Inserting ICC profile for outside printing lab in CS3 – how?

LB
Posted By
louise_baen
Jun 22, 2007
Views
646
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Using Win XP Pro and CS3. 2 gig of ram and when printing from my own machine, using an HP 8250. This question is about uploading prints to a professional lab and having them color accurate.

I have my monitor calibrated using Spyder 2 Pro and this monitor profile shows up as the active profile on my video card settings and as the working space in edit/color settings..

I would like a professional lab to print some of my larger prints but when I upload them, the resulting print colors are a little off. The lab provides ICC profiles (I believe they are printer profiles, for glossy, lustre and matte). Mostly, the colors are less vibrant than those I achieve on my own inkjet and also from the ones I see on the screen.

Therefore, I installed the lab’s icc profiles for their printers, but I don’t know how and where to enter them into CS3.

So, if I want to take a photo and adapt it to the lab’s ICC and then upload it to them, how would I go about it? The lab says I should not "convert" my picture to their profile and that I should not "embed" their profile in my picture. But the person I’m talking to is not very conversant in CS3 and additionally, there is a language barrier.
The lab says to look at my picture on the screen using their ICC and adjust it accordingly and then upload. But when I try to do this, their ICC seems to become embedded. This is ok with me but they say it isn’t right and I’m very confused.

Where should I put the lab’s ICC profile so that I can adjust my picture to look the way I want it to look when they print it?

Should I "assign" a profile – should I "convert" ?

I spoke with Adobe tech support and they weren’t clear as to what I should do either so I decided to try posting here.

Thanks.

Louise
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how icc insert print profile

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MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Jun 22, 2007
Use the printer’s profile as your proofing profile. Tweak the image with proofing turned on to make it look the way you want and save the image with a new name to send to the printer.
L
louise
Jun 22, 2007
wrote:
Use the printer’s profile as your proofing profile. Tweak the image with proofing turned on to make it look the way you want and save the image with a new name to send to the printer.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’m having a problem with it and maybe I’m not doing it right. I tweak the proof (lab’s icc profile) but then I can’t compare it to the original because the "tweak" is applied to the original as well. (using cntrl/y).

So I have to tweak with original with my eye rather than being able to have the original side by side with the proof and "tweak" the proof and be able to compare them.

Is there a box I did or didn’t check etc. – or a trick?

Thanks again.

Louise
L
louise
Jun 22, 2007
wrote:
Use the printer’s profile as your proofing profile. Tweak the image with proofing turned on to make it look the way you want and save the image with a new name to send to the printer.

OK – I figured out to immediately save it under a different name and then keep both photos open next to each other on the screen –

I have one more question – in creating the custom proof, there is a checkbox for preserving rgb numbers and another checkbox for simulating paper color. Do I want these checked?

Thanks – I think I’m getting there…

Louise
FN
Fred_Nirque
Jun 22, 2007
Louise, your Spyder monitor profile should not be your working space in color settings.

Most labs equipment seems to prefer sRGB, so set your RGB working space profile to that for starters or check with the lab as to which working space their printer prefers and set that as your working space (however I use Adobe RGB 1998 as the RGB working space when using my Epson printers and that gives better results than sRGB).

If you go View>Proof Setup>Custom and drop down the list to your lab’s profile of the paper you want them to print on and select that, your calibrated screen will then simulate what your lab will produce. Then if you adjust your colours to look right you should pretty much get the same back from the lab. This is called "soft proofing".

You can alternate in and out of the screen displaying this way and back to your working space by hitting Ctrl+Y.

The same applies when you print on your own printer – you can use the canned profile for the paper you use that came with the printer, or have one custom made by the paper supplier.

If you set up your home printing like this, choose "Photoshop Manages Colors" in the initial print dialog and under Color Management select "Document", then your printer/paper profile in the printer profile box, set Rendering to "Perceptual" and check Black Point Compensation.

Then turn off colour management in the printer’s control dialog and set these as your default settings.

Things will change as to the way you used to print, and previous files will most likely print differently to before, but at least you’ll have consistency into the future.

Note, however, that there are several threads going on in this forum regarding the inconsistent and illogical way CS3 printing works (you might be wise to read these), so setting defaults may be meaningless and you may have to set everything every time with every print. Best to check your settings before every print.
L
louise
Jun 23, 2007
wrote:
Louise, your Spyder monitor profile should not be your working space in color settings.
Most labs equipment seems to prefer sRGB, so set your RGB working space profile to that for starters or check with the lab as to which working space their printer prefers and set that as your working space (however I use Adobe RGB 1998 as the RGB working space when using my Epson printers and that gives better results than sRGB).

If you go View>Proof Setup>Custom and drop down the list to your lab’s profile of the paper you want them to print on and select that, your calibrated screen will then simulate what your lab will produce. Then if you adjust your colours to look right you should pretty much get the same back from the lab. This is called "soft proofing".

You can alternate in and out of the screen displaying this way and back to your working space by hitting Ctrl+Y.

The same applies when you print on your own printer – you can use the canned profile for the paper you use that came with the printer, or have one custom made by the paper supplier.

If you set up your home printing like this, choose "Photoshop Manages Colors" in the initial print dialog and under Color Management select "Document", then your printer/paper profile in the printer profile box, set Rendering to "Perceptual" and check Black Point Compensation.

Then turn off colour management in the printer’s control dialog and set these as your default settings.

Things will change as to the way you used to print, and previous files will most likely print differently to before, but at least you’ll have consistency into the future.

Note, however, that there are several threads going on in this forum regarding the inconsistent and illogical way CS3 printing works (you might be wise to read these), so setting defaults may be meaningless and you may have to set everything every time with every print. Best to check your settings before every print.

Thanks for your suggestions but they are confusing because Spyder tech support disagrees. I’ve gotten several comments on these boards saying that spyder should not be my working color space – and yet, when I call Spyder tech support, they say it should.

This method is producing very good and accurate prints on my HP 8250. I do have color management turned off and I do let Photoshop manage the colors.

I have intent set to relative colormetric because that’s what the default was. What is the difference in setting it to perceptual? How might this change things? I do have black point compensation checked.

Thanks.

Louise

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