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
-o k|n
CMY colorspace encoding DefiveCMYK (def), inverted DeviceRGB 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
-D
Dither 8 bit TIFF values down from 16 bit
-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)
-M margin
Set a
page margin in mm and include it in TIFF
-P
Don't limit strip length
-L
Suppress
any
left
paper
clip
border
-U
Suppress CUPS cupsJobTicket: cups-disable-cmm in PS &
EPS files
-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]
4x6 [101.6 x 152.4
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.
Note that the for the DTP20
only -a values of 1.0,
1.08, 1.54, 1.92, 2.0 and that the patch width will be made no
smaller than its 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, then 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. Note that if 8 bit TIFF output is selected (-t) without dithering (no -D) then the values will by
default be quantized to 8 bits, and that if 16 bit TIFF output is selected (-T) or 8 bit TIFF with dithering
(-D), then the values will
by default be quantized to 16 bits (see -Q flag)
-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.
-D: When
creating TIFF files with 8 bit output, dither the values to give
effective 16 bit precision. Note this is applied after any
quantization of the test values (see -Q). Note
that this might interfere (i.e. give alias/moire patterns) in
printed output if the printer uses screening that happens to clash.
Note also that dithering is effectively linearly interpolating
between the 8 bit values using spatial averaging, and that therefore
the device response may also be a linear interpolation between its 8
bit output values, adding no effective extra precision to the device
measurement.
-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) without
dithering (no -D) then the
values will by default be quantized to 8 bits, and that if 16 bit
TIFF output is selected (-T) or 8 bit TIFF with dithering
(-D), then the values will
by default be quantized 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
labeling 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 labeling
sequence pattern. The pattern specifies the labeling sequence as
follows: First comes the definition of the symbols for each digit
location, least significant to most significant, each digit
separated by the ',' character. 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
labeling 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 labeling sequence
pattern. See the above description for the labeling 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 or TIFF 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 or TIFF 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 -o parameter changes how a CMY
colorspace test chart will be represented in the Postscript or TIFF
output. The default is to use the DeviceCMYK representation (-ok) where the K value is always
zero, or inverted Device RGB (-or),
or as a 3 channel DeviceN colorsoace can be used (-on).
The -m parameter sets the page margin for
all sides. If the printer has print margins larger than the default
assumed by printtarg, then
critical parts of the test chart may be cropped or scaled, and not
printed properly. Increasing
the margin 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 raster
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 -M parameter sets the page margin for
all sides the same as -m, but for a TIFF
chart the margin will be included
in the raster, meaning that the TIFF will have to be printed
right to the edge of the paper, or on paper larger than the raster
size. (Having the raster be the full page size may be useful in
certain situations.)
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 2 Meters 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 -U flag suppresses the CUPS
%cupsJobTicket: cups-disable-cmm in PS and EPS files. By default
this ensures that the resulting files doesn't have color management
applied to it. If you are creating a test chart that should be color
managed (perhaps because you want to use it to verify the overall
operation of the printing system), then you can use the -U
flag to disable this.
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, but
also see the -M flag.
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.