about control strips and charts

alwan toolbox charts

Alwan ToolBox offers you the ability to measure standard as well as proprietary control strips and charts.

Control strips are usually used for conformance assessment – FOGRA and IDEAlliance control strips – however some of them can be used for device calibration.

Charts are usually used for device profiling – ECI, IT8 and Hydra® charts – however some of them can be used for device calibration or evaluation such as IDEAlliance P2P and TC 1617.

which chart to use for profiling?

Alwan ToolBox includes the definition file of the latest ECI and IT8 profiling charts as well as a full set of Hydra Profiling® charts. All these charts are publicly available, therefore, you can find their image files on the corresponding platforms, print them, and measure them with Alwan ToolBox.

Should you need to measure a chart which is not included in Alwan ToolBox, you can do that by using the "Import Definition File" button. Definition file is usually delivered with the corresponding chart.

Hydra Profiling® standard charts

Alwan’s patented Hydra® spectral prediction technology has been developed to help you accurately profile your print device faster and cheaper than ever by using charts with a very small number of patches – up to 40 times less – compared to conventional charts. A set of Hydra® charts for various printing processes – conventional and digital – and various instruments – patch and scan measurement – are available in the Alwan ToolBox configuration windows.

You can easily choose the right Hydra® chart by picking the one whose name corresponds to your printing process and spectrophotometer.

For more details about the latest Hydra® charts, please refer to the "Read Me" file included with Hydra® package. Download the latest Hydra® package (v.1.4.2) here.

Hydra Profiling® charts for special processes

If you are printing on a process and/or using a color palette which are not included in the Hydra® standard charts package, please ask your Alwan dealer or sales@alwancolor.com for help.