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ChromIQ v4.3.24

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@github-actions github-actions released this 04 Nov 10:43
· 20 commits to master since this release
v4.3.24
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For everyone updating from 4.3.23: when you import an i1Profiler measurement, ChromIQ now preselects the measurement condition you chose in i1Profiler, and the colours it works out from spectra now match ArgyllCMS exactly, there and in a few other places (most noticeably in Build Profile with ChromIQ's own engine under fluorescent illuminants). The CR30 is listed simply as “CR30”, and the note about the edge a printer cannot print names the right printer with the system print dialog. If you use the Konica Minolta FD-9 beta, its charts can now span several sheets. Your charts, measurements and profiles do not change.

New

  • Konica Minolta FD-9 (beta), written and contributed by lessbones. Thank you! These changes are for people who have turned on FD-9 support in Preferences > Beta; with it off, nothing about the FD-9 changes. This release brings his multi-page charts and the new reading order. A chart can now span several sheets. When a chart has more patches than one sheet holds, it is printed on several numbered sheets, and the FD-9 measures them one after the other into one measurement. Between sheets, the Measure tab tells you which sheet to insert next: take the measured sheet out, and as soon as the FD-9's paper sensor is clear it shows its insertion screen by itself, so normally there is no button to press. If that takes longer than a minute, the Measure tab says what you can do. If you stop part way, the sheets already measured are kept, and Resume carries on where you stopped, also on a later sheet. Charts made with earlier versions open and measure as before.
  • FD-9 (beta): ChromIQ checks that each sheet is the one it asked for. The FD-9 finds a chart by four small squares that look the same from either end, so it cannot tell a sheet turned round, or another sheet of the same chart, from the right one. After each sheet ChromIQ now compares the readings with the colours the chart should have. When they clearly belong to another sheet, or to the sheet turned round, it says so, saves nothing from that sheet and tells you what to do. It stays quiet when it cannot tell, for example on a chart that is nearly all dark or all light, and then says so in the log, so please still check the page number printed on each sheet.
  • FD-9 (beta): colours are worked out exactly as ArgyllCMS works them out from the 36 measured bands, like the i1Profiler imports and the CR30 (see the entry below about the colours worked out from spectra). A measurement you continue with Resume keeps the way it was started.
  • FD-9 (beta): the FD-9 now reads each row in alternating directions, one row one way and the next row back, which saves travel. The live colours and the progress follow the patch actually being read, and the saved measurement keeps the chart's own order.
  • FD-9 (beta): the layout settings are now the ordinary ones. The FD-9's own size window and the “Custom sheet…” button of 4.3.22 and 4.3.23 are gone. In Manual, the patch size and the two gaps are under “Expert Options”, in “Patches & spacers”: “Inter-patch gap” is the gap between the rows and “Strip gap” the gap between the columns, and each can now be set on its own. Any sheet the FD-9 can feed is Manual's “Custom…” paper. Guided uses the FD-9's layout defaults from Preferences > Chart Layout; if you have pressed “Save as Defaults” with the FD-9 chosen (also in 4.3.22 or 4.3.23), Guided keeps the FD-9 sizes you saved then, until you save again. Choosing the FD-9 always starts from the FD-9's own values (8 × 8 mm patches with 1 mm gaps unless you changed them), never from the previous instrument's, and the controls that do not apply to the FD-9 are greyed and show the values an FD-9 chart really uses.

Changed

  • When a chart's pages cannot be drawn, a window now says why, for every instrument, instead of one line in the log and an empty preview. It explains that a layout setting the paper or the instrument cannot take is the usual cause, names what was refused, and says what to change. When the pages of a chart that already exists (for example one put back with “Restore Used Chart”) cannot be drawn again, the window says that the chart itself is untouched and that only its printable pages are missing.
  • The CR30 is listed as “CR30”, without the maker's name, like every other instrument in the lists (Create Chart, Preferences > Chart Layout and Tools > Read single patches). Its (i) still names the maker, and nothing about its charts or measurements changes.

