• Support for Canon ipf500/600/700 printers
• Calcheck patches can now be created in CMYK as well as Lab
• Linearisations can be reverted to a previous item from the history list
• Touch console is now resolution independent
• Adobe Illustrator CS3 separated postscript is now supported
• Faster Scitex Brisque polling
• Improved Vista 64 support

The release notes contain more information on what has been changed. For more information visit the Serendipity Blackmagic product page

1. First use the ColorNavigator software from EIZO to calibrate the monitor hardware. I use the following settings for both Windows and Mac OS X: Gamut: Native, White Point: D50, Gamma: 1.8, Black: minimum and Brightness: 100 cd/m2

2. After the EIZO application has finished and saved the calibration, I use our Monitorcalibrator application to create an ICC profile that I use as the monitor profile in our software only.

Using this procedure I have been able to get both the 24 and 30 inch monitors to pass all printing standards I have tried including ISO 12647-2, Fogra 39 and Web2proof.

Please post your questions as comments for the benefit of others.

Here is a screen shot showing my settings in ColorNavigator.

To compensate for that, the ability to round numeric values has been added to the importing of signatures. The precision in this rounding varies depending on how you import your signatures.
Note: Blackmagic stores all dimensions and positions in inches. So rounding precision is in reference to values in inches.

Importing with Selective Import Off

When Selective Import is off, dimensions and positions in the signatures are rounded to 4 decimal places before and after an attempt to group pages into grids.

Importing with Selective Import On

When Selective Import is on, the Signature Import Filter dialog is presented to let you decide which signatures you would like to import, with the option to perform a number of operations on them when importing. The Inclusive check box you see here deals with the rounding precision when importing.

• 
  When Inclusive is on, values are rounded to 3 decimal places before and after grouping.

• 
  When Inclusive is off, no rounding is performed at all.

Rounding can work for or against us, and Inclusive is certainly no guarantee that the pages will group and pair. Excessive rounding can actually result in pages not grouping or grouped pages not pairing when, for example, the inherent inaccuracy of the file is magnified, rather than reduced, by the rounding.

If pages are not grouping or pairing when importing, try the different options outlined above. If nothing seems to help, here’s a check list to go through. First, I would set the display unit of the Serendipity Client to points to increase the precision displayed. Also bear in mind that the Signature Editor only displays values to 4 decimal places.

Page Grouping Check List

• For pages to be grouped in a row, they have to have the same y position.
• For pages to be grouped in a column, they have to have the same x position.
• For pages to be grouped at all, they have to have the same dimensions.

Page Pairing Check List

• For pages in a grid to be paired vertically, there must be an even number of rows.
• For pages in a grid to be paired horizontally, there must be an even number of columns.
• For pages in a grid to be paired, head directions of adjacent pages (pages to be paired) have to be the same.
• For pages in a grid to be paired, every second row gap (pair vertically) or column gap (pair horizontally) must have the same dimension. In strict pairing (by using the Pair Pages button instead of the Pair Vertically or Pair Horizontally button) there must be no gap between pages you want to pair.

We will be looking into more intelligent methods for inaccuracy compensation for future versions of the Serendipity Client, but for now at least you know what goes on behind the scene.

Below are screenshots of the 3 monitors in the Calcheck app after having checked the monitor against the ISO 12647-7 patch set. Image below is the Calcheck results for the Apple 30 inch display. Image below is the Calcheck results for the EIZO ColorEdge CG241W Image below is the Calcheck results for the Sony SDM X73 17 inch LCD. As I mentioned earlier, ISO 12647-7 is quite touch to reproduce so for the sake of completeness I decided to generate some patches for the ISO newsprint standard and test the Apple and EIZO displays. Newsprint has a much smaller gamut so it should be easier to pass a Calcheck. Results for ISO newsprint

Below are screenshots of the 2 monitors in the Calcheck app after having checked the monitor against the ISO newsprint patch set. Image below is the Calcheck results for the Apple 30 inch display. Image below is the Calcheck results for the EIZO ColorEdge CG241W These tests are in no way conclusive as we only tested one of each monitor which is not a statistically significant sample. Once the feature is released we will be able to collect more data and provide more accurate results. The Calcheck feature will be included in version 3.5 of Serendipity Blackmagic and version 4.5 of Serendipity Megarip. Expect them to be available sometime towards the end of October 2007. Note: clicking on any of the images in this post will provide you with a higher resolution version of that image.

Accessing the web server is simply a matter of entering the servers IP address or name (where Blackmagic or Megarip is installed) followed by a colon and then the port number of 8080

e.g.

Alternatively with a DNS server

Once connected you have access to server information.

Click on queues to see the Queues configured.

You can click on Show all queues to list every queue of select an individual one. For example the imaging queue may display jobs currently processing.

Select log file to get the latest server log information. This can then be printed or saved which can help support if you have problems. Select a different period to fetch back.

You can also access the support site which has a lot of useful information including pre-configured databases, manuals and release note and other helpful information.

Note: An internet connection is required to view the support section.

Technorati Tags: Serendipity Blackmagic, Serendipity Megarip, server, Web Server

Overprint

This is the default setting and most commonly used. The effect of overprint is a mix of colours that fall on top of one another. The job below shows four spot plates that all have the default attribute of Overprint set. You can see as one colour passes over another the apparent colour changes as the mix of the two or more plates. The order of the plates from bottom to top is Red, Orange, Blue, Base-colour (Green).


Knockout

This has the effect of knocking out objects below but has no effect on the objects above it. i.e. jobs below do not influence the colour of the knockout colour. This is true when the object is 50% or greater in tint. When the object is less than 50% then there is influence as the attribute does not entirely knockout. The job below shows the effects of changing the blue plate to have a knockout attribute.

