target/printtarg
Summary
Create a PostScript (PS), Embedded PostScript (EPS) or Tagged Image
File Format (TIFF) file containing profile test patch values, ready for
printing.
Usage Summary
printtarg [options]
basename
-v
Verbose mode
-i 20 | 22 | 41 | 51 | SS |
i1 | CM Select target
instrument
(default DTP41)
20 = DTP20, 22 = DTP22, 41 = DTP41, 51 = DTP51, SS = SpectroScan,
i1 =
i1Pro, CM = ColorMunki
-a scale
Scale patch and spacer size by factor (e.g. 0.857 or 1.5 etc.)
-A scale
Scale spacer size by additional factor (e.g. 0.857 or 1.5 etc.)
-h
Use hexagon patches for SS, double density for CM
-r
Don't randomize patch location
-s
Create a scan image recognition (.cht) file
-S
Same as -s, but don't generate wide orientation strip.
-c
Force colored spacers
-b
Force B&W spacers
-n
Force no spacers
-f
Create PostScript DeviceN Color fallback
-w g|r|s|n
White colorspace encoding DeviceGray (def), DeviceRGB, Separation or
DeviceN
-k g|c|s|n Black
colorspace encoding DeviceGray (def), DeviceCMYK, Separation or DeviceN
-e
Output EPS compatible file
-t [res]
Output 8 bit TIFF raster file, optional res DPI (default 200)
-T [res]
Output 16 bit TIFF raster file, optional res DPI (default 200)
-C
Don't use TIFF compression
-N
Use TIFF alpha N channels more than 4
-Q nbits
Quantize test values to fit in nbits
-K
file.cal Apply printer calibration to patch
values and include in .ti2
-I file.cal Include
calibration in .ti2 (but don't apply it)
-R rsnum
Use given random start number
-x pattern Use
given
strip indexing pattern (Default = "A-Z, A-Z")
-y pattern Use
given
patch indexing pattern (Default = "0-9,@-9,@-9;1-999")
-m margin
Set a page margin in
mm (default 6.0 mm)
-P
Don't limit strip length
-L
Suppress any left paper clip border
-p size
Select page size from:
A4 [210.0 x 297.0 mm]
A4R [297.0 x 210.0 mm]
A3 [297.0 x 420.0 mm] (default)
A2 [420.0 x 594.0 mm]
Letter [215.9 x 279.4 mm]
LetterR [279.4 x
215.9 mm]
Legal [215.9 x 355.6 mm]
11x17 [279.4 x 431.8 mm]
-p WWWxHHH Custom
size, WWW mm wide by
HHH mm high
basename
Base name for input(.ti1), output(.ti2) and output(.ps/.eps/.tif)
Usage Details and Discussion
printtarg is used to generate a PostScript or TIFF print file
from
device test values in a .ti1 file. It output both a PostScript/EPS/TIFF
file, and a .ti2 file containing the device test values together with
the layout information needed to identify the patch location. This
module can also generate the image recognition templates needed to read
the print targets in using a scanner.
The -v flag turns on verbose mode. Prints
information about how many patches there are in a row, how many patches
in a set, and how many pages will be generated. Good for figuring
out what the magic number of patches should be for a particular page
size.
The -i parameter should be used to tell
printtarg which instrument it should lay the patches out for. Each
instrument has a
slightly different requirement, and will lead to a different number of
patches
ending up on a particular page size. For a generic type of chart, try SS.
-a,
-A: Normally, printtarg prints test patches that
are the minimum size that can be reliably and accurately read by the
instrument. For some media, it might be desirable to use test
patches that are larger than this minimum (e.g. if the media has poor
registration, gets physically distorted in the print production
process, or if it has a coarse screen, and there are few samples per
patch), and the -a flag should
be given an argument greater than 1.0 to increase the patch length,
patch width, and spacer size between patches, if it is appropriate for
the type of instrument. A
value of 1.5 would make the patch 50% larger for instance. For the
strip reading instruments the patch is made longer, the strip spacing
remaining the same, while for XY scanning instruments, both the width
and height will be increased. If a value less than 1.0 is given as an
argument, then the patches will be made smaller. For instance, using
the SpectroScan instrument it is possible to reduce the test patches to
6mm rather than the default 7mm by supplying an argument of 0.857.
Note
that this make lining up of the scan head very critical, and increases
the amount of bleed through from adjacent squares. For an instrument
that needs color spacers between patches, -a scale also scales the spacer
length. For some situations, this may be insufficient, and the -A scale option
can be used to additionally scale the spacer length.
Normally, printtarg creates a regular grid of
test patches, but for instruments that support arbitrary X, Y
addressing (such as the SpectroScan). For the SpectroScan it can also create a
chart using
regular hexagonal patches, allowing more patches to be fitted into a
single sheet if the -h flag
is used. For the ColorMunki
instrument, -h doubles the
normal number of patches is printed by halving the row width. The
patches are also staggered to improve the detection of a poor scan.
