Design and Prepress tools for beginners
to professionals Free shipping worldwide
On this single page we have collected affordable solutions that enable any
designer, brand manager, printshop or manufacturer to be the best when
it comes to colour management and complete control over their colours,
be it for screen, print or textile production with primary emphasis on
brand colours and brand colour management.
Spot-Nordic offers solutions from many of the best manufacturers in the
graphics industry but on this page we focus on design, brand colours and icc colour
management and cutting edge products for design and prepress.
The tools that you find here are reasonably priced, v.s. how important
they are to ensure professional colour for even the most demanding
brands and the very best printshops and manufacturers in all sectors.
Colour Management has for the longest time been a dirty word for
designers and many printshops, which is why to this day many brand
colours are not properly defined, - meaning that the colours of the
brands appear different in the different media.
This is why, in 2018, we launched the Spot Matching System, which is a
colour palette of over 5.000 different colours, ranging from Cyan to
Magenta to Yellow and Black and anything in between (see picture on the
screen here below) which aims at complete colour consistency in all
media.
The Spot Matching System - or SMS for short enables designers
to use SMS colours in their design and to use the same SMS colour(s)
online, on Television and in standard CMYK printing (used for printing
of colour images and layouts) for both coated and uncoated paper or for
other materials, such as textile.
We have now taken a new step towards our goal of ensuring complete
colour consistency globally by releasing the first SMS READY Spot-Nordic
laptop, optimized for
SMS design with a customized SMS colour palette (ECO, Standard or MAX)
which was built using the colour gamut of the Spot-Nordic P60 ColourBox
laptop display.
We refer to this special version of our colour palettes as SMS
Home & Office.
In line with the SMS approach to colour, the SMS Home & Office colours you see on your laptop monitor have been
verified to in fact be the colours you should see when you print the
same SMS colours on coated or uncoated paper at your local printshop, -
or even on your own office printer (depending on the quality of the
office printer).
The colour gamut of the P60 ColourBox laptop is approx. 60% of the sRGB gamut
which is in fact quite common among PC laptops of various brands used by
millions of people around the world (including brand owners), so it is
safe to say that the Home & Office colour palettes are even more
practical
for brand design than the original (sRGB) SMS colour palettes,- if the
goal is to ensure that your SMS colours look the same to as many people
as possible, - also on their PC office laptops.
This approach can be referred to as a "turnkey" solution or a closed-loop, so
brand owners that choose to use the Home & Office colours for their
brand/trademark can simply buy the inexpensive Spot-Nordic P60 laptops
for themselves and their staff that need to evaluate their SMS Home &
Office colours on their own screen in the comfort of their home or
office. The Home & Office colour palettes (Standard and MAX - each
consisting of 1.738 colours) are delivered in PDF format, sRGB (same as
the original SMS colour palettes) so if the sRGB icc colour profile is
embedded to your Home & Office bitmap images, your SMS Home & Office colours should look
identical, whether you view them on a regular PC laptop (or the P60
laptop) or an expensive Mac display.
That is what this is all about. If you would like some of your
photographs also to be optimized for the P60 gamut, you can now order
them from Spot-Nordic.
Here below are the products that we consider to be everything you need
to be in perfect control of your colours, whether you are a brand owner,
a student of
graphic design, a professional designer or in charge of production at a
professional printshop or manufacturing facility in any industry sector.
Be advised that due to the latest development in the USA, there may be
tarifs added on top of the prices here below on import to your country -
especially if you happen to be located in the USA.
Value Added Tax (VAT) is added on top of the combined price with tarif
on import of products to your country.
Some of the products here below are shipped from Europe and others are
shipped directly from our manufacturers in China to keep down the
freight prices = the final price to you.
A 1 year Manfacturer Warranty is offered for all products here below.
Feel free to contact
info@spot-nordic.com to discuss your requirements, regardless of
your location.
Spot Matching System
The Spot Matching System (SMS) is created for so-called
Brand Design, - i.e. for brands to use SMS colours in their
official brand logos and as their official brand colours.
