LaserSoft Imaging

I have Epson 2450 and it comes with SilerFast SE. After few scans, I realized that the colors don't exactly match the original(slides mostly). All the colors are recognized but some are more 'visible' than the others. My last scan was showing bright reflection of light on some metal object in purple color but is was almost white on the slide.
So here are my q's:
1. Will the calibration help get the right colors ?
2. Will the calibration afect other scanning software, like Epson TWAIN or v**s**n ? In other words, will the IT8 calibration calibrate the SilverFast or will it calibrate the scanner ?

1. All scanners have the bahaviour, that they don?t see the colors exactly like the original is. Scanner calibration can help in this case. The IT8 calibration is a way to produce calibration profiles by SilverFast. You can either create private calibration profiles for SilverFast or public ICC profiles.
2. If you create ICC profiles, you are also able to use them with other software. I?m not sure, if Epson Twain and v**s**n are ICC compatible. The use of calibration profiles is a post processing. This means that the software (SilverFast in this case) has to use them, after the scan data is uploaded from the scanner. If you have calibrated SilverFast, this does not automatically mean, that other scansoftware scan with the same qualtiy (unless they use the same profiles).

In either case, you might want to upgrade to the Ai version of SilverFast (to get the full power of the software) and you will need to invest in the IT8 extension.

Eric

So you are saying that:
1. The calibration does not do anything to the scanner. It is a way of creating something like "mapping" file, which tells the application how to interpret the data(colors) it gets from the scanner/file.
2. If I use the SF Ai IT8 calibration and calibrate the SF by creating its private profile, only SF Ai will produce the correct(or as closa as possible) colors.
3. If I create public ICC profile, I would have to use an application which can use this profile and it will have to apply the profile to the data it read from scanner/file.

Now, if the above is correct, then if I get a good ICC profile created by other application other than SF's IT8 (I don't know any yet) , it will do the same job as using SF's IT8 calibration. Correct ?
Can SF Ai use ICC profiles or is it responsibility of my Image Editing Application ?

znamen,

IT8 does 3 things:

1. It creates ICC-standard scanner profiles that can be used in any ICC-compliant application.

2. It allows Silverfast to integrate the ICC profile in a special way that makes it even more accurate than just using the ICC profile alone. I'm not sure how this works, but if you choose the profile in the CMS settings as opposed to setting it to "Calibration" the results aren't as good.

3. By characterizing your scanner with ICC profile(s), you accomplish 2 things:

A. If you want the exact colors, you can turn all adjustments off, and you will be able to get the EXACT colors. This is handy for tranparencies and anytime a client/you wants the exact color of a logo, magazine cover, etc.

B. Beyond that, you will get better results in all of your scans, because Silverfast will optimize it's settings/colors to your scanner profile, and you'll get better looking scans. Check out these links:

http://www.silverfast.com/silverfast/it8/en.html

http://www.silverfast.com/english/scann ... brate.html