ColorVision Profiler Plus is a PhotoShop plugin that uses a flatbed scanner to read colour patches printed from your printer / ink combination. There are a number of strengths to this system, but there are weaknesses too, and this page is about those Pros and Cons.

The Pros

The benefits of Profiler Plus are that it can read and process a large number of colour patches at one time, and create a profile from that scan in just a few seconds. It is a cheap application (yes, as the creation of printer profiles goes, this is a very cheap application - in many cases for higher end solutions the software by itself may cost thousands of pounds) and in fact it’s just a little bit more expensive than a typical ‘bespoke profile’. By maintaining control of the profiling process, you can get as many profiles made as you need, with just a little investment in time and effort.

When we create a successful profile with Profiler Plus (and considering we will be using an unprofiled scanner) we are left asking the question ‘How was it possible?’. We do not know the answer for sure, but we suspect that the software overcomes the lack of a profile for the scanner by knowing about the strengths and weaknesses of the average scanner sensor.

The Cons

Whilst the benefits of the system can easily justify the cost of the software, the benefits of this application must be balanced against the possible flaws. For a start, many people question the validity of using an unprofiled scanner in the first place: ‘How can we get a good profile from an unprofiled scanner?’ is a very legitimate question. The answer is that a good profile is possible with this software, from an unprofiled scanner... but it is probably not a foregone conclusion. Simply put, when Profiler Plus creates a profile that works, we are left wondering ‘How is that possible?’ and when it doesn’t work, we assume ‘It never could work!’.

So what accounts for the difference in success rates with this system? Well, we suspect that scanner performance does account for some failures. We have made some suggestions as to how scans of Profiler targets should best be made here. However, there are some other fundamental issues related to scanner hardware that could effect the efficiency and usefulness of the system. One reason is simple reliability; the light source for a scanner can vary in light output dramatically based on age and temperature. Another is that the light sources are typically (we understand) rather rich in Ultra-violet output that will encourage papers with optical brighteners in to fluoresce. Additionally, scanner light sources often are not colour balanced to daylight. This means that inks that are particularly prone to metamerism (meaning mostly pigmented inks) can result in scans that look nothing like the printed sheet; and of course, this is not a good basis for a profile to be created on.

Paper fluorescence and ink metamerism are things that are very difficult to overcome, and even amongst professionals with professional level tools, there are different levels of expectation and discussions about the best ways to overcome each issue.

The Summary

In summary, we feel that Profiler Plus certainly has its place amongst the hierarchy of profiling tools (see our pages on Printer Profiling) but it certainly can not be considered to be the be-all-and-end-all of printer profiling. This is ‘logical’ too, else why would there be tools costing £,000’s? This is a tool at a realistic price that will be suitable for some users to build their own printer profiles, and to gain familiarity with Colour Management. It will not provide results that everyone will enjoy, nor will it work effectively with every ink and paper combination.

However, we feel that the best summary we can place on this software is that it is not recommended for profiling pigmented inks or materials that exhibit substantial metamerism.

Please note that MWORDS has closed. We aim to retain these support pages in the hope that they may benefit our past customers, but regret that we can no longer offer further comment or support in relation to the information above.