The system is a device-independent, LAB based, professional colour palette,
containing a total of 5.214 colours for 21st
Century demands in design, where visual predictability and consistency
in colour from product to marketing in any mainstream media is a key factor.
Device-independent means that SMS colours don't depend on just one
device - or media for that matter. Using modern icc colour management,
they can be reproduced in RGB on
digital displays and in process printing on coated or uncoated
substrates, be it
standard CMYK for offset, gravure or flexo printing presses, for digital
printing on paper or textile. SMS colours can additionally be reproduced
using analog paints and dyes.
The main advantage of the Spot Matching System is that both our standard SMS colours
and our ECO colours
fulfil the criteria that designers can use the
same SMS colours consistently in standard CMYK printing on coated paper,
CMYK printing on uncoated paper, for standard digital displays such as laptops,
tablets and smart phone displays and on TV/Cinema, maintaining the
same colour(s) visually for side-by-side comparison.
This consequently means that you can easily communicate the expected
visual appearance of your SMS colours, as they should look when printed
in CMYK on paper or when they are displayed online or on Television
with your customer and stakeholders around the world instantly via email
or a website to take the guesswork out of the equation and to speed up
your work.
Since the Spot Matching System is based on fixed LAB values, of course
any product can be manufactured in SMS colours using existing,
proprietary inks, paints or dyes to ensure correct colour of the final product.
This means that any product manufactured and dyed using SMS colours can
also be marketed colour correctly in any mainstream media to maximize
customer satisfaction.
To view SMS colours correctly on a monitor, the monitor has to be
capable of displaying 100% of the sRGB colourspace and in the case of
Television screens 100% of the Rec. 709 colourspace.
Customers can also order the P60 version of each system if the goal is
to use colours for devices only capable of displaying approx. 60% of the
sRGB/Rec. gamuts, - to be able to show your actual colours to a larger
audience (please make sure to order the P60 version when you order).
Labelled media neutral SMS colour patches for professional design and colour
consistent
marketing in all media (web, TV, print).
New print standards - Gracol
2006 and Japan Color 2011 added, see supported colour spaces here.
All colours have been tweaked for maximum colour
consistency cross media.
SK 1.738 SMS
colours, optimized for newspaper printing, delivered in PDF format.
Instructions
for P20e users on how to design and convert their own SMS colours to CMYK
are available here.
Further information on how to use SMS colours in design
here.
The ECO colours are subtle enough to fit nicely to P60 capable PC laptop
displays.
Labelled
media neutral SMS colour patches for professional design and colour
consistent
marketing in all media (web, TV, print).
New print standards - Gracol
2006 and Japan Color 2011 added, see supported colour spaces
here.
All colours have been tweaked for maximum colour
consistency cross media. 1.738 SMS
colours, optimized for printing to Fogra 39 and Fogra 47
standards (white coated and uncoated paper), delivered in PDF and ASE format.
Instructions
for P20 users on how to design and convert their own SMS colours to CMYK
are available
here.
Further information on how to use SMS colours in design
here.
The Home & Office version of the Standard colours is also available as an
option - in PDF format only.
Labelled
media neutral SMS
colour patches for professional design and colour consistent
marketing in all media (web, TV, print).
New print standards - Gracol
2006 and Japan Color 2011 added, see supported colour spaces
here.
All colours have been tweaked for maximum colour
consistency cross media. 1.738 SMS
colours, optimized for printing to the Fogra 39 standard (white
coated paper), delivered in PDF and ASE format.
Instructions
for P20x users on how to design and convert their own SMS colours to CMYK
are available
here.
Further information on how to use SMS colours in design
here.
The Home & Office version of the MAX colours is also available as an
option - in PDF format only.
SMS READY Expert certification for registered owners of
the P20, P20e or the P20x colour palette - or one of the Home &
Office colour palettes.
