Scanner Profiling with IT8 Targets

Scanner profiling is the process of determining the precise color characteristics of a scanner or digital camera. VueScan uses IT8 targets (also called Q60 targets) to do this.

IT8 targets are included with many scanners. You can also obtain IT8 targets from several sources:

  Kodak:       http://www.scarse.org/docs/kodak/Q60-order.pdf 
  Wolf Faust:  http://www.targets.coloraid.de/

To profile your scanner or digital camera with an IT8 target:

 1) Set "Input|Scan task" to "Profile scanner"
 2) Rename IT8 description file "scanner.it8"
 3) Press "Preview" button
 4) Rotate image to upright position
 5) Adjust cropping until IT8 outline matches (not all boxes outlined)
 6) Choose "Profile|Profile scanner" from the drop-down menu
 7) The ICC profile will be written to "scanner.icc"

If you've previously made an ICC profile for your scanner, you only need to do the following:

 1) Set "Color|Scanner color space" to "ICC profile"
 2) Set "Color|Scanner ICC profile" to file name of ICC file

VueScan normally reads and writes the ICC profile for the scanner using the file "scanner.icc". Alternatively, you can put the file name of the ICC profile into "Color|Scanner ICC profile".

Every IT8 target has an associated data file that describes the exact color of each square in the target. You should either rename this file "scanner.it8" or put the file name into "Color|Scanner IT8 data". If you don't have a data file for your target, use "film.it8" if it's a film target or "paper.it8" if it's a paper target.