## Operation of particular instruments

The following instruments are directly supported:
X-Rite:
DTP20 "Pulse" - "swipe" type reflective spectrometer, that can be used untethered.
DTP22 Digital Swatchbook - spot type reflective spectrometer.
DTP41 - spot and strip reading reflective spectrometer.
DTP41T - spot and strip reading reflective/transmissive spectrometer.
DTP51 - strip reading reflective colorimeter.
DTP92 - CRT display colorimeter.
DTP94 "Optix XR" or "Optix XR2" or "Optix Pro"- display colorimeter.
ColorMunki Design or Photo - spot and "swipe" reflective/emissive spectrometer (UV cut only).
ColorMunki Create - display colorimeter.
Gretag-Macbeth (now X-Rite):
Spectrolino - spot reflective/emissive spectrometer
SpectroScan - spot reflective/emissive, XY table reflective spectrometer
SpectroScanT - spot reflective/emissive/transmissive, XY table reflective spectrometer
Eye-One Pro "EFI ES-1000" - spot and "swipe" reflective/emissive spectrometer
Eye-One Monitor - spot and "swipe" emissive spectrometer
Eye-One Display 1 or 2 or LT - display colorimeter
Huey - display colorimeter
Sequel imaging (Now X-Rite):
MonacoOPTIX - display colorimeter (Treated as an Eye-One Display 1)
[The Sequel Chroma 4 may also work.]
DataColor ColorVision:
Spyder 2 - display colorimeter (Note that the user must supply firmware)
[The Spyder 1 also seems to work.]
Spyder 3 - display colorimeter.
Other:
Colorimètre HCFR - display colorimeter
General information about:
Strip reading instruments
X-Y Table instruments
Spot reading instruments

### Strip reading instruments

When used with a DT20, DTP41, DTP51, Eye-One Pro or ColorMunki strip reading instrument, chartread will first establish communications with the instrument, and then set it up ready to read the strips. The strips are labeled A to ZZ, and for each strip it will prompt:
About to read strip XX :
where XX is the strip label, and this is followed by the available options to navigate, read the strip, or finish.
For the DTP51 you should feed the strip into the instrument, and the microswitch will trigger the read.
For the DTP41 you should line the appropriate strip up in the machine, and press its button.
For the Eye-One Pro you should set the guide to the appropriate strip, place the instrument ahead of the first patch, and then press and hold the instruments button. When you hear a beep from the computer, you can then move the instrument steadily over the patches, releasing the button after the instrument is past the last patch. Moving the instrument too fast or changing speeds may cause a mis-read, or a acquisition with few samples read per patch.
For the ColorMunki with the default chart, the patches are the same width as the silver portion of body (white version), or the textured portion of the body (black version). Place aperture of the the instrument (located at its center) in the white space ahead of the first patch, and then press and hold the instruments button. When you hear a beep from the computer, you can then move the instrument steadily over the patches, releasing the button after the instrument is past the last patch. Moving the instrument too fast or changing speeds may cause a mis-read, or a acquisition with few samples read per patch. For the high density ColorMunki chart (printtarg -h), the patches are arranged so that three rows are exactly the width of the body of the instrument. If you are careful you can use this to guide the center of the instrument over each row, or you may prefer to use something like a plastic ruler to help guide the instrument.
Using the DTP20 or the Eye-One Pro or ColorMunki with a randomized chart layout, the strip may be acquired from either direction. If a randomized chart layout has not been used for the Eye-One Pro or ColorMunki, then the chart should only be read in the one direction (use chartread -B).
Note that you may have to check that system alert sounds are enabled and at a suitable volume to in order to hear the beep prompt. For the Eye-One Pro and ColorMunki, a second beep will sound after a successfully read strip, or a double beep will sound, indicating a failure or warning that needs attention. See also the note on Linux in installation.
If the strip is read successfully, the line will be followed with:
Ready to read strip XX :
Strip read OK
If there is an error of some sort, a message will be issued, and you will be asked whether to abort the chart reading, or retry the
failed strip:
Ready to read strip XX :
Strip read failed due to misread (Not enough patches)
Hit Esc to give up, any other key to retry:
If you are unable to successfully read a strip after several retries, you can skip that strip using the 'n' key, and save
the chart readings without that strip.
If the strip is read successfully, but the patches values don't seem to be what is expected, you will get the following type of warning:
Ready to read strip XX :
(Warning) Seem to have read strip YY rather than XX !
Hit Return to use it anyway, any other key to retry, Esc, ^C or Q to give up:
This could be because you have accidentally read the wrong strip (a common mistake), or it could be that the device response is so different from what is expected that warning is erroneous, or you may get a lot of these sorts of warnings if you are accidentally reading the wrong chart.
If you are absolutely sure you lined up the correct strip, then hit return, otherwise line the appropriate strip up again, and hit some other key (ie. space).
Erroneous warnings are less likely if a previous profile for a device was given to targen to set more accurate expectations.
You may also see the following type of warning:
Ready to read strip XX :
(Warning) Patch error YY.YYY (>35 not good, >95 bad)
There is at least one patch with an very unexpected response!
Hit Return to use it anyway, any other key to retry, Esc, ^C or Q to give up:
Similar to the previous warning, this indicates that while the right strip appears to have been read, one of the patch readings is quite different to what is expected. This may indicate an error of some sort (ie. damaged test chart, or bad instrument positioning), or may be erroneous if the actual device response is quite different to the expectation. Erroneous warnings are less likely if a previous profile for a device was given to targen to set more accurate expectations.
You can also navigate the next strip to be read using the 'f' key to move forward and the 'b' keys to move backwards. The prompt will indicate whether this strip has already been read or not, or whether all strips have been read. You can also use 'n' to move forward to the next unread strip. After each successful reading it will move forward to the next unread strip. When you are finished, use the 'd' to indicate that you are done. You can choose to finish before all the strips are read, and the patches that have been read will be saved to the .ti3 file. This is useful if you are unable to read a particular strip successfully, or if you are unable to finish the chart in one session, and you can later resume reading the chart by using the chartread -r flag. [You could resume reading the chart patch by patch using the chartread -r -p if you are unable to read a strip successfully.]
You can abort the whole process at any time by hitting Escape, and the readings will not be saved.

