ChromIQ v4.3.26

For everyone updating from 4.3.25: ChromIQ's RGB patch sets for i1Profiler are now valid CxF3 files, so PatchTool reads them too, patch sets with values below 0 or above 100 are printed the way the profile sees them, and Build Profile explains shadows, black and black point compensation. If you use the Konica Minolta FD-9 beta, the page number and the clip border now read the right way up when you feed the sheet, and the clip border is on by default. Your charts, measurements and profiles do not change.

Changed

• Build Profile explains shadows, black and black point compensation. The help of “Profile Quality” has a new section: what black point compensation (BPC) in the program you print from does with a ChromIQ profile, why the darkest shadow steps can crowd together with Relative Colorimetric and BPC on (ArgyllCMS keeps the colorimetric black neutral, which is a little lighter than the deepest black the inks can reach; this is by design and shows more on matte paper), and what you can choose instead: BPC off for the deepest black and more punch, or Perceptual for a full black with separated steps and a usually small colour shift. It also says to judge the shadows on a printed step wedge, not only on the screen. The help of “B2A Table Quality” was wrong and is corrected: these tables are the ones printing through the profile uses, a lower setting makes the shadows and the black worse, and it is not a “maximum black” setting. Thanks to MeandmyET18100 and pharmacist on printerknowledge for the report and the discussion.
• FD-9 (beta): the page number and the clip border read the right way up when you feed the sheet. In 4.3.25 both were printed turned round, for someone holding the sheet by its far end. But you stand in front of the FD-9 and feed the sheet in from the front, so the arrow pointing up, away from you, is already the way you read it, and the turned text was upside down for you. Both are now printed upright, in the TIFF, the PDF and the preview, and ChromIQ still checks every page the way the FD-9 will see it before the chart is saved. Thanks to lessbones, who owns an FD-9, for testing it on real sheets.
• FD-9 (beta): the FD-9 clip border is now on by default. lessbones measured real sheets with it: the labels read fine and the FD-9 found its four marks every time. In Manual, a clip border you switched off stays off, also in a layout you saved with “Save as Defaults”. Guided has no clip-border setting for the FD-9, so an FD-9 chart made in Guided always has the clip border, with the Notes box; make the chart in Manual if you want it without. The free 33 mm at the end that goes in last stay as they are, because the FD-9 still holds the sheet in its rollers while it reads the last row.
• FD-9 (beta): the help of “Turn FD-9 charts on screen” is correct again. It said that the text on the sheet was printed turned round and that 180° made it readable. Now that everything is printed upright, the chart reads the right way up without turning it; the option is still there if you like to look at a tall sheet sideways.
• A refused import says what to do when the patches were put in another order. If a measurement's colours do not match the chart, ChromIQ refuses it, because it never guesses which reading belongs to which patch from the colours. When the reason is that another program reordered the patches for i1Profiler, the message now says so and suggests ChromIQ's own i1Profiler export instead: the normal export keeps the chart's order, and the turned export (Preferences, Beta) uses an order ChromIQ knows and maps back by itself. The message is now also shown in your language instead of always in English. Thanks to jctay on the printerknowledge forum.

Fixed

• ChromIQ's RGB patch set for i1Profiler (.pxf) is now a valid CxF3 file. Every patch in the file refers to a colour specification called “Unknown”, but the RGB file never defined it, so the file failed a check against the official CxF3 schema, which other programs that read CxF files may apply. The definition is now written, exactly as X-Rite's own RGB patch sets and ChromIQ's CMYK files have it, in the normal and the shuffled copy. Thanks to jctay on the printerknowledge forum, who checked the file against the official schema.
• Patch sets with values below 0 or above 100 are printed the way the profile sees them. A patch set made by another program can hold, for example, a red of −23.14 or a value of 104. ArgyllCMS printed −23.14 % as a light shade (196 of 255) and 104 % as almost nothing (10 of 255), while the profile was built as if the patch held the value in the file. When you load such a patch set, ChromIQ now sets each of these values to the nearest one that can be printed, 0 or 100, in the run's own copy, and shows a window that lists every changed patch, for example “Patch 13: red −23.1373 → 0”. Your own file is never changed. The printed chart, the chart files, the exports and the profile then all agree. A measurement of a run made earlier with such a chart is checked against the printable values too, so a reading of 0 for a chart value of −23.14 is accepted. Thanks to jctay on the printerknowledge forum.
• ChromIQ's CMYK patch sets for i1Profiler keep every value between 0 and 100, like the RGB ones already did.

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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.

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☕ 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.