Printing

IE
Posted By
Ian_Edwards
Oct 15, 2007
Views
306
Replies
6
Status
Closed
Hi

I’m sure that this has been asked before and that there are billions of answers and my quest is for a definative answer 🙂

Ok CS3 extended running with an HP2605 colour printer. Printer by default uses Hp rsrgb

Now a picture on the screen in grey gamma 2.2 looks perfect but printed looks very dark. I’ve tried letting the printer handle colour and Photoshop handling the colour. I loaded the HP postscript driver and that gives the best (if rather poor) results.

A search on the web tells me I need an icm printer profile for my printer loaded into photoshop but I’m unable to locate such a file either free or chargable.

Hp solution was to go into the printer settings and adjust the colours individually to get the result I wanted for every single image. Not a viable solution.

So after this long missive here’s the questionssss

Will I ever get a good output?
Do I need the ICM file
Should I get a different laser printer that prints in postscript? Or should I get a perfect match everytime so my printers faulty?

Sorry to be so longwinded but I’m really confused

cheers

Ian
—

http://www.edwards-micros.co.uk
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RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 15, 2007
Ian,

The problem is the lack of colour management. Your monitor and printer need to be profiled, otherwise your computer sends (for instance) 23% red to the printer without having a clue what 100% would be.

You need a profile for the printer which you can "attach" to the image on screen (Soft proofing: Ctl-Y)

You also need to calibrate and profile the monitor.

Without these, there is no colour consistency between devices.

There’s a lot to read here:

<http://www.computer-darkroom.com>

Rob
IE
Ian_Edwards
Oct 15, 2007
Hi

Thanks for the link it looks interesting.

Question (the second) How or where to I obtain a profile for my printer and mon itor?

Sorry to be so dumb but whilst I’ve used PS for the web for years this is my first foray into printing

thanks again

Ian

—

http://www.edwards-micros.co.uk
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 15, 2007
Ian,

Two ways easy (good) and not-so-easy (better)

Easy: check whether you can download a profile for your printer from either manufacturer or from Bill Atkinson. Haven’t got the URL handy but Google Bill Atkinson profiles.

not easy, but better would be to print a target using special software, and measure the patches with a spectrophotometer which feeds back it’s info to the software.
The software then generates a profile that describes the differences between what the printer printed, and what it should have printed.

Rob
RP
Rick_Popham
Oct 15, 2007
Hi Ian,

As Rob mentioned, to get consistently accurate prints you need to color manage your system.

You should calibrate your monitor first. Using a hardware/software calibrator, which combines a "puck" spectrometer to read the color patches sent to the monitor by the software will work best. There are several options here, with Monaco/Gretag Macbeth probably the most popular.

Once you have the monitor calibrated, you need use a printer/paper profile when you print. These profiles are specific to the printer/ink/paper combination you are using. They are usually offered for free download by the paper manufacturers, or you can have a custom profile made for each type of paper you want to use.

For example, if you want to use Crane Museo Silver Rag on an Epson 3800 printer, you would go to Crane’s site and look for the profile they have made for using Silver Rag on a 3800. If you want to use Crane’s Museo Max, you would need to get THAT profile, and select it when you were printing on that paper.

Unfortunately, most of these profiles are for photo inkjet printers. You are using a color laser, and I have no experience printing with those. I’ve never seen a paper profile offered for a color laser. However, if you’re using HP paper, you may be able to find one on HP’s website.

If you read through the link that Rob posted, some of this may make more sense 🙂

Rick
J
Jim
Oct 16, 2007
wrote in message
Hi

Thanks for the link it looks interesting.

Question (the second) How or where to I obtain a profile for my printer and mon itor?

Sorry to be so dumb but whilst I’ve used PS for the web for years this is my first foray into printing

thanks again

Ian

—

http://www.edwards-micros.co.uk
Some firms supply profiles for their paper. Such profiles may be adequate for your needs.
Some monitors are designed to use sRGB as the default. This is the least common denominator profile.
However, to get the best color matching involves buying dedicated software such as Colorvision.

I have set Adobe RGB as my working profile. I have set my Nikon scanner to output with this profile. Another way is to create a profile for the scanner with all color management in the scanner disable.
In this case, I scan with no color management, and I instruct PS to convert to Adobe RGB with the custom input profile.
I use primarily Epson paper, and I instruct PS to use the profile which applies to the particular model of the paper.
The way that I do this is not necessarily the best, and I may change my procedure whenever I find a better method.

In addition, it is advisable to let PS do all of the color conversions. You should disable color management in the printer driver. The theory behind this is what is every program’s business is no program’s business.

This subject is discussed in quite a few places. One of the best is "Real World Color Management" by Bruce Fraser.

Jim
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Oct 16, 2007
The "puck" referred to above as a "spectrometer" or "spectrophotometer" is more commonly known as a "colorimeter." It’s similar in size to a mouse and contains a light-sensitive element that can provide feedback to an application concerning the color being displayed on your screen or (in some cases) the ambient light. Colorimeters are commonly sold bundled with software for calibrating and profiling monitors, and also can have software for producing printer and/or scanner profiles. The least expensive colorimeter available from a major provider is the Pantone Huey. Other possibilities include the Monaco OptixXR (which I have, bundled with Monaco EZcolor software) and numerous more expensive models. One or another of these is a highly recommended supplement to Photoshop.

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