The certificate
confirms the ability of the certificate holder to use SMS
colours and convert them correctly from sRGB to other colour
spaces, ensuring correct reproduction of said SMS colours. SMS
READY individuals may always contact
sms@spot-nordic.com for
technical assistance.
SMS READY Experts are authorized to assist registered SMS users and SMS
subscribers onsite or remotely (designers, brand owners,
printers, manufacturers) within their respective category
(PRINT, WEB, VIDEO) as well as to take the role of
so-called "super users" at SMS subscribed agencies, Printshops
and brands/companies - see SMS subscription plans
here.
More details on the SMS READY Expert training here.
Spot-Nordic P60 ColourBox (SMS Home & Office colours)
The Spot-Nordic P60 ColourBox is a light weight laptop, well suited for the home,
office
and school, but more important, it is well suited for on-the-go advanced
to professional design using the brand new Spot Matching System Home &
Office colour palette(s),
for web design, TV graphics or CMYK print design at professional/brand
level.
The P60 is not the fastest laptop nor does it have all the latest bells
and whistles and it does not have the best and the most vibrant display
available either.
It is however the first SMS READY PC laptop in
the world.
This means that the display of the P60 laptop is optimized for
displaying the SMS Home & Office colours - or to be more exact, the SMS
Home & Office colour palettes were created using the physical colour
gamut of the display of the P60 to create the final colours.
The P60 ColourBox display is a typical PC laptop
display, capable of displaying
approx. 60% of the colours of the sRGB colourspace, meaning it can
display 536.821 out of the 899.155
colours of the sRGB colour gamut.
In order to see the exact colours of the original version of the Spot
Matching System (P20 v6, P20e v6 and P20x v6), you need a display capable of displaying
at least 100% of the
sRGB colourspace.
That is why we have released a custom version of our ECO, Standard and
MAX colour palettes, optimized for the P60 display - and similar
displays from other manufacturers that we refer to as SMS Home & Office.
According to our research a large
portion of even newer PC laptop and notebook displays are in this range - i.e.
capable of displaying approx. 60% of the sRGB colourspace.
That again means that a large portion of
customers are NOT seeing even their SMS brand colours correctly on their
PC laptop displays, while by using the SMS Home & Office version of the
SMS colour, it would be possible for
most people on the planet to see the actual colours on their laptop
displays - as well as other displays with larger colour gamuts of
course.
The reason Spot-Nordic decided to offer it's own laptop, is the strange
situation of the graphics industry, which in itself makes it even more
difficult to keep track of brand colours on a universal level than it
was 50 years ago, when we only had analog colours printed on paper to
communicate colours (only for print or paint).
In our modern digital world Apple monitors
and displays are safe to use when working with the original SMS colours
and many colours from other colour systems,
due to the native large P3 colourspace of Apple displays, from their
iPhones to laptops and monitors.
Apple has been extremely successful in
winning over the graphics market and hence most graphic designers and
anyone involved in the colour industry only use Apple displays. This was
fine while we only had Pantone, RAL and NCS colours to work with, all of
which rely on printed samples for designers to work with to pick and
communicate their requested colours.
At the
same time we see a trend where more and more graphic designers and
design agencies are actually no longer relying on printed colour guides to pick
out brand colours, but have instead switched entirely to picking colours
of their (superior) displays.
Designers who are not colour
specialists as well may in this environment be tempted to rely entirely
on their super
vibrant colour monitors to pick out colours for their designs, - colours that look beautiful on
their expensive Apple display (capable of displaying the P3 or Adobe RGB colour
gamut), while, when they convert the logo to sRGB, the logo will look
much duller visually - and to make it even worse, as dull as the logo
looks in native sRGB format, on monitors displaying only 60% of the sRGB
gamut, that perhaps half of the
audience is using, the logo will not even resemble the original, super
vibrant logo.
It is our perspective at Spot-Nordic that professional designers should
only use colours that can be viewed correctly by any consumer, -
otherwise the colours
cannot be considered anything but a humbug that only looks good at the
design studio and perhaps when printed on a proof during the initial
corporate image presentation by the agency, which is worth nothing, when
it comes to brand design and could be considered fraud from our
perspective (since the colours being sold to the brand owner will in
most cases never be presented correctly to the public).