Normally, printtarg randomizes the patch
locations, which helps strip reading instruments detect patch
boundaries and the direction the strip was read in, as well as being
able to detect incorrect strips being
fed into strip reading instruments, and also assists in randomizing any
systematic printing errors introduced into the test chart due to print
engine unevenness, inkjet banding, or printing press ink key settings
etc. The -r flag turns this off, and lays the test squares out
in the order the values appear in, in the .ti1 file. Note that if you
turn this off you probably want to disable
bi-directional strip reading in instruments such as the i1pro.
The -s flag does two things. One is that it
causes printtarg to output a chart recognition file (.cht) so that
scanin can recognize the chart, and convert rasterized patches into
patch values, and the second is that is expands the size of the leading
row
of patches by 50%, to help make sure that each sheet can be oriented
correctly by scanin. If -S
is used
rather than -s, then the recognition chart will be created, but
the
leading row will be the same size as all the other rows.
For strip reading instruments, the contrast with the
spacers is important in ensuring that a reading will be successful.
Normally printtarg ensures
this by printing optimally contrasting colored spacers between each
measurement patch. The -c flag is therefore the default
behaviour. If the -b flag is used, then
contrasting neutral colored
spacers will be used, but these generally work less reliably than
colored
spacers. The -n flag will cause spacers to be
omitted,
which may still work with smaller numbers of test values when the
patch
selection is randomized, but won't work successfully when a large
number
of test points is being used (>200), or when the patches are not
randomized
in location.
-f:
When creating a test chart for more than CMYK inks, a PostScript file
normally contains color settings that use the PostScript level 3
"Device
N" color specifications. Such color specifications have a "fallback"
color,
for PostScript interpreters that don't handle Device N specifications.
Such
fallback colors are normally set to a grayscale estimate of the patch
color,
so that it is possible to tell if the PostScript interpreter is not
rendering
the Device N values correctly. The -f flag,
causes
the fallback color to be a color estimate of the Device N test patch
color,
which is useful for diagnostic purposes.
The -e flag gives EPS output, rather than
PostScript, allowing the charts to be included in other applications.
Because EPS disallows the showpage command, multiple EPS files will
result for a multi-page test chart, each one having a two digit number
sequence in it's name, so if the input file name is chart, then file chart.ti1 will be read, and file chart.ti2 written, together with chart.eps if there is only one page,
or chart_01.eps, chart_02.eps, etc. if there is more
than one page.
-t
[res], -T [res] The -t flag gives TIFF raster output
rather than
PostScript, allowing the charts to be printed to systems that do not
accept PostScript input. Because few systems understand multi-page TIFF
files, multiple TIFF files will
result for a multi-page test chart, each one having a two digit number
sequence in it's name, so if the input file name is chart, then file chart.ti1 will be read, and file chart.ti2 written, together with chart.eps if there is only one page,
or chart_01.tif, chart_02.tif, etc. if there is more
than one page. By default the resolution of the chart will be 100 Dots
Per Inch (DPI), but this can be changed by providing an optional DPI
argument after the -t or -T flag. If the -t flag is used, than an 8 bit per
component TIFF file will be created. If the -T flag is used, then a 16 bit per
component TIFF file will be created.
-C: Normally
the TIFF files created will be compressed using LZW compression to save
space. Some systems may not support this compression, so it can be
disabled by using the -C flag.
-N: When
creating TIFF files with more than 4 colorants, the normal Separated
mode is used. Some systems don't cope well with extra colorants
presented in this manner, and the -N
flag causes all the channels greater than 4 to be labelled as "Alpha"
channels, which may be more palatable.
-Q: Normally
the target device values are floating point numbers that may get
rounded and quantized in the process of printing them or reproducing
them on the printing or display device. If some of this quantization
can be accounted for, it may improve the accuracy of the resulting
profile, and the Q parameter
allows this quantization to be specified. The parameter is the number
of binary digits (bits) that the device values should be quantized to.
In many systems the right value would be 8 bits. Note that if 8 bit TIFF output is selected (-t) that the values will by default
be quanized to 8 bits, and that if 16 bit TIFF output is selected (-T) that the values will by default
be quanized to 16 bits.
The -K file.cal parameter specifies a printer
calibration file created by printcal, and
the supplied calibration curves will be applied to the test patch
values. This allows profiling of a printing system that doesn't
natively support calibration. The calibration curves will also be
included in
the resulting .ti2 file, so that they can be passed through to .ti3
file and ICC profile, to allow accurate computation of ink limits.
The -I file.cal parameter specifies a printer
calibration file created by printcal,
and the calibration curves will be
included in the included in
the resulting .ti2 file, so that they can be passed through to .ti3
file
and ICC profile, to allow accurate computation of ink limits.
The calibration is not applied
to the test patch values, but is assumed to be applied somewhere else
in the printing workflow when printing the profile test chart.
