st row of colour patches. The clear plastic guide has a horizontal opening that the head of the spectro nestles into to traverse the horizontal row of colour swatches. There is a cradle for the base of the spectro to rest on that slides horizontally across the guide. The spectro must begin on white paper to the left of the colour patch row, and finish on white paper to the right of the row. If your target has a semi-circle printed to the left of its colour rows, use it to position the chart under the scanning opening of the plastic guide. The left semi-circle on the opening in the guide should align with the printed semi-circle on the chart. If there is no printed semi-circle on the chart, allow ¼ – ½ inch of white space showing in the opening to the left of the first colour patch.
With your chart properly placed in the mounting base, position the spectro all the way to the left on the plastic guide with its base in the sliding cradle and reading aperture in the cut-away channel. Press the button on the left side of the spectro and keep it pressed. Wait one second while the white of the paper is read (there may be a beep to indicate this is done), slide the spectro smoothly and evenly to the right until you reach white paper past the colour patches, and then release the button. You should be rewarded with a prompt to scan row B. Slide the entire plastic guide down one row, move the spectro all the way back to the left, and do it all over again! If you receive an error, clear the prompt and try scanning the same row again. Success at hand-held scanning comes with a little bit of practice and a Zen approach. Your degree of success will be inversely proportional to the amount of anxiety you feel. The techniques that contribute to getting it right are smooth and even passage of the spectro; consistent pressure (make sure you are not pushing down on the head); white paper at either end; and keeping the button pressed from start to finish.
After you receive a couple of errors on the same row, the software may switch to individual patch reading. In this case, the prompt will now say “Scan patch B1” instead of the previous “Scan row B.” You must position the read head over each individual patch and press the spectro’s button when prompted on screen. After completing one row of individual patches, you will be returned to full row scanning mode. This procedure allows the measurement process to go forward when the software is having trouble detecting colour boundaries in a particular row.
Having completed all rows on all pages (which may take some time), you will be prompted to save the measurement file. Some colour management software will take you directly to the additional settings required to define a profile and then proceed with the profile creation.