From our perspective using super vibrant colours for a brand logo/brand
colours is about as professional as getting lost in 3D effects and
forgetting the initial concept of the logo.
It is our opinion that all prospective
customers should be able to see the actual brand colours of any brand
that they wish to do business with to the extent that any brand should
be able to market itself using only it's colours (not it's logo) - and
by keeping the colours visually consistent in all media, with time,
customers will start to recognize the brand by it's colour(s). This
however requires the brand to use SMS colours - since SMS colours are
made from the scratch to remain visually identical in all media.
A professional logo/corporate identity can be successfully designed in
black and white if the designer knows what he or she is doing. This is
in fact one of the main reasons why so many world famous logos are
simply black or neutral gray - because colours are not required - and
probably also because that before SMS colours came along, colours could
not be relied on to appear the same in all media. A good example of such
a logo is in fact the new Apple logo, which is neutral gray.
We are offering a total of 5.214 colour shades that are as safe to use as
black and gray - and they remain the same in all media and for any
purpose, as long as you know the LAB values of your SMS colours.
We are furthermore offering the P60 ColourBox laptop at a reasonable price, so it
is a perfect gift for designers and design students as well as a perfect
laptop for designers and creatives that prefer a PC to an Apple or are
simply not willing to pay 1.500 or 2.000 Euros for a laptop.
Furthermore, for designers and design
agencies that usually only use Apple displays in their day-to-day work,
it is a really good idea to invest in at least one P60 ColourBox PC
laptop to preview what their designs actually look like in the real
world, where most people use PC laptops and Android smartphones and
tablets. This could be referred to as real-world proofing.
The Spot-Nordic P60 ColorBox laptop is custom built for Spot-Nordic according to
our specifications and it is actually the laptop that we use at the
office, for onsite and remote presentations so you could say that we put our money where our mouth
is and we only recommend products that we ourselves have tested - or use
on a daily basis, like the Spot-Nordic P60 laptop, the Calibrite Display
Plus HL calibration package and the ColorMeter
Exact spectro - see here below.
A copy of the Home & Office version of SMS Standard v6, SMS MAX v6 and the SMS ECO
v6
colour matching system in PDF, sRGB format - a total value of EUR 270, excl. VAT, is included
in the price of the Spot-Nordic P60 ColourBox laptop.
For information on the Spot Matching System (SMS) and the difference
between the SMS ECO, SMS Standard and SMS MAX colour palettes, refer to
the
SMS website.
Spot
Spot-Nordic furthermore offers diploma training in the use of the Spot
Matching System for designers and other professionals who wish to master
how to correctly use SMS colours in design for all media and how to
identify if SMS colours are correct - or not - see
https://www.spot-nordic.com/sms/experts/.
If you order SMS READY Expert training at the same time you order the
P60 laptop, you only have to pay and extra EUR 60 excl. VAT on top of
the price - and pass the test to get your diploma.
The P60 laptop is factory pre-calibrated, but for professional work
where SMS colours are used, - and simply to be sure that the colours you
see on your monitor as as correct as possible, we recommend a monitor
calibration package - see here below to keep your display 100% correct,
since all displays drift as time goes by.
The 123 package (see here below) is good enough for simple monitor calibration to avoid
trending.
P60 ColourBox -Specs
Colour: Silver
OS: Windows 11 Pro
CPU: Intel N95; Quad Core, 4 Threads
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics
CPU Clock Speed: 1.7GHz; Turbo: 3.4GHz
Screen: IPS 15.6inch, Resolution:1920*1080 (SMS READY for SMS Home &
Office)
Memory: DDR4 16GB
SSD: 512GB or 1TB
Camera, Front 0.3MP
Sound: Stereo, 8 ohm, 2 x 1w. 3.5 mm mini jack input.
USB: 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0.
