With today’s complex cross-media campaigns, accurate profiling is even more important for managing customer expectations across the color supply chain. Our i1Pro 2 solutions help photographers, videographers, prepress and digital printers create profiles for the best color on monitors, scanners, projectors, printers, and online web-to-print submission tools.

But with so many to choose from, how do you know which is the right tool for your color workflow?

Whether you’re looking to add a new component to your existing workflow or ready to convert to a complete i1 solution, today’s blog can help. We’ll explain the different components of a color-managed workflow, why each is important, and the i1 solutions that can help at each stage.

Why Calibrate?

If you’re not seeing the right color on your monitor, how can you make good editing decisions? For the best results including accurate color, you need to calibrate each device that is contributing to your workflow – digital cameras, monitors, and printers.

Why Profile?

Once you calibrate, you’ll know that your devices are working at their best. But if they’re not speaking the same language, such as from camera to monitor, or monitor to printer, you’ll still end up disappointed with your final color, and you won’t know what to trust. Profiling your devices gives them a common language so they can share color data with each other and give you confidence at each step of the workflow.

To learn more about why profiling is important for every color workflow, check out our blog The Mystery of the Off Color Print.

i1 Makes it Easy

Our i1 Family offers calibration and profiling solutions for every workflow, from hobbyist to professional.

i1Profiler

The fastest and easiest way to build professional profiles is to use our i1Profiler software. This software can include tools for monitors, scanners, and printers along with different helper applications for advanced workflows.

Basic mode offers a wizard-driven interface with predefined options for the fastest path to professional on-screen and desktop color. Advanced mode offers user-defined options for more sophisticated profiling workflows to deliver the highest quality color results on any device. i1Profiler’s Intelligent Iterative Profiling produces optimized results for maximum color accuracy, allowing targeted updates to existing profiles.

Each of our i1 devices comes with i1Profiler software. Which leads us to the next question – which i1 device is right for you?

i1Display Pro

Don’t waste time perfecting images or video based on the wrong color! If you’re looking for the highest level of on-screen color accuracy for all of your displays – including mobile devices and projectors – but don’t have a lot of budget, the i1Display Pro is a great solution! With two user modes, Basic and Advanced, you’re sure to find the perfect combination of speed, options and controls. Ambient Light Smart Control compensates for ambient light around your workstation, and Flare Correct™ measures and adjusts your profile for reduced contrast ratios caused by glare falling on your display’s surface.

If you’re looking for color accuracy on your mobile devices, i1Display Pro supports ColorTRUE. Simply download the free app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

i1Basic Pro 2

The i1Basic Pro 2 is the industry standard for color perfectionists looking for an affordable, professional-level spectral color measurement solution for display and projector profiling, and for monitoring and verification of color accuracy. With the i1Basic Pro 2, you can quickly and easily create custom monitor and projector profiles that ensure the colors you view are true. You can also verify quality of the display over time and check uniformity as well. This solution also fits well if you are using a third-party software RIP for calibration of your production printer. Plus, with the free ColorTRUE mobile app, you can even calibrate your Apple® iOS mobile devices.

i1Photo Pro 2

i1Photo 2 is a professional color management solution for photographers who want to create custom camera, monitor, projector, scanner and RGB printer profiles. With i1Photo 2, you can calibrate and profile all modern laptop and desktop display technologies, such as LED, Plasma, RG Phosphor, OLED and Wide Gamut. Just like with i1Basic Pro 2, you can create profiles that adjust to any ambient light condition for optimal viewing of color-critical work. Unlimited gamma, white point, and luminance settings add further flexibility. You can even predict how colors printed on optically brightened paper will look under specific lighting conditions or capture the ambient lighting condition of your gallery.

i1Photo Pro 2 includes everything in the i1Basic Pro package, plus ColorChecker Camera Calibration software and targets for producing custom cameras profiles that work exceptionally well for RAW workflows, even in unusual artificial lighting conditions.

i1Publish

i1Publish is a professional color management package, allowing imaging and prepress professionals to quickly and easily create custom profiles for cameras, monitors, digital projectors, scanners, and RGB, CMYK and CMYK+4 printers. It calibrates and matches multiple displays, including up to four displays connected to a single computer as well as unlimited multiple monitors connected to different computers for consistent color viewing.

In addition to the features in the i1Photo Pro 2 package, i1Publish also includes PANTONE Color Manager software so you can easily capture and manage spot colors, plus keep your PANTONE libraries up to date with color palette creation and swatch-bridging software.  This solution supports ISO measurement modes M0, M1 and M2 for matching print specifications. Also included are quality checks against industry specifications, device link profiling, data analysis tools and a patch set editor.

i1 Automated Scanning Solutions

If you spend a lot of time manually reading test charts, you’re not only wasting time, but you’re opening the door to human error. These i1 automated scanning solutions will take the time and labor out of profiling and calibrating.

i1iO Automated Scanning Table

The i1iO is a robotic automatic chart reading system that is designed to work with all i1Pro devices. It’s ideal for photographers, designers, and printers who want to speed up and automate the measurement process and eliminate manual strip reading. Simply plug in your i1Pro or i1Pro 2, align the test chart, and the scanning table does the rest. This also allows use of media up to 10mm thick.

i1iSis 2 Automated Chart Reader

If you manually create more than two profiles per week or frequently calibrate your digital presses, the i1iSis 2 with M-Series measurement illumination conditions will improve both your productivity and the quality of your print production. This automated chart reader automatically aligns itself to the chart and reads up to 2,500 patches printed on a single A3 page in just 10 minutes!

Who’s using our i1 Solutions?

Promis JSC is the first Russian and European folding carton packaging printer to be UGRA PSO (Process Standard Offset) Certified and a PANTONE™ Certified Printer Company. Learn how X-Rite solutions, including the i1Pro2 and i1Profiler with an iO scanning table in prepress, have helped them reduce rework from an average of 78 occurrences per year to only 29.

UNIMAC implemented a range of X-Rite technology, including X-Rite eXact™ spectrophotometers in prepress and 
the pressroom, i1Pro and iQC Print Software in prepress/premedia, and InkFormulation Software in its ink kitchen. As a result, UNIMAC has racked up an impressive array of industry certifications, including ISO 9001, ISO 14000, ISO 27000, G7, FSC, and is a PANTONE™ Certified Printer. Learn more in this free case study.

Learn more

To talk with a color expert about whether i1 solutions are right for your workflow, get in touch.

Do you have an i1 Family success story to share? Get in touch on social! Maybe we can feature your story in an upcoming blog!