The Color Partnership announces OptiCal 2.0.

DEL MAR, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 1997--The Color Partnership(TM) today announced version 2.0 of OptiCal(TM), its monitor calibration system, for Macintosh(R) workstations.

OptiCal 2.0 includes notable new features such as: improved user interface; instrument measurement of black point and contrast settings for more accurate and objective calibration; additional control points on the gamma curves for more precise gamma corrections; the OptiMate II - a faster and more accurate monitor reading device; an information dialog for tracking past calibrations; a relative colorimeter dialog to find values of colors on screen using the OptiMate II; and improved dual monitor support.

"With its improvements and increased functionality, OptiCal 2.0 is the most comprehensive monitor calibration tool available," said Sara Akerman, director of product marketing at The Color Partnership.

OptiCal was released by The Color Partnership in June 1996 for Macintosh and SGI platforms as a monitor calibration and ICC profiling tool. OptiCal allows users to set their monitors to a target curve and color temperature, make further corrections visually if necessary, and then generate an ICC profile of the calibrated monitor. By running OptiCal on all of the systems within a production environment, in-house and off-site, precise monitor matching can be achieved. OptiCal thus performs true remote monitor proofing, by calibrating all of the monitors to an OptiCal ICC profile.

On-Screen Colorimeter

OptiCal 2.0 provides an on-screen colorimeter. The On-Screen Colorimeter displays colors, including those from the Apple Color Picker, and uses the OptiMate II Monitor Sensor to read those colors. The color values are displayed in CIExyY, CIELab, RGB, XYZ, Foot-Lamberts, and Kelvin. This information can be used to verify that the white points, therefore color temperatures, of two, or multiple monitors match by reading white patches on all monitors involved in the work flow.

Multiple Control Points

OptiCal 2.0 has additional control points available on the gamma curves for more precise manual curve adjustment. The software now allows users to select 3, 5, or 11 control points for each of the red, green, and blue curves. Users can adjust the curves individually or collectively to manually change the appearance of the monitor to match printed output. These custom curves can be saved and used as target curves for other systems running OptiCal, on Macintosh, Windows 95, Windows NT, and SGI platforms.

OptiMate II

OptiCal 2.0 now ships with the new Monitor Calibrator from Minolta. This previously unreleased instrument offers more than twice the speed in taking readings and increased accuracy, compared to the original OptiMate.

OptiCal 2.0 is an integral part of The Color Partnership's Visual Color Management(TM) (VCM(TM)) suite of software which includes Profile/80(TM), a CMYK output profile generator developed by RIT Research Corp.; ColorBatch(TM), which batch processes images through ColorSync source and destination profiles; and SoftProof(TM), a Photoshop(TM) plug-in, which allows end-users to view and color correct images in a soft-proofing mode.

OptiCal 2.0 will be available from The Color Partnership in May 1997 for a suggested retail price of U.S.$695. A demonstration version of OptiCal 2.0 is available for download at www.colorpar.com .

The Color Partnership is a privately held company located at 12865 Pointe Del Mar #160, Del Mar, California 92014 U.S.A.. Telephone [phone]. Fax: [phone]. E-Mail [e-mail] . -0- The Color Partnership, TCP, OptiCal, ColorBatch, SoftProof, Visual Color Management, and VCM are trademarks of The Color Partnership. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Sara Akerman, 619/259-8688 x105

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