### X-Y Table instruments

When you are using an XY table type instrument, such as a Gretag SpectroScan, chartread will first establish communications with the instrument, and then set it up ready to read the chart. You will be prompted for each sheet with a message such as:
Please make sure that the white reference is in slot 1, then
place sheet 1 of 4 on table, then
hit return to continue, Esc to give up
After hitting return you will be prompted to line up three squares on the sheet, one at a time:
Using the XY table controls, locate patch A1 with the sight,
then hit return to continue, Esc to give up
On completing this, the instrument will commence reading each sheet.

### Spot reading instruments

When used with a DT22 or SpectroLino or use the patch by patch reading mode (chartread -p) with the Eye-One Pro or ColorMunki instrument, or use the external values mode (chartread -x), chartread will first establish communications with the instrument, and then set it up ready to read the patches. The patches are typically labeled by column A to ZZ, and row 1-999. Each patch will prompt:
Ready to read patch 'XX' :
where XX is the patch label, and this is followed by the available options to navigate, read the strip, or finish.
Place the instrument on the indicated patch, and trigger a reading using one of the available methods (typically using the instrument switch of pressing a key).
There should be an audible prompt on a successful or failed reading.
Note that you may have to check that system alert sounds are enabled and at a suitable volume to in order to hear the beep prompt. For the Eye-One Pro and ColorMunki, a second beep will sound after a successfully read strip, or a double beep will sound, indicating a failure or warning that needs attention. See also the note on Linux in installation.
If the patch is read successfully, the line will be completed with:
Ready to read patch XX :
Patch read OK
If there is an error of some sort, a message will be issued, and you will be asked whether to abort the chart reading, or retry the
failed patch:
Ready to read patch XX : read_strip returned 'Strip misread' (Bad reading)
Strip read failed due to misread
Hit Esc to give up, any other key to retry:
You can navigate the next patch to be read using the 'f' key to move forward and the 'b' keys to move backwards, while 'F' and 'B' will move forward and backwards by 10 patches. The prompt will indicate whether this patch has already been read or not, or whether all patches have been read. You can also use 'n' to move forward to the next unread patch. When you are finished, use the 'd' to indicate that you are done. You can choose to finish before all the patches are read, and they will be saved to the .ti3 file. This is useful if you are unable to finish the chart in one session, and you can later resume reading the chart by using the chartread -r flag.
You can abort the whole process at any time by hitting Escape, and the readings will not be saved.

