listed below yours — just select baselines and click compare.

 

Harmonize Instruments

This is the most advanced feature of Instrument Inspector. This function requires ChromaChecker™ Target (X-42, B-42 or I-42) or one of short term self-printed targets. It works only with spectrophotometers that offer spectral data. Harmonization offered by ChromaChecker is very easy to apply. You have to set Master Instrument and build frequently updated baseline for each Harmonized Instrument / Master Instrument pairs. In Print Inspector, Track preferences enable Harmonization and select a related instrument. All data will be harmonized on the fly!

Instrument Inspector supports a variety of target types. Depending on your needs, you may decide to use one or more of the following targets:

• ChromaChecker Instrument Inspector Targets X42, B42, I42 (Long Term)
• ChromaChecker Lucideon CL-36  (Very Long Term)
• BasiColor MesCal13  (Long Term)
• Heidelberg PO Basic 210 target (Short Term)
• Idealliance 12647-7 2 row or 3 row (Short Term)
• Lucidean BCRA Tiles  (Long Term)
• Ugra Fogra Media Wedge (Short Term)
• X-Rite ColorChecker (Long Term)

ChromaChecker Targets:

Our Manufactured Targets are serialized and manufactured to provide long term stability and sufficient color range to provide long term tracking of measurement device consistency. Patches are arranged so as to obtain the best support for most measurement instruments. Lightfastness and lamination greatly reduce the possibility of color changes due to aging, especially when the target is stored in provided case to protect against light.

These targets are characterized by excellent coverage of the human spectrum range while optimizing a limited number of patches:

The relatively large size of each of the 42 patches makes it possible to scan a large number of samples to average, thus making the measurements more accurate  (except I-42).

         

Short term printable targets.

For users that have measurement devices that are not compatible with the ChromaChecker X42, B42 or i42 targets (In-line spectrophotometers built into Indigo Press, Heidelberg, Xeikon, QuadTech, AVT and more),  we offer one-time targets that user can print themselves. They are designed to allow ChromaChecker Harmonizer to normalize the inline measurements. This provides harmonizer functionality for devices with limited ability to load ChromaChecker Instrument targets.

For example, on a Heidelberg Press, the Image Control can measure only the patches from the list as indicated by the manufacturer – Heidelberg.

• PO Basic 210 CMYK

  

PO Basic 240 CMYK target can be measured by Image Control and ideally your Master Instrument (Ensure that Master instrument can measure a target that the slave device has to use. Thanks to this functionality the Heidelberg Image control can be harmonized with others instruments in your workflow using ChromaChecker.

Some proofers include a built-in spectrophotometer  – like the popular Epson printer with SpectroProofer option which can measure a defined list of control strips. The Instrument Inspector can build Harmonizer functionality for these types of printers based on different targets such as the:

• Idealliance 12647-7 Control Wedge 2013

  

 

• Ugra/Fogra Media Wedge v.3

  

Targets of this type are unstable and are not suitable for measuring the stability of a measuring instrument, but measuring them using two different instruments (one being the Master) allows you to create a differential profile since we can understand how the two instruments measure the same control strip.

High durability Targets for long-term stability evaluation

• ChromaChecker Lucideon CL-36 — containing 35 ceramic tiles + one OBA synthetic patch

  

 

• basICColor MesCal13 – metal target — containing 13 colored metal tiles
  

To measure MesCal basICColor Catch is strongly recommended. This program can send measurement automatically to ChromaChecker Cloud – auto recognition option make this task very easy.

• Substrate Inspector Backer – one White and one Black patch only (included with ChromaChecker Starter Kit).

  

These types of targets do not allow the Harmonizer to function effectively but are useful for evaluating instrument precision over any period of time.

Other targets

• X-Rite ColorChecker Classic is not an Instrument Target but it is very popular and some of the users already use it for instrument verification. ChromaChecker supports this target to give our users a simple, inexpensive solution for tracking an instruments precision over time.Scanning this target requires CMYK reference file compatible with ChromaChecker Instrument Inspector.

 

Download patch list for ColorChecker working as Instrument Inspector Target

Alwan Print Verifier X-Rite ColorChecker .jobTemplate