Several years ago there were FLAAR glossaries available on digital photography, RIP software, and color management tools. But updating them and republishing them is costly, so I thank BARBIERI electronic for providing the funds to completely update the color management bibliography to make it current through winter 2008 and to substantially update the FLAAR glossary of color management terms. Both these publications are now available, as free downloads.
As soon as funding is available from a RIP company we hope to update the glossary of RIP software and make the improved version readily available. These funds are utilized to help the approximately 14 students who work mostly full time in the FLAAR office as technical writers, graphic designers for the PDFs, and web designers for our seven web sites with over 1000 pages (the students attend their university in the afternoon and evenings).
BARBIERI electronic booth at FESPA Digital, Amsterdam 2009.
Spectrophotometers for ICC color profiles, BARBIERI electronic, SGIA 2008.
Spectrophotometers for ICC color profiles and color management
BARBIERI electronic is one of the few remaining companies that makes color management equipment other than X-Rite/GretagMacbeth. I have seen the BARBIERI booth at major European trade shows over the last five years, but rarely if ever in the US.
BARBIERI electronic booth at FESPA 2008.
Barbieri makes robust spectrophotometers. Not as much plastic as other models. Works well with textiles too. I have spoken with a color management person in Europe who is familiar with all brands. She says that the BARBIERI units have advantages over other brands. Gretag and others uses plastic wheels made for paper, so if you wish to handle other materials, you may find BARBIERI more efficient. Some auto feeders are best for photo paper, for example.
You can measure rigid materials and backlit materials both. An experienced user reports that the machine “holds” many materials better than some better known competitors machines. Plus this end-user says “BARBIERI is easy to use: just plug-and-play.”
BARBIERI makes color management equipment.
Pricewise BARBIERI “It is worth the price.”
With all the new models available at ISA and FESPA 2010, FLAAR is offering personalized consulting at each trade show. You can walk-the-floor with the Senior Editor of FLAAR and get his comments on any and all printers, inks, RIP software, color management, substrates, applications, etc.
So if you wish to learn about the difference between combo, hybrid, and dedicated UV printers, how latex ink compares, about textile printers, etc. contact FLAAR to obtain consulting.
You can also get consulting before ISA or FESPA anywhere in the world: Dr Hellmuth was in Dubai and India last week as consultant, and will be in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and China as consultant in the next two months. He was consulting in Korea and London in late 2009.
BARBIERI color management tools are for professional printshops who need to obtain the right color on different kind of media. The BARBIERI spectrophotometers create output profiles, for wide-format inkjet printers, especially for transmissive (backlit), for textiles, and for thick and rigid material that GretagMacBeth Spectrolino can’t handle well.
I have asked around and checked with pros. These pros that I asked have prior experience also with GretagMacBeth and with X-Rite equipment. FLAAR too has worked with both Gretag and X-Rite equipment before they merged. In instances where a person started with Gretag, and then tried BARBIERI, they prefer BARBIERI once they learn all the things it can do that are not possible with a GretagMacbeth Spectrolino. This does not mean at all that a Gretag is bad, just that a BARBIERI is better in key aspects.
Caldera sells the Caldera Swing model that is adapted to Caldera RIP software. Naturally you can also obtain the BARBIERIi equipment directly from the manufacturer: the master distributor for BARBIERI spectrophotometer color management tools in the US is Image Tech Digital (Mark Spandorf).
There is also a capable German company, BasICColor, that makes color management software that can be used with the BARBIERI, or you can use the RIP and ICC profiling software that you already have. Or you can obtain your BARBIERI spectrophotometer with its own software with special features for saving on ink usage and creating especially high quality profiles. Remember, if you use the ink limiting features of the BARBIERI system, you can save 20%, 30% or up to 40% of your ink costs (because you use correspondingly less ink when you have color management workflow in your company). I have interviewed printshop technical managers, and have interviewed other people in industry, and these are the figures for ink saving, for people who are not using a RIP at all, or are not using the ink saving features of color managed workflow. In our upcoming site-visit case study we quote a specific printshop in Europe who saved so much money by needing less ink that they paid for the entire BARBIERI spectrophotometer out of their ink savings.
By mid-November it has been possible to visit the BARBIERI headquarters in South Tirol (northern Italy) and also to visit a major European digital printing company that formerly used other brands, tried the BARBIERI, and switched. This substantial printshop is in Slovenia, a few kilometers south of where I used to live while at the university for eight years (Graz, Austria) has eight UV printers and almost a dozen solvent and oil-based printers, plus two textile printers. They started with a GretagMacbeth Spectrolino and switched to BARBIERI because it could better handle backlit as well as heavy and thick rigid materials from the UV-cured flatbed printers and textiles too. The site-visit case study of this print company is now being prepared.
BARBIERI LFP at Print Division, site visit 2008.
BARBIERI LFP at Print Division.
Most recently updated November 24, 2008.
First posted October 2008.
Most of our updates for 2008-2009 onward are in FLAAR Reports in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. It is more efficient for us to make new information available in PDF format. So if the web page itself is not updated, check out www.wide-format-printers.NET to see if the printer, RIP, or other subject is covered in an update in a PDF download. And if you prefer to speak with Nicholas Hellmuth in person, you can bring him to your company anywhere in the world as a consultant.
