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COLORSOURCE

Color expertise, engineering and software solutions for all industries.

40 years of professional imaging experience at your service

Aeronautics engineer by training, Wilfrid Meffre came to digital imaging in 1982 per taste for photography and still images. He brings you a nearly
40 years' experience in professional imaging, in most fields of its industrial and commercial applications (scientific and medical imaging, industrial vision, audio-visual, still image and cinematographic post-production, professional photography, prepress, digital and traditional N-colors printing).

He brings you a thorough knowledge of color management, and the hardware and software technologies for image and document acquisition, retouching, processing, reproduction and diffusion, as well as a good knowledge of the involved Trades, associated Markets and Vendors.

He worked with many graphic tools' originators and manufacturers of Europe, United States and Japan, and introduced in France since 1996 the Color Management tools and modern working methods of the main Vendors, by simultaneously developing the distribution of the best products and training the actors of the involved markets, including Distribution channels, Education establishments, the End Users... and Vendors.

He also brings you a great independence of judgment. Most famous brands do not always offer the best for each application, and are not always the most innovative.

He nevertheless has distinct preferences for good products, and never hesitated to denounce the oddity of some commercial or technical offers, including when they emanated from his own Suppliers!

Independent of any Manufacturer, Dealer or Vendor, Colorsource traditionally do not sell any hardware or software. One exception since 2011: Colorsource now market their own developed standard application software for Print Houses, plus specific application software for specific color engineering applications.

Colorsource standard software solutions for Graphic Industries were originally developed for their own use, in the scope of their long-standing education and engineering activities, not only for Graphic Industries, but also for many other manufacturing and service Industries, where sense of industrial processes and quality is still today much more mature and effective than in Graphic Arts!

A few dates:

1982-1991:

French person in charge of the scientific and industrial applications markets for QUANTEL image processing hardware and software, a very innovative British Company that pioneered real time digital imaging.

1991-1994:

Technical support and training of French QUANTEL Graphic PaintBox users, the first machine processing high-resolution color image (A3 @ 300 dpi) in nearly real time. Discovery of the numerous non-industrial processes in Graphic Industries and non-quality.

1995:

European product manager for SEIKO Instruments (SII) professional color printers at THETA Scan (European Importer at the time).

Development in Japan of color calibration of the first PostScript digital Color proofing system in the world being set... by using measurement instruments. (Designed for calibration with a CMYK densitometer at the time because a spectrophotometer was more expensive than the complete CMYK proffer with its embedded PostScript RIP and color calibration).

These SII color proofers were the first digital printers worldwide that allowed their Users performing by themselves the printer's CMYK inks density calibration, inputting to the color proofer the 4 press target TVI curves as measured by the same densitometer, inputting the paper tint by D50 visual matching, and converting CMYK input data form main market CMYK analog proof standards to Lab and then to printer's C'M'Y'K' density calibrated inks.

All this while the existing digital proofing systems supplied by all major long standing Graphic Market Vendors did not even offer with their color proofing systems the density based CMYK inks calibration allowing stabilizing their colors!

Which confirms Graphic Industries were buying and using many expensive and quite badly designed production tools!

1996:

Launch in France of the first "democratic" and user-friendly spectrophotometer allowing measurements on paper, monitors, and later transparencies, the famous COLORTRON, invented by the Californian company LIGHT SOURCE. (Later bought by X-Rite).

Creation of an adapted professional training to color measurement and encouragement of all THETA Scan suppliers to make prompt use of the universal color management I.C.C architecture and its advantages.

Development of software allowing computing SII color proofers proprietary CMYK to C'M'Y'K' DeviceLink profiles by using standard input and output CMYK I.C.C. profiles. Because no proprietary color calibration system gives a future to their Customers, so that we had to open them calibrating their SII dye sublimation CMYK color proofers by using the market standard ICC profiles.

1997:

Launch in France of Gretag color management equipment's (since become GretagMacbeth). Development of a universal full I.C.C. complying engine (CMS) for UNIX for optimal driving of PostScript and raster SEIKO Instruments printers in monitor softcopy and file copy modes for CAD/CAM User's, and development of a monitor profiling software allowing first the calibration, then the characterization of the calibrated monitor by computing it's I.C.C. profile, for UNIX and Windows 9x/NT workstations.

Development of software allowing computing SII color proofers proprietary CMYK to C'M'Y'K' DeviceLink profiles by using standard input and output CMYK I.C.C. profiles. Because no proprietary color calibration system gives a future to their customers, so that we had to open them calibrating their SII dye sublimation CMYK color proofers by using the market standard ICC profiles.

1998:

Creation and realization of the Digital Color professional trainings allowing fast transfer of competence to professional Users (End User's, Distribution channels, and Education Establishments).

Request to GretagMacbeth for a replacement of LightSource-X-Rite COLORTRON, which would in addition measure continuous and flash lights and allow to address a much wider markets than the existing high end Color Management hardware and software based on GretagMacbeth Spectrolino + SpectroScan...

2001:

Launching revolutionary Eye-One Pro spectrophotometer, which measured monitors and paper.

2002:

Launching the second generation Eye-One Pro which measures not only monitors and paper, but also continuous and flashlights, and remotely measures video or cinema projectors display screens.

(Still waiting for measuring transparencies as Colortron did!)

1999 - March 2004:

Creation and Management of THETA Scan professional Imaging department, and management of product lines Leica S1 (high res. studio digital photography), Fujifilm Electronic Imaging (scanners), Colortrac (large formats canners), X-Rite (Color Management), GretagMacbeth (Color Management), ENCAD (Ink Jet wide format printing) and EDOX (First PostScript RIP for Canon copiers with ICC color management made by Graphics management, later purchased by EFI who were very late on color technology at the time ;-)) but still had many Customers in Graphic Industries ;-)).

2004:

Creation of Colorsource Company

2011:

Launch of Colorsource innovative software activities for Graphic Industries.

2011 - 2024:

Colorsource has considerably expanded its activities in the field of engineering and development of standard or custom software, for many industrial applications using colorimetry applied to digital imaging.

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