Photoshop Color Management

AG
Posted By
Alexander Gro
Jan 16, 2004
Views
183
Replies
1
Status
Closed
Hi everybody,

I have some questions about (non-professional) color management with Photoshop.

My configuration:
– Photoshop 7.0.1 on Windows XP,
– ICM Profiles for the printer (Epson Stylus C84) and my monitor (EIZO L885),
– CM set to L885 for RGB working space,
– A digital proof for the C84 printer created with the C84 .icm-file. – Printing to color space of the C84 is enabled in PS.
– In the options dialog of my printer I set color management to Windows’ own ICM. The driver should not perform Epson’s own PhotoEnhance or something like that.

I’ve read the chapter about CM in the PS manual but couldn’t get a clue why this does not work:
– I created a new CMYK image in PS and painted three distinct areas of _clean_ cyan, magenta and yellow.
– A black area (K:100%, C: 60%, M, Y: 50%) was added, too. – When I enable "Gamut warning" (See menu "View" -> third item. Please correct me if this menu item is named differently in english versions – mine is localized to german.), the cyan and yellow area turn gray as if the printer isn’t able to print them correctly. It’s a little confusing: A CMYK printer isn’t able to print clean CMYK in separated areas? When I print the test image, PS remains right: C, M and Y are not printed as displayed. C turns blue and M turns red. Y is yellow, but spotted with little M and C ink dots as some kind of diffuse dithering was applied. So yellow is printed a little darker than displayed. The white area ouside the colored is not white, but also slightly spotted with cyan.
I don’t understand what PS and/or Windows’ ICM does. Is the CMYK image converted back into RGB and then sent to the printer? Is is better to use RGB images at all?

Also, my pictures are printed a little darker than displayed on the monitor (with digital proof turned on).

Another question. Which monitor color temperature is the best for digital imaging? I’ve read about 5000K, but all the white areas seem to be a little red-biased when my monitor’s color temperature is set to this value.

Thanks for your help in advance,

Alex

X-Post, F’Up set to adobe.photoshop.windows

—
_______________________________________

Alexander Gro
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H
Hecate
Jan 17, 2004
On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:33:02 +0100, "Alexander Groß" wrote:

Hi everybody,

I have some questions about (non-professional) color management with Photoshop.

My configuration:
– Photoshop 7.0.1 on Windows XP,
– ICM Profiles for the printer (Epson Stylus C84) and my monitor (EIZO L885),
– CM set to L885 for RGB working space,
– A digital proof for the C84 printer created with the C84 .icm-file. – Printing to color space of the C84 is enabled in PS.
– In the options dialog of my printer I set color management to Windows’ own ICM. The driver should not perform Epson’s own PhotoEnhance or something like that.

I’ve read the chapter about CM in the PS manual but couldn’t get a clue why this does not work:
– I created a new CMYK image in PS and painted three distinct areas of _clean_ cyan, magenta and yellow.
– A black area (K:100%, C: 60%, M, Y: 50%) was added, too. – When I enable "Gamut warning" (See menu "View" -> third item. Please correct me if this menu item is named differently in english versions – mine is localized to german.), the cyan and yellow area turn gray as if the printer isn’t able to print them correctly. It’s a little confusing: A CMYK printer isn’t able to print clean CMYK in separated areas? When I print the test image, PS remains right: C, M and Y are not printed as displayed. C turns blue and M turns red. Y is yellow, but spotted with little M and C ink dots as some kind of diffuse dithering was applied. So yellow is printed a little darker than displayed. The white area ouside the colored is not white, but also slightly spotted with cyan.
I don’t understand what PS and/or Windows’ ICM does. Is the CMYK image converted back into RGB and then sent to the printer? Is is better to use RGB images at all?

Also, my pictures are printed a little darker than displayed on the monitor (with digital proof turned on).

Another question. Which monitor color temperature is the best for digital imaging? I’ve read about 5000K, but all the white areas seem to be a little red-biased when my monitor’s color temperature is set to this value.
Thanks for your help in advance,

Alex
The obvious thing springs to mind – your printer isn’t a CMYK printer. It’s an inkjet. Inkjets expect their input to be RGB, usually sRGB. They convert to CMYK internally when printing. So, you give it a CMYK image which it thinks is RGB, which it then converts to CMYK. As you’re using complementary colours I would assume, and someone more expert than myself can correct me on this, that is why the colours you are getting are their complements.

—

Hecate

veni, vidi, reliqui

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