The -R parameter allows setting the random
layout seed. Normally the seed is chosen at random, but sometimes it is
useful to be able to generate a chart with the same layout, so a
specific seed can be specified this way. The seed (ID) used to generate
a
chart is recorded in the
.ti2 file, and is also in the label printed on the right hand side of
each chart.
The -x parameter allows specifying the
labelling sequence used for strips (e.g. the X axis of the chart). By
default this will be a character sequence A, B, C .. Z. AA, AB, AC ..
ZZ, but this can be changed by specifying an alternate labelling
sequence pattern. The pattern specifies the labelling sequence as
follows: First comes the definition of the symbols for each digit
location, least significant to most significant. Note that space is a
valid character. The number of
definitions declares the maximum number of digits. For example, for a 2
digit numerical sequence: "0123456789, 123456789" would define
0..99 with the most significant digit suppressed when it is 0 (because
it uses a
space rather than 0). Ranges
can be used for brevity: "0-9, 1-9". As a special case, the '@'
character can be used to instead of '0' to indicate suppression of the
leading zero: "0-9,@-9". Leading ' ' characters in the resulting
generated sequence are
omitted. Optionally following this, and delimited by a ';'
character, are the definitions of valid segments of the index sequence.
For instance, to define the index range to be 1..19, 30..39 one could
use the pattern "0-9, 1-9;1-19,30-39". Of course most of the time an
alphabetic sequence will be wanted, to distinguish it from the
numerical sequence used to number the patches in a strip. For a
sequence A, B, C .. AA, AB, AC etc. (the default used in Argyll), the
following patter would be used: "A-Z, A-Z". For a some ECI2002R charts
that skip columns Y and Z, and use a leading numeric digits for
addressing strips over 26, the following might be used: "A-Z,
2-9;A-X,2A-9Z".
The -y parameter allows specifying the
labelling sequence used for patches (e.g. the Y axis of the chart). By
default this will be a number sequence 1, 2, ..10, 11, ... 999, but
this can be changed by specifying an alternate labelling
sequence pattern. See the above description for the labelling sequence
encoding.
NOTE that the pattern chosen
for the X and Y axes of the chart must be distinguishable, e.g. if they
are both numbers or both letters then reading the chart will fail.
The -w parameter changes how a white
colorspace test chart (ie. Additive Grey monochrome) will be
represented in the Postscript output.
The default is to use the DeviceGray representation (-wg), but Device RGB can also be
used, where the R, G &B values are all set to the same value (-wr), a White separation color can be
specified (-ws), or a DeviceN White color can be used (-wn).
The -k parameter changes how a black
colorspace test chart (ie. Subtractive
Grey monochrome ) will be represented in the Postscript output. The
default is to use the
DeviceGray representation (-kg),
but Device CMYK can also be used, where the CMY values are zero, and
just the K channel is used (-kc),
a Black separation color can
be specified (-ks), or a
DeviceN Black color can be
used (-kn).
The -m parameter sets the page margin for all
sides. If parts of the test chart are not printed at the edge of a
sheet, the devices printable area may be smaller than the default
assumed by printtarg.
Increasing this from the default of 6 mm to 10 or 15 mm, may alleviate
this problem. (Note that
the number of patches per page may be reduced as a consequence.)
Decreasing the margin below 6 mm may be possible for printers that have
smaller or no margins, increasing the number of patches possible on
each page. A TIFF chart will be the size of the paper minus the margin,
so that it
can be placed on a page that size without cropping or inadvertent
scaling.
The -P flag disables any normal limiting of
strip length that would normally be imposed due to guide or instrument
limitations. There is still an upper limit of around 500 patches or
2Meters though. Note that if you generate a strip larger than the
instrument can cope with, it may be unable to read the strip.
The -L flag suppresses the left margin that is
added for instruments that have a paper holder that has a clip to hold
the chart in place, while it is being read. (Currently this is only the
Eye-One Pro).
The -p parameter specifies the paper size. The
size can either be one of the default sizes, or can
be specified in millimeters. limitations of the instrument may limit
the maximum number of patches in a strip. For SpectroScan, a size of
A4 or Letter (or smaller) should be used. Useful combinations of
number of patches and paper size are listed here.
The printed parts of the chart will be the size of paper minus the page
margin. A TIFF chart will be the size of the paper minus the margin, so
that it can be placed on a page that size without cropping or
inadvertent scaling.
basename is the base file name of the .ti1 file that contains the device
values to be put on the test chart. printtarg will output a basename.ps
or one or more basename_NN.eps or basename_NN.tif files
files that should be
printed on the devices, as well as a basename.ti2 file that
contains both the device test point values, and the location of the
corresponding patch on the test chart. If the -s or -S
flag was specified, then one or more basename_NN.cht
files
will also be generated.
GSview or GhostView are
good programs to use to check what the PostScript or EPS file will look
like,
without actually printing it out. Alternatively, use the TIFF raster
output for non-PostScript printers.