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Color Calibration with IT8 Targets

Color calibration is the process of determining the precise color characteristics of a scanner.

You need calibrated color targets perform this calibration. 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 calibrate your scanner with an IT8 target:

 1) Set "Color|More options" to "All"
 2) Set "Color|Scanner color space" to "ICC file"
 3) Set "Color|Scanner ICC profile" to file name of ICC file
 4) Set "Color|Scanner IT8 data" to file name of IT8 data file
 5) Set "Color|IT8 outline"
 6) Press "Preview" button
 7) Adjust rotation and cropping until IT8 outline matches
 8) Turn off "Files|Output JPEG file" (optionally)
 9) Press "Scan" button
10) Choose "Device|Analyze IT8" from the drop-down menu
11) The ICC profile will be written to "Color|Scanner ICC profile"
12) Clear "Color|IT8 outline"
If you've previously made an ICC profile for your scanner, you only need to do the following:

 1) Set "Color|More options" to "All"
 2) Set "Color|Scanner color space" to "ICC file"
 3) 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 put this file into either "scanner.it8" or put the file name into "Color|Scanner IT8 data".

Note that these ICC files can be used with VueScan's raw scan files, but only if they are 48-bit RGB or 64-bit RGB files. Any 24-bit RGB raw scan files won't work properly with these ICC files, since the ICC file is for gamma 1.0 (linear CCD samples).