From: "Bobby77501"
I have a scanner profile which I have no idea how it works (comes into play) when I scan. I use the Epson 3200 Pro and can’t find anyplace where I specify that profile.
If you really want to dig into this Color Management stuff I recommend the book "Real World Color Management" by Fraser/Bunting/Murphy.
According to that book, you would generate your scanner profile with the Monaco software with all auto-anything features turned off on the scanner, so you’re getting just the raw scan data. Now when you scan you will end up with an untagged tiff file and when you open Photoshop you will get a "Missing Profile" message.
According to RWCM the way to use the profile is when you get the "Missing Profile" message you should pick the third option "Assign Profile" and assign your scanner profile here, and also check the box for "and then convert document to working RGB", which should probably be AdobeRGB or similar.
Assigning the scanner profile should give you the correct colors as determined by your IT8 scan and profile generation from the Monaco software. The advantage of using your working space (which is an abstract, non-device specific space) instead of your input device space (ie, the Monaco scanner profile) is that the "input spaces are rarely gray-balanced" and "input spaces are hardly ever perceptually uniform" (pg 266 RWCM).
Note that Monaco will tell you to NOT convert to an abstract working space (like AdobeRGB), for some reason. So once again you have a choice 🙂
Anyway, what you’ll likely find is that this scan is very dull because there was no auto-exposure step during the scan, so you’ll have to make some major tonal edits. For this reason I suggest you scan in high bit mode.
I feel I get more accurate colors using a custom scanner profile but it’s definitely a lot more work and the images look really drab out of the scanner until the tonality problem is addressed.
Hope this helps … getting the book I mentioned is a good idea if you want to learn more. And I’m sure there are other ways to do this, which we’ll hear shortly 🙂
Now, when it comes to setting up my workflow
(color spaces), how do I set up Color Settings in Photoshop CS?
Photoshop defaults to settings better suited for the web instead of printing (ie, sRGB is the default working space). Since you’re scanning yourself and printing on an Epson inkjet I’d suggest setting AdobeRGB as your working space for a better gamut match than sRGB (which is better suited for the web). You can do this easily with Edit > Color Settings and in the top drop down menu ‘Settings’ pick US Pre-Press Defaults" (or Japan or Europe defaults if that’s where you are … the differences are in the CMYK settings, which you are not likely to care about). This sets AdobeRGB as your default RGB working space and you’re ready to go.
Bill
