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|Task" to "Profile scanner".
 2) Copy the IT8 description file that came with your target into the
    Vuescan directory, and rename the copy "scanner.it8".
 3) Press "Preview" button.
 4) If necessary, rotate preview image so that the grey scale is at the
    bottom and the letters and numbers can be read normally.
 5) Adjust size of the Vuescan cropping mask until it matches the IT8 target
    image. You may need to readjust the target on the scanner platten and
    press "Preview" again if the image is at an angle.
 6) Choose "Profile|Profile scanner" from the drop-down menu.
 7) The ICC profile will be written to "scanner.icc" in the
    VueScan directory.

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".

Note that the settings in the Color tab don't affect the profiling, but to see if the profiling works correctly, you probably want to set "Color|Color balance" to "Neutral".