Here the Blue plate has been changed in the SoftProof to be a knockout. The blue bars from left to right are 25%, 49%, 50% , 75%, 100%. As the object drops below 50% you can see that influence of objects below are allowed and the behavior is the same as Overprint. This is because the object is not solid but has a screen. This 50% value is an inbuilt threshold which is designed to simulate the actual printed job.

The order of the plates is important. The Red and Orange plates are below the blue plate and so they are affected by the knockout but have no bearing on the blue where the tint values are above 50%. But the Base colour is last (on top) and so this still has a bearing on the viewed colour.

Primer

This attribute paints the colour everywhere that other colours are not. Therefore it has no bearing on the other colours. The image below shows what happens when we change the Base colour (which is currently positioned on top of the other three plates) to be a Primer instead of Overprint. It no longer has any bearing on the other colours.

Opaque

An object that is 100% opaque prevents light from passing through. As the percentage of opacity drops then more light is allowed to pass. This is represented in printing by allowing some of the objects below to show through when the value is less than 100% but acts as a knockout when opacity value reaches 100%. Below are two images where the Orange plates properties have been changed to Opaque. The one on the left is when the Opaque value is set to 100% so it acts as a knockout. It knocks out the Red as this is below the Orange (except the bottom orange bar as this is a 25% object - see Knockout above) but does not have any affect on the Blue. The image on the right is the result of setting the Opaque value to 50% and you can see some of the Red is coming through. Compare this with the image above where Orange is still an Overprint. When the Opaque value is set to 0% then the behaviour is that of overprint.


Transparent

When an object is transparent it allows light to pass through. The amount of light can be controlled in the same way you can control opacity. The more transparent the more the plates underneath have an influence in the viewed colour. At 100% transparent the colour has no relevance on any colour in the same path so you will only see that colour where no other colour object is present. As you reduce the transparency then more of the colour comes through until it reaches 0% where the plate acts the same as overprint. Below are two images where the Blue plate (which is on top of Orange and Red) has been given a transparent property. On the left the value is 100% transparent so you only see the blue where Red and Orange are not and those colours are not altered by blue. On the right the transparency value is set to 50% so you start to see some of the Blue influence where is lets the other object show through.

Plate Order

The order of the plates at the time the job is submitted is very important as this determines which plates is on top of which. Process plates are always laid first followed by the spot colours in the order they are viewed. This depends on how the job is submitted.

For jobs where the plates are contained within the one file such as a PDF then the order that PDF was created is the order that plates will be printed. There is no control within the Client for this.

Other jobs that are separated such as Separated Tiff files show all the plates that are associated with the job. Double click the job in the RIPMonitor and the plates are displayed. If the job is directly submitted from here then this is the order of the plates. This order can be changed in the VirtualPress by dragging plates to new positions in the list. To show how this affects the outcome the image below shows what happens when the Red plate (which was on the bottom) is moved to the top, Imaged and then changed in the SoftProof to be a Knockout.

Technorati Tags: proofing, Special Colours, Serendipity Blackmagic, softproof, virtual press

It turns out that there appears to be a limit in the number of Published Appletalk Printers that the OS can handle which is 63 devices. (Pagesetups in our case). The customer was duplicating an existing setup which was already published (number 63) and when they saved after a short time as the device publishes the Mac crashes.

Not a lot we can do about this one but recommend when running your server on a Mac you have no more than 63 Pagesetups published at any one time. Please note that this is Pagesetups that are Published Appletalk devices. There is no limit to the number of Pagesetups that can be created (well there is, but it’s so mind bogglingly big you’ll never get there). It has been reported to Apple. Drop folders are not affected by this.

Technorati Tags: Appletalk, Kernel crash, Mac OS X, Serendipity Blackmagic, Serendipity Megarip

• Softproof has an Ink key viewer which allows rapid press setup without having to export a CIP3 / CIP4 file.
• Softproof can now automatically show reader spreads from single pages.
• Softproof now allows users to attach notes to specific sections of the proof for others to see.
• Softproof has user configurable press presets to allow rapid switching between colour setups to simulate different presses and stocks.
• Support for multicolour press icc profiles which allows accurate proofing of processes such as hexachrome or heptachrome printing.
• Support for Canon iPF5000, iPF8000, iPF9000 printers including RGB ink support.
• Support for Epson 3800 printers.
• Support for HP Z2100, Z3100 printers including RGB ink support.
• User configurable light ink separator for smoother vignettes and photos.
• Support for FUJIFILM Workflow XMF.
• Improved PDF processing speed.

The release notes contain more information on what has been changed, while the manual shows how all the new features operate. For more information visit the Serendipity Blackmagic product page

Below is a screen grab showing the new ink key viewer and reader spreads in action.

Technorati Tags: serendipity blackmagic, serendipity software

• Unsharp masking rendering effect for sharper photo enlargements.
• Support for Canon iPF5000, iPF8000, iPF9000 printers including RGB ink support
• Support for Epson 3800 printers
• Support for HP Z2100, Z3100 printers including RGB ink support
• User configurable light ink separator for smoother vignettes and photos
• “Windows installed printer” driver is now included for free with the Windows version.
• Improved clustering support

The release notes contain more information about what has been changed, while the manual shows how all the new features work. For more information visit the Serendipity Megarip product page

Technorati Tags: serendipity megarip, serendipity software

The answer is pretty simple. As the job is about to start imaging, the server inspects the pagesetup pool configuration and the current job queue. It then assigns an appropriate pagesetup to the job. By making this decision as late as possible we ensure that the load balancing is more responsive to changing conditions such as a printer that has gone offline or ran out of paper.

Technorati Tags: load balancing, serendipity blackmagic, serendipity megarip