Dear grandsire02
grandsire02 wrote:I understand the reasoning but it still leaves me with a problem - the hexagons have so little difference between them that firstly my brain cannot tell me which one is more neutral than the others, and secondly I'm not entirely clear what the definition of 'neutral' is in this context.
Yeah, the difference is very subtle because the idea is to offer a very small variation from the neutral grey of the computer, If you open the profile editor is because you want to make adjustments to your profile, most likely what the profile gives as an absolute grey does not look like that to your eyes.
The definition of "neutral" in this context means an image without color bias (or color cast), this is usually measured in a greys.
grandsire02 wrote:Unfortunately as well, my mind seems to prefer working in absolutes rather than perceptions.
Well, your mind and the computer might have the numbers representing "neutrality".
After the calibration, the scanner profile and the printer profile have this "neutral" values which you have to take for granted. Although calibrations are also not 100% absolutes, they are approximations to that 100%. Deviations are always present(this is also mentioned in all standards). In that sense a calibration is an aproximation to the absolute neutrality with a very low deviation value (the lower the acurate).
So absolute value, 100% bias free is just a concept in your mind represented by the numbers into the computer system but not by the monitor, the scanner, the printer and the paper.
Probably using a Spectro photo meter you will be able to tell if a reproduction is completely true to its model (or at least very similar).
Cheers