Chromira TECHNICAL SUPPORT DOCUMENT A2 02 February 2012 Balancing Fuji Silk paper with Expert Pro Fuji Silk paper has a unique surface which gives it the special look and feel. It is because of this surface that scanning and densitometry must be performed slightly different. Some additional steps, for establishing the Dmax targets, and reading the test image with your densitometer will be necessary. The unique surface of the material causes the light from the densitometer to scatter when measuring the densities. The amount of scatter and accuracy of the densitometer readings will depend on the densitometer and the position of the reading aperture with relation to the peaks and valleys in the surface of the Silk paper. This unique surface also causes different than normal results when scanning out the banding. It will necessary to use a different standard when determining the quality of a scanned test image. Step 1 – establishing the Dmax targets a) Using the Dmax targets established for a Matte or Luster paper, subtract 0.30 from each reading and use these results as your Dmax targets in the Expert Pro software for the Silk Paper. Example: highest readings were: 2.35, 2.30, 2.25 subtract 0.30 from each reading for a result of 2.05, 2.00, 1.95 These are now your Dmax targets. Note: The actual Dmax of the material may be higher than the targets that were calculated. The light source that the densitometer uses to read the densities becomes scattered during the reading process. This gives the impression that the dmax of the material is less than it really is. For this reason, Expert Pro must use the recalculated values to balance the material. Step 2 – step up the Expert Pro software a) Open the Expert Pro software b) Set the densitometer Settings to the high precision mode by clicking the Configure button and checking the box in front of the “High Precision Mode” selection. This mode will force you to take several readings of the same patch before moving to the next patch. A minimum of three readings of each patch will be required. Move the densitometer to a different spot inside the patch for each reading so that an average of the patch density can be determined. c) Type in the Dmax targets as established in Step 1 e. Step 3 – Reading the Chromira test image with your densitometer a) Start with patch 0. Take a reading as normal and note the text at the top of the window. It will read “Continue reading patch 0”. This is a result of the High Precision Mode being selected. Each time a reading is taken, the software will compare it to the previous reading. The software will continue to tell you to read the same patch, until it has three readings with the same values. Move to a different spot within the patch to take each subsequent reading. It can take as many as 15 readings for one patch, until the software is satisfied that it has found the correct value. b) When the text changes to, ”Please read patch 1”, continue move to the next patch read it in the same manner. Follow this procedure through the entire 17 patches. c) When complete reading all patches, click the “Apply Changes” button. Step 4 – Scanning to reduce the banding a) Carefully look at the test image before scanning. If it looks good, and there is no apparent banding, you are complete. If banding is visible, place the test image in the scanner and run a scan balance cycle as normal. b) The Q numbers that will be reported with this material will be much higher than with other materials. c) Apply the scan results by clicking the “Finish” button. d) Print a new test image, and visually inspect. If there are no visible banding lines, you are done. Note: The Q number may be anywhere from 1000 to 20000. This number is less important than your visual inspection. Do not continue scanning in an attempt to lower the Q number. The nature of this material requires that you use only a visual quality check to get the best results. .