Maxwell Color Set Details
From ColorWiki
Maxwell Table of Contents
Getting Started - Where to Find Help
- Sign up for an Account
- Create a new Device and a Track
- Adding a Custom Reference
- Upload Measurements into your Track
- Maxwell Client - Automatic measurement uploads
- Viewing your Measurements
- Viewing a Trend Report
- Multi-Dimensional Reporting
- Using Notifiers in Maxwell
- Some helpful suggestions for using Maxwell
- About Maxwell
- Glossary
- Contact Us
Maxwell Web Interface Manual
These pages describe specific panes in the Maxwell web interface.
Once measurements are uploaded into Maxwell, there is a great wealth of information that can be obtained. There are several different options for viewing colors.
To access the Color Set Details click on a track, choose Measurements, choose an individual measurement, and see the list under "Related Items." This page explains in detail what you can do with a measurement or other color set.
Contents |
To delete a measurement
- Place the pane in Edit Mode
- Click on the trash can in the lower left corner of the pane,
- Confirm that you wish to delete this measurement.
Other elements in Maxwell (Devices, Tracks, Reference Sets, etc.) can be deleted in the same manner.
Colors
- All the colors in the color list are presented in the order that they are represented on the color list file.
- Any of the colors can be clicked on to present a histogram of the color, XYZ values, etc.
- The 100% white patch provides much useful information in a histogram. For example you can identify the presence of optical brighteners in the paper when the blue spectrum shows above 100% (see illustration on right.)
- If using a UV-cut instrument (or if there is no UV in the paper), the blue spectrum will curve smoothly down instead of bumping up.
Channel Report
The Channel Report uses SmartTargetTM technology to:
- Find single-ink patches
- Automatically calculate dot gains (using the calculation engine in CHROMiX's ColorThink Pro software.)
Note: Channel Report requires CMYK data. (It will not work with RGB data.)
Solid Colors
The Solid Colors report uses SmartTargetTM technology to pull key patches from the target, including:
- "Paper" white
- 100% Cyan, 100%, Magenta, 100% Yellow, 100% black
- 300% ink patches, 400% ink patches
This feature provides a quick and easy way to view these important colors without having to remember where they are on the target.
For example, you can check to see if your paper has any optical brighteners by quickly choosing the paper white patch and viewing the histogram.
For more information on optical brighteners, click here.
Note: These patches must exist in the color set in order for Maxwell to find them!
Target View
Target View will display the target colors in the correct dimensions if Maxwell can recognize the target contents.
More options:
- Mouse over any color on the target and view the address of the color
- View a color-accurate enlarged sample swatch of the color
- See the total number of patches in the target
Clicking again on any color in the target will
- Open up the color detail
- Show a histogram of the color
- Show XYZ information
Digital PressWatch and HeatMap
The Target View is instrumental in the Digital PressWatch service of Maxwell. Here a target printed over the entire width of the press can help to visually identify variations in color consistency.
The example at right demonstrates what a Digital PressWatch target would look like identifying a worn blanket on an Indigo digital printer.
Here is the scale of colors from good to poor:
ab Plot
The a/b Plot is a representation of the colorset as it would be seen in Lab colorspace. This is a 2-dimensional view of your colors showing hue and saturation (but not lightness.)
- All the colors shown in Maxwell are taken from the actual color data itself, converted to sRGB in order to be viewed correctly on internet browsers.
Results Summary
The Results Summary pane is a very powerful tool which can be used to diagnose problems and identify what colors are falling outside of the metric tolerance.
Metric Summary
The Metric Summary duplicates the metric results as they would be seen by the label printed by the Maxwell Client.
dE Histogram
The delta E histogram will confirm which delta E calculation is being used here: dE2000 or dE76.
The histogram identifies which delta E result occurs most often in the data. Bell curve graphs are popular for identifying trends in data.
Patch to Patch Comparison
The Patch to Patch Comparison provides a direct comparison between the reference patches and the corresponding sample patches. This includes:
- Lab values for each sample patch
- Actual representative colors for each patch. (All the colors shown in Maxwell are taken from the actual color data itself, converted to sRGB in order to be viewed correctly on internet browsers.)
- The name for each color (as defined by the reference set that was used.)
- A delta E column showing the precise difference between each reference and sample patch.
- Delta L, delta a, delta b columns to aid in quickly identifying in which direction the color difference is located. These columns are also color-coded to represent the quadrant of color in which the value is found. (For example: +a to -a or +b to -b)
Sorting
Note that each of these columns are able to be sorted. Here are some examples of how to use this powerful feature:
- For example, if you click on the "dE" column header, all of the colors in the list are sorted according to smallest to the largest dE values. Clicking the dE heading again will sort them all from highest to lowest. This is very useful for quickly determining the worst colors and identifying common characteristics.
- Click on the "DeviceValues" header to order the list according to device values. You can quickly identify if your color list contains duplicate patches.
- Click on the one of the Lab headers to sort all patches according to luminosity.
- By default the Patch to Patch comparison matrix is sorted according to patch order in the reference file. To return to this sorting, click on the # heading over the left-most column.
Actions
Download
Some advanced users can download measurement files.
This link provides a dialog window for saving this measurement on the user's computer.
Information on downloading multiple files can be found here: For more information on this, see the page on Multiple File downloads.
Verify in Curve
This link will automatically launch the latest version of Curve on the user's computer, and insert this measurement into the "Verify" module of Curve for instant feedback on how the measurement compares with various industry standards set up in Curve.
- Note that Curve must have the user's Maxwell credentials signed in, in order for the file to be loaded by Curve.
Add to Curve
This link will open the Curve software in the Calibrate module.
Download by MXC
This link will download the measurement file onto the host computer by use of the Maxwell Client software (if installed). This allows for placing the file in a user-defined location automatically.
Measurement Conditions
Maxwell attempts to save a record of every variable that could influence the measurement process. Depending on the instrument used, some of these measurement conditions will be used, and others will be undefined. When it comes to knowing what conditions contributed to your measurement, this information can be vital in maintaining accurate measurements, or diagnosing problems.
Optics
- The four M modes (M0, M1, M2, M3)
- Aperture sizes range from 2mm (Barbieri LFP) to 8 mm (i1Pro3+)
Measuring
- Two scan modes possible are: Reflective, and Transmissive.
- Backing choices are white backing, black backing, and media-colored backing
Calibration
- Some of the possible calibration standards include: X-Rite, GretagMacbeth, NIST, Barbieri.
Measurement Source
- Data collected here include: Software that created the measurement, operating system on the computer that created the measurement, whether the measurement used an automated routing system.
Environmental Conditions
If information is available for environmental data, Maxwell will record this information in the Color Set Details.
Here are some of the ways that environmental data can be made accessible:
- The Maxwell Client automatically recognizes data from Vernier Sensors If these sensors are plugged into a USB port, Maxwell will send the current temperature, barometric pressure and / or relative humidity information along with any measurements it takes.
- The Barbieri Spectropad spectrophotometer has environmental sensors built into it. This environmental data accompanies any measurements that are made with the Spectropad using the Maxwell Client.
- The Barbieri LFPqb is a new device that also includes environmental data with its measurements.