Bluetooth 4.2
Battery: 5000mAH (approx. 4 hours of normal use)
WIFI: 802.11B/G/N&AC (5G support)
Weight: 1.6kg
Fingerprint Unlock
Backlit Keyboard: QWERTY English
SKU P60a - 16GB/512GB: EUR 549 excl. VAT and local tariff
that may apply, depending on your location.
SKU P60b: 16GB/ITB: EUR 599 excl. VAT and local tariff that may
apply, depending on your location
When ordering, please make sure to select either 220V or 110V version,
whether you would like the EU (ISO) or US (ANSI) keyboard layout and
whether you would prefer the silver coloured or pink coloured version.
Calibrite Monitor/display Calibrators
The Calibrite
Display 123 is an inexpensive and easy to use monitor calibrator suited for users that
are not colour management specialists but would still like to keep their
monitor colour correct. This solutions is well suited for freelance
designers and private individuals that do a lot of online shopping for
instance.
2 monitors can be adjusted per package.
Included with the purchase of Calibrite Display
123 is either the SMS ECO v6, SMS Standard v6 or SMS MAX v6 colour
palette for professional design, each containing 1.738 colours suited
for web design, TV graphics and Print (CMYK) design and a 12 month brand
license for one brand, valued at EUR 90.
Optionally you may select the P60 Home & Office version of
your SMS colour palette (please make sure to mention that when you
order).
Calibrite Display 123
SKU CALB123: EUR 240
excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your location.
Calibrite Monitor/Screen/Projector Calibrators (advanced to
professional)
The new standard in calibration devices
capable of measuring up to 10.000 nits
The advanced HL (high luminance) sensor enables greater colour
accuracy for current and new display technologies
Accurately measures LCD, mini-LED, OLED displays and Apple XDR
panels
Measurement and profiling of both displays and projectors (Display
Pro HL and Display Plus HL)
Recommended for highest quality still image editing and design
applications
Comes with Calibrite PROFILER software, featuring fully customizable
features such as White Point and Gamma, Profile Validation,
Uniformity Check features and more. Compatible with Mac and Windows
OS
Compatible with some 3rd party
monitor calibration software
USB-C connection, supplied with USB-A adapter
Smaller, fully recyclable packaging and includes a travel storage
pouch
Adjustment of up to 4 displays per.
package.
Included with the purchase of Calibrite Pro
or Plus is either the SMS ECO v6, SMS Standard v6 or SMS MAX v6 colour
palette for professional design, each containing 1.738 colours suited
for web design, TV graphics and Print (CMYK) design and a 12 month brand
license for one brand, valued at EUR 90.
Optionally you may select the P60 Home &
Office version of
your SMS colour palette (please make sure to mention that when you
order).
Display Pro HL
SKU CALB107: EUR 344 excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your
location.
Display Plus HL
SKU CALB108: EUR 413 excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your
location.
ColorChecker Studio combines
world-class hardware and software to deliver expert color
results for photo and filmmaker pros.
ColorChecker Studio includes:
ColorChecker Studio
Device:
The patented, all-in-one ColorChecker Studio
spectrophotometer is the only device you need to profile
your monitors, projectors, scanners and printers.
It's compact and easy to carry in its own protective bag so
you are never without the means to create and expertly
calibrated and profiled workflow whether at home, in the
studio or on the road.
ccStudio software powered by X-Rite provides an easy to
navigate interface that delivers expertly calibrated and
profiled monitors (including video presets), projectors,
scanners and printers.
ColorChecker Camera
Calibration Software and Mini ColorChecker Classic Target
for Cameras:
Utilizing the included industry standard 24 patch target,
you'll be able to create custom camera profiles (single or
dueal illuminants), set a custom white balance and have a
neutral starting point no matter what light you are shotting
in for a more streamlined editing process. The software
includes both a desktop application and an Adobe Lightroom
Plug-in.