ColorMunki reflective/emissive spectrometer
Availability:
The ColorMunki from X-Rite is currently available in two different packages from the manufacturer. These packages differ in what features the manufacturers software provides, as well as cosmetic differences between the instrument (white and black). This comparison chart illustrates the differences. Used with Argyll, there are no differences in operation of a ColorMunki instrument, irrespective of which package it came with. The ColorMunki Design has the lowest RRP, but the Photo package may be cheaper with discounting .
Limitations:
Unlike the Eye-One Pro, the ColorMunki is only available in a U.V. Cut (Ultra Violet filtered) model. This means that it is not suitable for use with the Fluorescent Whitener Additive Compensation option in Argyll (see here for a discussion about what FWA compensation is).
Patch recognition:
For the best chances of good patch recognition, the instrument should be drawn smoothly and not too rapidly over the strip. If there is a misread, try slowing down slightly. Generally a higher quality set of readings will result if slower scans are used, since there will then be more samples averaged for each patch.
In chartread, the -T ratio argument modifies the patch consistency tolerance threshold for the ColorMunki. In recognizing patches in a strip, the instrument takes multiple readings as the strip is read, and then divide the readings up into each patch. It then check the consistency of the multiple readings corresponding to each patch, and reject the measurement if they are too inconsistent. For some media (ie. a coarser screens, fabric etc.) the default tolerance may be unreasonably tight, so the -T ratio argument can be used to modify this criteria. To loosen the tolerance, use a number greater than 1.0 (ie. 1.5, 2.0).
Note that printtarg provides the -h option that allows the choice of two different patch row widths with ColorMunki test charts.

DTP20 "Pulse" reflective spectrometer
Availability:
The DTP20 from X-Rite was discontinued during 2007, but may still be available from old stock or second hand.
Special features:
The DTP20 has a couple of unique features that Argyll can take advantage of. One is that it can operate un-tethered (off line). A whole chart can be read un-tethered by first clearing any previous readings in the instrument, then reading the chart TID strip, before reading all the other strips. The instrument can then be connected up to chartread, which will recognize the chart, and download all the measurements.
If there is no chart in the instrument when chartread connects to it, then it will use the strip by strip tethered mode, just like the other strip instruments. If the right number of spot readings are present in the instrument, these will be used by chartread too.
Un-tethered spot measurements can also be read in using spotread, which will notice the stored readings, and offer to print them out, or they can be ignored, and tethered readings taken. This will clear any saved spot readings.
Note that tethered (on-line) strip reading will only work if the firmware in the device is version 1.03 or greater. You can check the firmware version by running with the verbose option: -v

DTP22 Digital Swatchbook reflective spectrometer
Availability:
The DTP22 from X-Rite is a discontinued instrument. It may still be available second hand. It is capable of reading colored patches one at a time.

DTP41 reflective, DTP41T reflective/transmissive spectrometers
Availability:
The DTP41 and DTP41T from X-Rite is a discontinued instrument. It may still be available second hand.
The series II instruments (DTP41B and DTP41TB) offer both serial and USB connection. Note that currently only serial operation using Argyll is possible with these instruments.

DTP51 reflective colorimeter
Availability:
The DTP51 from X-Rite is a discontinued instrument. It may still be available second hand.
Operation:
The DTP51's switch is triggered by inserting a strip into the slot.

DTP92 CRT display colorimeter
Availability:
The DTP92 from X-Rite is a discontinued instrument. It may still be available second hand. It will only read CRT technology displays.

DTP94, "Optix XR" or "Optix XR2" or "Optix Pro" display colorimetrers
Availability:
The DTP94 from X-Rite is a discontinued instrument. It may still be available as old stock, or second hand. It was sold as an instrument without software as the DTP94, and packaged with software from the manufacturer as the "Optix XR" range.

