Photoshop Printer Profile Question

H
Posted By
harrillj
Dec 18, 2003
Views
265
Replies
1
Status
Closed
OK… A little background first. I thought I had color management down. I had been using printer profiles for a few years and getting decent results using the Monaco Optix and EZColor, but recently after buying a new Eizo LCD I needed to create new printer profiles. Again, I thought I understood soft proofing, gamut warnings, and the various printer driver settings. Perhaps not.

Anyway, I am having a problem getting accurate printer profiles with a new Gretag Macbeth Eye-One Photo product. The Monaco wasn’t working for me so I broke my bank and went for the $1500 Gretag spectro. Still having problems.

Without rambling much more, the Greatg product provides an RGB target that needs to be printed and then scanned with the Gretag handheld spectro.

This target can be printed from the Greatag profile software called iMatch, or, from Photohop, as long as color managment settings are all turned off. It is a "untagged RGB" tif file, no profile whatsoever. I printed it 3 times, and one of them is lighter and clearly looks different. I expected all of them to look the same. The 3 print methods are described below and I was hoping that someone could expalin why one of the methods had different results.

1) I first printed the target from iMatch. It navigated me to choose my Epson 1280 printer, then it launched the same Epson driver options that I see when printing from Photoshop. I click on custom, set the dpi to 720, and turn off all color management. I then print.

2) I then print the target from Photoshop by selecting "print with preview". The source space "Document" shows "Untagged RGB". That’s correct. The print space profile is set to "Same as Source". I then click print, turn color management off, set dpi to 720 in the Epson print utility, and print the target. Everything exalty the same as method 1 above.

At this point, the printed target from method 1 and 2 above appear to be identical. That is what I would have expected. So far, so good.

3) I then again print from Photoshop, but instead of "Print with Preview", I simply select "print". It is important to note that the Photoshop status bar at the bottom shows the profile as "untagged RGB", so I know the file has not been converted to another profile or the Adobe RGB 1998 working space. When I click on print, I get the same Epson printer utility as the above two methods. I click on custom and turn off all color management, set dpi to 720, and ensure all setting are identical as method 1 and 2 above. I then print the document. However, the printed target here is clearly different that method 1 and 2 above. Much much lighter. I would have expected that all three printed targets were the same. It seems to me that a profile got used somehow, but I can not see how. In fact, I did these print methods twice and got the same results. It appears that when only "print" is selected, some profile gets assigned even though color managment is turned off.

What am I missing here? What have I done wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated, and, I am sorry for the long thread.

Thanks in advance

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Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

L
LenHewitt
Dec 18, 2003
Harrillj,

after buying a new Eizo LCD I needed to create new printer profiles. <<

NO YOU DON’T! You only need new PRINTER profiles if something about the PRINTER has changed.

What you DO need is a new monitor profile (and Adobe Gamma won’t cut it)

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

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