Monitor Calibration and
Profiling
Once you have taken the
guesswork and frustration out of making sure the colour you
see on your siplay is the colour you expect from your
printer, you'll save time and money and gain full creative
control over your images. ColorChecker Studio uses advanced
technologies to perfect the match between your display and
printer.
Intelligent Iterative
Profiling
An adaptive technology that produces optimized resluts for
maximum color accuracy on each unique display every time you
profile.
Ambient Light Measurement: automatically
determines the optimum display luminance for comparing
prints to your display, based on a measurement of the
lighting conditions where prints will be viewed.
Video Standards Support: NTSC, PAL SECAM, Rec. 709, Rec.
2020 and DCI-P3.
Extended User Controls: Custom control of
white point, linance, contrast ratio and gamma. Also,
measure other displays or light sources and use as targets.
Profile optimization: Create unique patch
sets for optimal results.
Profile Validation and Reminder: View
before and after results with included images or load your
own, or use the 3D profle gamut
viewer. Set reminder intervals to re-profile your display.
Included with the purchase of Calibrite Pro or Plus is
either the SMS ECO v6, SMS Standard v6 or SMS MAX v6 colour
palette for professional design, each containing 1.738
colours suited for web design, TV graphics and Print (CMYK)
design and a 12 month brand license for one brand, valued at
EUR 90.
Optionally you may opt for a P60 version of your SMS colour
palette (please make sure to mention that when you order).
SKU CALB201: EUR 660 excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your
location.
Professional assessment lamp for colour selection and
matching
View prints and colour swatches in standardised lighting
conditions, day or night, with the Calibrite GrafiLite
powered by professional quality CRI 95+ LED. This compact
space-saving desk lamp with a neutral grey viewing mat is
ideal for desktop colour selection, assessment and matching.
Used for:
Soft proofing – compare prints to the digital image on a
calibrated computer screen for image retouching – select
daylight illumination and set the dimmer function to
correspond with your calibrated monitor’s brightness level.
Colour reference selection – select colour swatches or
samples, considering them under a choice of three
illumination temperatures.
Check the accuracy of product or fabric colour matching
under daylight 5,000K and consider the effects under
office/store light and home light conditions.
Three colour temperature settings: natural
daylight (5,000K), store light (4,000K), home light
(2,700K)
Dimmer switch function: three illumination
intensities for each temperature
Professional quality illumination CRI: 95+
Includes neutral grey viewing mat (A4)
Integrated desk clock/thermometer and convenient
USB port
AC 100-240V – Universal plug for US, UK, EU, AU
and CN
SKU CALB151: EUR 199 excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your
location.
The ColorMeter Pro is a handy and inexpensive
Colorimeter/Spectrometer that uses so-called sphere -
Specular Component Included (SCI) geometry to measure samples to collect
colour data, such as CIELAB, RGB or LCH from any flat surface.
It is well suited
for Quality Control of Colours, where Customer and Manufacturer as
well as everyone responsible for colour in the value chain all use the
instrument (or at least an instrument of the same type) to measure and
verify a colour of the same specific substrate that is to be ordered,
whether for Paint, Textile or Print.
Note that the CIELAB values as well as RGB values collected through
measurements are not appropriate for
use in, for instance, Photoshop for use in design or general
communication of a colour for visual
judgement.
Designers and Brand Owners should only use the device to compare a
colour target to a colour sample of the same type preferably or at least
a very similar one - for instance Cotton to Cotton, Polyester to
Polyester, Coated paper to Coated paper, Plastic to Plastic etc. to
avoid mistakes.
If you are looking for an instrument better aligned with universal Print
standards (45/0, D50/2° - M1) you may want to consider the ColorMeter
Exact instrument - see here below.
Before investing in the ColorMeter Pro, please contact your
Manufacturer(s) / Printer(s) to check their measurement standards and to
have a discussion about whether this instrument may be suited for
Quality Control and communication of colour.
Instruments of this type are
quite common in the Textile and Paints industry, while not as common in
the Graphics industry, where 45/0 /0/45 spectral instruments are more
common.
