I am slightly behind cutting edge. I don’t have an iPhone yet because we are still on contract with tmobile until November (and yes I know there is a hack). We will get iPhone’s in the near future. In the mean time I will enjoy this new iPod Touch and it’s Wordpress application to post to our blog. So far it has worked pretty well.

I am off to Calgary to speak about color theory and the world of ICC to the smart technologists at Xerox. The last time I passed through Canadian customs I had to explain the functionality of my X-Rite i1 spectrophotometer. I wonder what fun I will run into this time.

A color gamut is defined by the range of colors a particular device like a digital scanner, display, camera or print device can capture, display, or print. Another way to look at it is a color gamut is a color range - or dynamic range for you photographers. Each device has a specific color gamut. The image is a screen capture from the OS 10.4 ColorSync Utility. It shows the bottom part of the gamut where most of the shadow information is present. Profiles such as sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB, SWOP CMYK, GRACoL CMYK, all have color gamuts. Your scanner, display, and output profiles all have color gamut.

A color space is a relationship between the digital files values (RGB, CMYK) to actual appearance (CIELAB). Color space is related to vision and is defined with any color model. RGB values have no real meaning unless they are mapped to appearance, in most cases CIELAB. A color space links numerical values in a file to numerical values related to human vision.

Color Management Director Marc Aguilera was interviewed by Thomas Franklin of Digital Output Magazine. The article entitled, Controlling Color from Proofs to Prints to Profits just hit the news stands this month. Check it out and learn more about how a color managed system can benefit the design process.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 17, 2008 – X-Rite, the world leader in color management and measurement technologies, along with recently acquired PANTONE, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today introduced ColorMunki, a breakthrough in both price and performance.

Based on X-Rite and PANTONE’s deep understanding of the photo and design communities, ColorMunki solutions are the industry’s first easy-to-use, convergent technologies developed specifically to feed the artistic imagination of creative professionals – at an affordable price. Designed to meet the requirements of creatives working in a digital environment across industries, the revolutionary ColorMunki family ensures accurate color from inspiration to final output in ways never before possible.

“Our all-new ColorMunki portfolio reflects a deepened commitment to customers. We’ve developed solutions for distinct segments of the creative community facilitating an unprecedented digital workflow that seamlessly incorporates color. The exceptional ease-of-use has extended the appeal of our solutions. Finally, color excellence can be integrated effortlessly into anyone’s creative vision, setting a new industry standard,” states X-Rite Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing Iris Mangelschots.

Meet ColorMunki
ColorMunki solutions provide photographers and designers new technological advances that – for the first time – address core issues of color creation, control and communication in easy-to-use, integrated solutions. The ColorMunki portfolio includes ColorMunki Photo, ColorMunki Design and ColorMunki Create, all supported by www.colormunki.com. The products are a combination of software and hardware that give creatives freedom and flexibility to create and produce with color confidence.

The ColorMunki Portfolio Includes:

ColorMunki Photo
Designed for the digital workflow of social, wedding and portrait photographers – or anyone passionate about photography – ColorMunki Photo delivers an easy, quick and affordable solution for matching colors from display to print.

Developed with professional photographer input, ColorMunki Photo is a completely integrated, versatile solution that calibrates displays, projectors and printers, measures ambient light and captures spot colors. The new AppSet automatically sets the printer profile for the user. ColorMunki Photo also includes new, exciting color creation and communication tools, such as automatically extracting colors from images and transporting images with DigitalPouch to ensure ViewSafe environments. ColorMunki Photo gives photographers ultimate color control for their images.

ColorMunki Design
Developed for graphic professionals from freelancers to corporate in-house designers, ColorMunki Design provides the freedom and simplicity to select, specify and store color palettes in a calibrated environment, assuring precise color viewing and reproduction. Palettes can then be seamlessly imported into popular design applications including Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and QuarkXPress, as well as other industry-standard applications. Colors can be selected from multiple sources including PANTONE Color Libraries, system-level color pickers, inspirational images, color harmonies and key word searches. ColorMunki Design allows users to quickly and accurately capture colors from any surface, easily calibrate monitors, projectors and printers for accurate display-to-print matching, and verify spot colors for process-safe reproduction in any medium.

ColorMunki Create
ColorMunki Create is an affordable, simple starting point for designers whose primary requirement is color palette creation. ColorMunki Create offers spectral color selection from system-level color pickers, inspirational images, color harmonies and key word searches, with the ability to snap-to PANTONE Goe Colors for repurposing into usable palettes. In addition to software, ColorMunki Create offers a simplified approach to on-screen color control to let designers realize their creative vision. ColorMunki Create is easily upgraded to ColorMunki Design using the discount voucher included in the box.

All three solutions are supported by www.colormunki.com, an online portal where designers and photographers can experience key ColorMunki software capabilities such as create, share and view color palettes with peers, search and select colors from images provided by the www.photoshelter.com community, and test their color-viewing ability with an online test. Creatives will also be able to purchase any of the ColorMunki solutions directly through the Web site.

Pricing, Availability and System Requirements
ColorMunki Photo and ColorMunki Design will be available in late March 2008 at www.colormunki.com and other photo, design, major electronics and online retailers for an SRP of USD $499/€429.

ColorMunki Create will be available in June 2008 at www.colormunki.com and other design and online retailers for an SRP of USD $149/€129.

Additional PANTONE Color Libraries can be purchased for use with ColorMunki Design and ColorMunki Create from www.colormunki.com for an SRP of USD $19.95/€19.95.

The ColorMunki family of products is compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and Windows XP and higher.