Spectrolino reflective/emissive spectrometer
Availability:
The Spectrolino from Gretag MacBeth (Now X-Rite) is a discontinued instrument. It is often available second hand. If buying it second hand, make sure it comes with all it's accessories, including white reference, spot reading adapter, display reading adapters, filters (UV, polarizing, D65) and power supply.

SpectroScan reflective/emissive and SpectroScanT reflective/emissive/transmissive spectrometers
Availability:
The SpectroScan and SpectroScanT from Gretag MacBeth (Now X-Rite) is a discontinued instrument. It is the combination of an X-Y table and the Spectrolino instrument. The SpectroScanT is capable of measuring transparency. It is often available second hand. If buying it second hand, make sure it comes with all it's accessories, including white reference, spot reading adapter, display reading adapters, filters (UV, polarizing, D65) and power supply.

Eye-One Pro reflective/emissive spectrometer
Availability:
The Eye-One Pro from X-Rite (was Gretag MacBeth) is available in two packages from the manufacturer. These packages differ partly in what accessories come with the instrument, but primarily in what features the manufacturers software provides. This comparison chart illustrates the differences. Used with Argyll, there are no differences in operation of an Eye-One Pro instrument, irrespective of which package it came with. The lowest cost package is the i1Basic, and it is also included in the i1XTreme package.
The EFI ES-1000 (which is a re-badged Eye-One Pro) is also reported to work with Argyll.
Unless you know what you're doing, and have a very specific reason to buy an instrument fitted with a UV (Ultra Violet) filter, make sure that you buy an instrument without the filter. A UV filtered instrument can't deal intelligently with FWA (Fluorescent Whitener Additive) effects in paper. (Look here for more information about FWA compensation.) You can emulate a UV cut instrument quite well in Argyll by using FWA compensation mode, and supplying a UV filtered D50 illuminant spectrum (ie. ref/D50_0.0.sp).
There have been three revisions of the Eye-One Pro, Rev. A, B and D. The rev D is capable of sampling twice as fast as the Rev. A and B versions of the instrument, and is also available with an ambient light reading capability.
NOTE for those running on Linux with a Rev. D, there is a problem with the current (as of Feb 2008) Linux USB stack that causes the instrument to stop working once it has been used. The only workaround is to unplug and replug the instrument in again, whereupon it can be used one time again. A fix for this problem will probably turn up in the Linux 2.6.26 kernel release.
Patch recognition:
For the best chances of good patch recognition, the instrument should be drawn smoothly and not too rapidly over the strip. If there is a misread, try slowing down slightly. The Rev A and B. instruments have a slower sampling rate than the latter revision instruments, and hence must be used a bit more slowly. Generally a higher quality set of readings will result if slower scans are used, since there will then be more samples averaged for each patch.
In chartread, the -T ratio argument modifies the patch consistency tolerance threshold for the Eye-One Pro. In recognizing patches in a strip, the instrument takes multiple readings as the strip is read, and then divide the readings up into each patch. It then check the consistency of the multiple readings corresponding to each patch, and reject the measurement if they are too inconsistent. For some media (ie. a coarser screens, fabric etc.) the default tolerance may be unreasonably tight, so the -T ratio argument can be used to modify this criteria. To loosen the tolerance, use a number greater than 1.0 (ie. 1.5, 2.0).
Differences between reading modes:
The spotread -d mode uses a fixed integration time, choosing 1 of 3 depending on the display brightness. The advantage of this is that the readings are all consistent (there can be no mismatch of sensitivity due to integration and/or gain changes), and the dark level is calibrated at the exact integration time used.
The spotread -e or -a modes are adaptive, so the range of brightness is much greater, but the measurement time will be variable, and the dark level
is interpolated. The adapative mode can be used with dispcal and dispread by using the -V flag, and this may give better results for displays capable of very deep blacks.
Special features:
A feature unique to Argyll when used with the Eye-One Pro, is the high resolution spectral mode. This returns spectral measurements at 3.333 nm spacing, rather than the default 10nm spacing, and also extends the range of wavelengths slightly. This high resolution may assist in giving better accuracy for "peaky" emissive sources such as illuminants and displays. The high resolution mode is selected by using the -H flag on the command line to dispcal, dispread, chartread, and spotread. It can also be toggled on and off within spotread using the h key. The extended range down to 350nm may give some information about an illuminants ultra violet content, although the accuracy of the readings between 350-380, and 730-750nm should not be relied upon.

