Pantone Press Release

Pantone showcases innovative products for colour management and large format printing at Photokina 2006

Pantone, Inc., the global authority on colour, will participate at Photokina 2006, running from 26 September to 1 October 2006. This is the first time Pantone will be exhibiting at Photokina and the company will showcase a variety of innovative products for colour management and large format printing. Full information on new PANTONE products will be available during Photokina at Pantone’s booth: No. H050 in hall 04.1. Pantone’s enhanced product portfolio, which will show at Photokina 2006, enables photographers, graphic designers and printers to work more effectively and precisely with colour.

Amongst others, the colour experts will be featuring the following products at the show:

Printer profiles from Pantone: Colour management made easy
There are two important steps for better colour matching between the screen and the printer: calibrating the monitor and profiling the printer. The first step can be achieved with the use of monitor calibration tools such as the award-winning, easy-to-use huey™ and the Eye-One Display® products already offered by Pantone.

To achieve the second step, Pantone is pushing the boundaries with a new service that can be used by photographers, designers, printers and photo-enthusiasts to create custom printer profiles. Printer manufacturers provide canned profiles, but they don’t take into account different paper stocks or ink that can drastically affect the colour quality of the print. Users who want professional print results should not rely on the profile that is automatically supplied by the manufacturer. Custom profiles optimise colour reproduction by taking into account the specific characteristics of the printer, ink and paper

Without a profiled printer, even a perfectly calibrated monitor is useless, as colours shown onscreen will not match printouts.

Until now, creating a printer profile was time intensive and expensive. With the new Pantone service, this is a thing of the past. Just print out the test chart provided by the service for the printer to be profiled, send it to the service and after a few days you will receive an individual printer profile for colour-accurate printing.

Software update for PANTONE huey and Eye-One Display for Intel Apple Users

The spectrum of features for the huey and Eye-One Display monitor calibration solutions will be enhanced by a new software update for Intel Core Duo processor-based Macintosh computers. Intel Mac users can now adapt a variety of settings with the huey 1.0.4 update, to achieve ideal monitor calibration. In addition, Intel Mac users implementing the Eye-One display solution can now use the software update Eye One Match 3.6.1 for enhanced, individual colour calibration.

PANTONE huey
huey is the newest gadget for any end-user or hobby photographer looking for precise colours and brilliance for their monitors. The device differs from professional monitor calibration solutions, which require a basic understanding of colour management, through its ease of use and ability to adapt to changing ambient light conditions in the room.

Eye-One Display LT
The Eye-One Display LT provides more features for monitor calibration control than huey, with specific features for professional end-users. The calibration device’s software wizard will calibrate the monitor in view steps to produce consistent and predictable colours, making it the ideal entry-level product for professionals working on a tight budget. As user requirements grow, the device can be easily upgraded with the functionality of the Eye-One Display 2. The device also includes a profile summary reporting function, showing the target colour temperature, brightness and gamma value. This information can be saved after calibration for comprehensive profile analysis.

Eye-One Display® 2
The Eye-One Display 2 provides all the features of the Eye-One Display LT and gives users unlimited control on their gamma and white point settings. Its lightweight, sleek design is complemented by an easy to install ambient light head which can also be used for dust protection and adds to the long life of the sensor. Eye-One Display 2 creates high quality ICC-profiles for precise software proofing onscreen.

PANTONE ColorVANTAGE™ inks
Pantone now offers its pigment based PANTONE ColorVANTAGE inks for EPSON K3 printers, such as the EPSON Stylus® Photo 2400, EPSON Stylus Pro 4800, EPSON Stylus Pro 7800 and the EPSON Stylus Pro 9800. The new ColorVANTAGE inks for EPSON K3 printers guarantee excellent colour quality without any loss of performance and are generally 20 percent cheaper that EPSON inks.

Further information on the PANTONE product range will be available at Photokina 2006.