Xrite Pulse Color Elite

[Mike Sellers]

What kind of profile results could one expect from this setup? How would the profiles compare to those made by the Datacolor or Colormunki?
Mike

[Scott Martin]

Pulse profiles were ahead of their time. They are fantastic and are extremely similar to Munki profiles due to their related underlying profiling engine. The Munki's big improvements were it's ability to make impressive profiles from a very small number of patches, optimize them later by adding more, and it's ability to measure without a "slider" like the Pulse and i1 use.

[Scott Martin]

Of course, one can use the Pulse in XRite's free ColorPort application to make and measure new targets. These measurements can be saved and used in i1Profiler to make profiles with more advanced control over CMYK separations, Perceptual rendering controls, etc. You can even use ColorPort and the Pulse to make grayscale profiles. The ColorMunki isn't supported in ColorPort however... The Pulse was cool! I've got two of them collecting dust myself...

[Mark D Segal]

Hi Scott; mine isn't collecting dust. I use it and indeed it is an excellent package - still today - within the boundaries of what it was designed to do. Perhaps useful to clarify that much as one can measure larger ColorPort targets with the Pulse device, the Pulse ColorElite software for profile creation maxes-out at the 729 patch target they included. Other targets require much costlier software for reading and profile creation. That said, the 729 target made/makes very high quality profiles for my Epson printers (previously 4800, then 3800, now 4900) and various tests using larger targets with costlier software did not really show decisive "hit-you-in-the-face" advantages in prints of photographic scenes or profile test patches. PulseElite still works properly on Mac OSX up to 10.6.8., though it is not advertised and not supported.