Fixed

  • With the system print dialog, the warning about the edge a printer does not print now names the right printer. With “Use default macOS printer dialog” on (and on Windows with its print dialog), the Print Chart and Create Chart tabs could name a printer from ChromIQ's own printer list, which is hidden then and may be one you no longer print to. The warning is now about the printer you last printed to through the system dialog, and before your first print that way it is about your computer's default printer, which is the one the dialog opens on. Thanks to lessbones for the report.
  • When you import an i1Profiler measurement, ChromIQ now preselects the measurement condition you chose in i1Profiler. An i1Profiler .mxf can hold every patch under M0, M1 and M2, and it also notes which of them was chosen in i1Profiler. ChromIQ could not read that note yet, so its window always started on M1. Now the condition you chose in i1Profiler is already selected, and the window says that this is where the choice comes from. You can still pick another condition before you import. If the file does not say, or names a condition it holds no readings for, ChromIQ starts on M1 as before (or on the first condition the file holds) and tells you why. Thanks to jctay on the printerknowledge forum, who saved the same measurement under each condition in i1Profiler and sent us the files, which is how we could tell which number stands for which condition.
  • i1Profiler files that hold only one or two of the measurement conditions import correctly under each of them. A file with one condition is imported without a question and the log says which condition it was. A file with two offers only those two. The condition is written into the imported measurement as usual, so brightener (FWA) compensation and the merge and averaging checks treat it correctly. Checked with jctay's files, which hold every combination.
  • The colours ChromIQ works out from an imported i1Profiler measurement now match ArgyllCMS exactly. ChromIQ turns the spectrum of each patch into XYZ itself, because ArgyllCMS cannot read i1Profiler's .mxf files. Until now it did that with a simpler shortcut, which came out about 0.05 dE (at most 0.1 dE) away from what ArgyllCMS would compute from the same spectra. That is far too small to see, but it meant that ChromIQ and ArgyllCMS did not agree on the very same measurement. ChromIQ now uses the same method as ArgyllCMS, and the two agree to within 0.0001 dE. This applies to new imports only: measurements you have already imported keep their numbers exactly as they are, and nothing in your projects is changed. Thanks again to jctay, whose own converter showed that a match this close was possible.
  • In three more places where ChromIQ works out colours from spectra, it now uses the same method as ArgyllCMS too. Each of them had a shortcut of its own, and each is now within 0.0001 dE of ArgyllCMS:
    • The Measurement info window, for a measurement that holds spectra but no colour values, and its “paper white under other light” section. ChromIQ added up the spectrum only over the range the instrument measured (for example 380 to 730 nm) and left out the rest of the visible range. The colours it showed were about 0.3 dE (at most about 0.65 dE) away from the ones ArgyllCMS builds your profile from. Now they are the same numbers. Your files are not changed: ChromIQ only reads them.
    • Build Profile with ChromIQ's own profile engine, wherever it works out colours from the spectra: when you choose another illuminant or observer, when brightener (FWA) compensation is ticked, and in every build with the spectral model option. For daylight and tungsten light the difference was about 0.05 dE, but under the fluorescent lamps F5, F8 and F10 it was 6 to 7 dE on average and up to 14 dE, because their light has sharp peaks that a 10 nm sample misses. For the illuminant and the observer, ChromIQ's engine now uses the same colours ArgyllCMS's colprof would. Its brightener (FWA) compensation is still ChromIQ's own estimate of the brighteners' glow; only the last step, turning the corrected spectrum into colours, now follows ArgyllCMS, so with FWA ticked the engine and colprof can still differ a little.
    • New CR30 measurements. About 0.1 dE (at most 0.2 dE) closer to ArgyllCMS. Measurements you have already made keep their numbers.
    • New FD-9 measurements (beta). About 0.05 dE on average (at most about 0.35 dE) closer to ArgyllCMS. Measurements you have already made keep their numbers, and an FD-9 measurement you started before this update and continue with Resume after it is finished the way it was started, so all of its patches are worked out the same way.
      Where old and new numbers meet in one measurement, for example a CR30 chart you started before this update and continue after it, or an i1Profiler import from before this update merged or averaged with a new one, the two parts differ by at most about 0.2 dE, far less than one reading differs from the next. Nothing is recalculated, and a merged or averaged measurement no longer says it was computed by ArgyllCMS's method when only part of it was.
  • A clearer message when an i1Profiler file holds no readings for the condition that was asked for. It said that the file “does not hold as many readings as patches”, which was not the problem. It now says which condition is missing, which conditions the file does hold, and what you can do: import the file again and pick one of them, or measure again in i1Profiler under the condition you need. You should only see this message if something other than ChromIQ's own condition window picked the condition.
  • An i1Profiler file with a broken spectrum is refused with an explanation. If a patch's spectrum holds a value that is not a number, ChromIQ used to write “nan” into the imported measurement, which nothing can build a profile from. It now stops, names the patch and the value, and suggests measuring that patch again. A file whose spectra cover fewer than 4 wavelengths (i1Profiler writes 36) is refused in the same friendly way, because no colour can be worked out from so few.

Installation (Linux, beta): Download the tarball for your architecture (x86_64 for most desktops/laptops, aarch64 for ARM systems like Raspberry Pi 4/5). Extract with tar xzf ChromIQ-Linux-*.tar.gz, then run ./ChromIQ/ChromIQ. Requires ArgyllCMS — install via your package manager (sudo apt install argyll) or from argyllcms.com/downloadlinux.html.

☕ ChromIQ is free and always will be — if it saves you time or ink, a coffee is a kind way to say thanks. Completely optional, and the app stays fully featured either way.

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