A few months ago, many of us in the cultural heritage community were taken by surprise when basICColor announced that they would be shutting down operations at the end of May, 2019. For years, basICColor Input software had been the go-to for many of us when we sought to create custom RAW or ICC profiles for our cameras.

We at Digital Transitions Cultural Heritage are extremely pleased to learn that basICColor is back in business and is continuing on with its core line of products dedicated to the input side of imaging.

The Story:

Over basICColor’s time in business, they grew to have a wide portfolio of color management and calibration software that spanned the entire imaging ecosystem from input to output. As the basICColor product line grew, the majority of professional and cultural heritage photographers were only using products related to camera, scanner, and display profiling, such as the industry-loved basICColor Input.

In May 2019, basICColor GmbH became insolvent due to the declining popularity of the products on the output side of this ecosystem which were dedicated to quality control, printer profiles, etc. During this time, however, the basICColor input and display software continued to do well. German bankruptcy law essentially allows basICColor to go back into business, where the team (comprised of new and old basICColor employees) will continue to focus on the development of the following core products:

• basICColor input 6 + basICColor input 6 Pro
• basICColor inputVideo
• basICColor display 6
• basICColor cockpit

Karl Koch, the founder of basICColor GmbH, and Franz Herbert, the mind behind its development, will continue to lead basICColor in this effort into the future.

As mentioned above, basICColor input 6 is currently in the works and is planned to be released soon along with a Pro version. A few new features include:

• An improved profiling algorithm
• Automatic profile optimization
• Automatic profile optimization to be switched on and off (Pro)
• Manual color edits for the 12 most saturated ColorChecker SG patches (Pro)
• Grey edits in a 12-step grayscale ramp (Pro)
• Supports creation of even-fielding/illuminance uniformity (Pro)
• Quality control for FADGI, Metamorfoze, and ISO criteria (Pro)

What’s Next?

Right now, licenses for basICColor input 5 are available and new purchases include a free upgrade to basICColor input 6. For information about pre-ordering or upgrading to basICColor input 6 Pro from an existing input 5 license, shoot us an email and we’ll be happy to help you out.

Never used basICColor input? Download the DT Digitization Guide for Reflective Materials where you’ll find a step-by-step guide to creating a custom, in-situ ICC profile with basICColor input 5.

We will also be discussing color profiling in detail at our East Coast Round Table on October 17th, hosted at the Morgan Library & Museum. National Geographic Society’s Julie McVey will be discussing their approach to creating, testing, and evaluating custom ICC profiles for Kodachrome and Ektachrome film. Dave Wyble of Avian Rochester and Spencer Zidarich of Digital Transitions will be discussing the new Next Generation Target and a few of the key features added to the forthcoming basICColor input 6.

Interested in basICColor? Contact us below.