3d. About the Charts: IT8

IT8 charts are made by the major film manufacturers (e.g. Kodak, Agfa, Fuji). They are generally available on each of the manufacturers' main film families, both transparency and print. IT8 charts are not available for color negative film.

The IT8 chart has between 252 and 288 color patches, arranged in twelve rows (A through L) and 22 columns (1 through 22), along with a nominally neutral scale across the bottom.

The three columns at the far right (patches A20 through L22) represent the Vendor Optional Area, which the chart manufacturer is free to use in any manner it wishes. This area is typically used for additional color patches, a photograph, or a combination of the two.

In the very bottom left of the chart you will find a date code in YYYY:MM format. This gives the year and month that the chart was manufactured and is used to identify the proper reference file for the particular chart.

Reference files for the IT8 are provided by the chart manufacturer, either on disk with the chart, or online at some central repository.

Kodak Reference Files

Reference files for Kodak IT8 charts may be found on Kodak's FTP site at ftp://ftp.kodak.com/gastds/Q60DATA/. (Note that logging onto this site is sometimes slow, so be patient.) At this site, you will find reference files in different folders, according to the chart media type:

Select the folder corresponding to the media type of your IT8 chart. In that folder you will find every reference file ever made for Kodak targets. How do you find the one you need? That is where the manufacturing date is used (found in the lower left corner of the physical chart). Kodak has a file naming convention where the first two characters correspond to the media type (E1, E3, K3 or R1 as shown in the above table) followed by the four-digit year and two-digit month manufacturing code. Kodak reference files always have a ".Q60" file name extension.

Let's use the chart at the top of this page as an example. It is a 5 × 7 inch Ektacolor chart (i.e. a photographic print). Therefore, its media type code is R1. Its manufacturing date is 2002:08. So the reference file we are looking for will be found in directory R1-Data and will have the file name R1200208.Q60.

Reference Files From Other Manufacturers

Unfortunately, other film manufacturers have not organized their reference files as nicely as Kodak has. If you do not have the reference file for your chart, you should contact the source from which it was purchased and hopefully they can help you locate the file.