If you intend to use this instrument for Quality Control of your colours
at your Printhouse, it is a good idea to simply provide your contact
person with a ColorMeter Pro instrument to use in their ink kitchen or
even at the press for spot colour checks.
Included with the purchase is an advanced App, available both for iPhone
and Android phones, which connects to the device via Bluetooth.
It is easy to measure your own Brand colour(s) or your customer's
colours from a sample or guide and to store them for future use, whether
they are NCS, PANTONE, RAL or SMS colours.
Users have access to libraries from NCS, PANTONE, and RAL for instance
that have been measured with the instrument to quickly look up the
closest colour within the respective colour systems. NOTE: Those
libraries are not official libraries and thus do not come with any sort
of guaranty from the respective manufacturers.
Just remember to always use the same settings and to communicate them
carefully to anyone responsible for keeping your colours correct.
If you prefer to use the same Master colour for all media and to work
cross-media with the absolute CIELAB values on which SMS colours are
based, please consider investing in the slightly more expensive ColorMeter Exact - see
here below.
SKU P50: EUR 399
excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your
location.
Spot-Nordic is delighted to offer the ColorMeter Exact Spectro-densitometer,
a small but advanced 45/0 spectral
measurement device, that fits in your pocket, which connects via Bluetooth to your mobile phone
(iPhone or Android).
It is perfect for Brand Owners, Designers,
Printshops and Manufacturers that are tasked with consistent reproduction of
selected brand colours.
It includes the M0, M1 and M2 standards, used to measure CMYK colours
printed according to ISO 12647-2-2013 as well as Pantone colours.
It enables users to measure their colours on the go and store them digitally in
one place, - in their pocket and from then on to share them and do
quality checks to compare new products to the same colour targets,
defined by their CIELAB values.
No longer do you have to check your products against old printed samples
or printed colour guides that are most likely faded, unless they are
less than 1 year old, and thus no longer a reliable standard to compare
against.
Your measured and stored digital colours - the measured CIELAB values
become your new standard and you can communicate those CIELAB
values to your Printer or Manufacturer so those colours can be checked
and maintained during production - regardless of what it is.
Keeping track of your brand colours has never been easier.
Included in the price of the ColorMeter Exact is a copy of the
Spot Matching System
Standard palette, v6 (1.738 colours) in PDF and ASE format OR a copy
of the SMS MAX v6 colour palette in PDF and ASE format.
Furthermore, the built-in SMS Standard v6 and the SMS MAX v6 colour
libraries are included with
purchases of the ColorMeter Exact from Spot-Nordic to instantly measure and find the
closest SMS Standard or MAX colour to your sample - or to check how close your
colour is to your target SMS colour, if you are already using SMS
Standard or MAX colours for your brand or your product.
Information about the Spot Matching System and how to use it is
available
here.
Users of the ColorMeter Excact also have access to libraries of various
other colour systems that have been measured by other Colormeter Exact
users and shared in the cloud, including Pantone, RAL and NCS libraries
and users
can also create their own custom colour palettes from colours measured from
any flat surface.
SKU P51: EUR 599
excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your
location.
The Xrite i1 Pro 3 is an advanced, 45/0 handheld spectrophotometer,
accurate enough for the most demanding customers, such as printshops,
brand owners and advertising agencies seeking to get their colour under
control.
The i1 Pro 3 devices support measurement to M0, M1 and M2.
In fact it is so accurate that the predecessor - i1Pro2 device was used
to measure and confirm the colours of the first edition of the
Spot Matching System
(SMS) - to confirm the cross-media conformance of the SMS colours and
the dE00 from one media to the next for our emperical proof.
The i1 Pro 3 bundled with the i1 Profiler software can be used to
measure monitors (up to 5.000 nits), projectors and printed colours on
even substrates, such as paper and plastic.
For measurement of more uneven substrates such as textile, canvas,
ceramic or film - as well as for BACKLIT
displays (new) the big brother - the i1 Pro 3 PLUS instrument is more
appropriate.