Eye-One Monitor emissive spectrometer
Availability:
The Eye-One Monitor from X-Rite (was Gretag MacBeth) is a discontinued instrument. It was a lower cost version of the Eye-One Pro without reflective measurement capability. See Eye-One Pro reflective/emissive spectrometer for details on the operation of this instrument.

Eye-One Display 1, Eye-One Display 2, Eye-One Display LT, ColorMunki Create colorimeters,
Instrument Availability:
The Eye-One Display LT and Eye-One Display 2 are currently available, packaged in various ways by the manufacturer, X-Rite.
The ColorMunki Create colorimeter can also be used, and will appear as an i1Display2 colorimeter.
The Eye-One Display 1 is a discontinued instrument.
The Eye-One Display LT is a less expensive package with more limited software from the manufacture.
The Eye-One Display 2 package has more software features, but the instruments are virtually identical, and will operate identically using Argyll.
The ColorMunki Create package is another alternative, and will operate identically using Argyll.

Huey colorimeter
Availability:
The Huey is widely available under the Pantone name as well as the manufacturer, X-Rite. There are two packages available, the lower cost Huey with more limited software from the manufacturer, and the higher cost Huey Pro with more software features, but the instruments are virtually identical, and will operate identically using Argyll.

MonacoOPTIX colorimeters
Instrument Availability:
Availability:
The MonacoOPTIX from Monaco Soft is a discontinued instrument. It may still be available as old stock, or second hand. It was sold packaged with software from the manufacturer. The Sequel Chroma 4 appears to be a similar instrument, and both seem to operate as if they were an Eye-One Display 1 using Argyll.

Spyder 3 colorimeter
Availability:
The Spyder3Elite, Spyder3Pro and Spyder3Express are a currently available instruments. The manufacturer DataColor, appears to be hostile to the use of these instruments under Linux, so it is probably best to look at one of the other colorimeters, unless you already happen to have a Spyder 3 that you want to use. The Spyder3Elite and Spyder3Pro appear to be identical hardware with different software from the manufacturer. The Spyder3Express lacks the ambient sensor.
[Note that this instrument doesn't seem particularly suited to measuring CRT displays. The Spyder 2 or one of the other instruments may be a better choice in this case.]
Operation:
The ambient light sensor can be used with the Spyder3Elite and Spyder3Pro instruments, but returns a monochrome reading.

Spyder 2 colorimeter
Availability:
The Spyder 2 has been superseded by the new Spyder 3, but may still stocked by many dealers, and may be available second hand. The manufacturer DataColor, appears to be hostile to the use of these instruments under Linux, so it is probably best to look at one of the other colorimeters, unless you already happen to have a Spyder 1 or 2 that you want to use.
Operation:
Important Note about the ColorVision Spyder 2 instrument support:
This instrument cannot function without the driver software having access to the vendor supplied PLD firmware pattern for it.
This firmware is not provided with Argyll, since it is not available under a compatible license.
The purchaser of a Spyder 2 instrument should have received a copy of this firmware along with their instrument, and should therefore be able to enable the Argyll driver for this instrument by using the spyd2en utility.
USB hub problems:
Note that the Spyder doesn't appear to operate at all well if attached to a USB hub. If Argyll has difficulty in reliably talking to the Spyder, try connecting it directly to the computer, rather than via a usb hub. (This seems to be a bug in the Spyder USB implementation.)

Colorimètre HCFR colorimeter
Availability:
The Colorimètre HCFR Probe is a kit instrument from HCFR.
Operation:
The accuracy of this instrument does not seem to be comparable to the commercial instruments when used for measuring displays, particularly in the area of measuring dark colors, and I've seen the best results when used with a CRT display. It may well give good results in calibrating projectors, since this was what it was designed to do