Included in the purchase of all i1 Pro 3 packages and the i1 ISIS
sheet scanner (see below) are all 3
colour palettes of the Spot Matching System, SMS ECO, SMS Standard and
SMS MAX, total value of EUR 270 plus one year of access to
paid services by Spot-Nordic for one brand.
See further information about the Spot Matching System for professional
design here.
See further information and comparison on the i1 Pro 3 packages
here.
SKU XRIT075:
EUR 1.799 excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your
location.
Robotic, automatic chart reading system to speed up and automate reading
of charts for profile creation. Scanning area A3+.
Max height/width: 10 mm with optional Z Axis Spacer increasing max
width to 33 mm.
SKU XRIT480:
EUR 3.990
excl. VAT and local tariff that may apply, depending on your
location.
Testimony from Mr. Ingi Karlsson, the creator of the Spot
Matching System, and owner of Spot-Nordic:
ColorMeter Exact:
"While testing this small, inexpensive instrument (Exact) to see if
it could actually be as accurate as promised, I tried measuring our own
SMS colour ticket sample from a Fogra 51 proof we printed out about a year
ago that I hand out to prospects (so it may have faded just a little bit
and the colours thus not exactly correct) .
The first colour I measured was the first in the row, the blue SMS
colour. It used to say "J-5" - not J-8.
So I
did the measurement with the ColorMeter Exact instrument set to M1,
D50/2° - which is the standard measurement condition for measuring SMS
colours to ISO standards.
I then took a screenshot and imported it into the sRGB Standard
version of our Spot Matching System, called P-20.
The screenshot of the measurement is here. Here we have the CIELAB
values of the colour along with the closest HEX value to the measured
colour (sRGB).
After importing the above screenshot into my Standard SMS sRGB
colour palette, I compared the LAB value of the blue colour SMS J-5 to the
above LAB values and was disappointed to say the least when I saw that
the values were COMPLETELY different.
I thought to myself "Ok, this instrument is obviously just a toy,
but not a real spectral measurement device - not even a proper
colorimeter".
But of course, stubborn as I can be and grinding my teeth for wasting
money on a toy that my daughter would not even enjoy playing with, I
couldn't resist hovering over a few other SMS colours in the colour
palette and when I got to SMS J-8, I saw that it was quite close to the
CIELAB values of the patch I had measured.
What I saw was this:
As you can see the LAB values are actually quite close to each other
- and no other SMS colour came nearly as close as J-8 (I knew in advance
that after one year, the *b value would be lower, - because the Optical
Brighteners in the paper have faded a bit - so that's normal...).
So I went into our files and found the original file we used to
create the demo colour ticket here above. And guess what; the colour we
used to create the sample test ticket was the SMS J-8, - not SMS J-5 and the colour
difference (dE00) between my measurement and the LAB value of the sRGB
colour was less than 1.8, which is pretty damn good - considering that
the colour proof I measured for this experiment has been laying around
my office for over a year. If your Printer/Manufacturer can keep your
colours below dE00 of 2, they are REALLY good.
My little ColorMeter Exact helped me find this out, - so I can at
least say for myself that I am extremely impressed with it and based on
my own, slightly bitter, experience, I can safely recommend it for serious
professional uses and Quality Control".
It is not as accurate as for instance the i1 Pro 3 or
even more expensive instruments, such as the TECHKON
SpectroDens, - but it is a great value for the money and can
safely be used for maintaining consistent colour in
production - and to look up the closest colour, - with an
accuracy that I consider "close enough".
UPDATE May 10th 2024:
We have now added both the SMS Standard v6 library and the SMS MAX
v6 library to the Exact instrument, so there is no longer need to open
the SMS colour palette in Photoshop to check the closest SMS colour. You
can instantly find the closest Standard or MAX SMS colour by simply selecting
the corresponding library in your Exact App on your mobile phone.
Here is a screenshot that I just took when measuring the blue colour
of the same old
proof - now 2-3 year old: