| Using our ICC profiles |
added 8/3/2009 3:35:03 PM |
Hi all,
A lot of you have been asking about using our ICC profiles. We worked with our color consultant and came up with the following primer on how to get the closest match possible between what you see on your computer and what we print. Hope this helps! If you have any other questions not answered here or another issue with using our ICC profiles, please contact us.
Optimal Digital Prints from AdoramaPix
By Tom P. Ashe
Monitor Calibration
If you plan to print your images, your method of color management will be different from editing your images for web display. The goal is to have the printed image match as closely as possible to the image on your computer monitor. To achieve this, calibration and profiling of your monitor is necessary. The colorimeter and spectrophotometer are objective measurement devices that will help you optimize your monitor’s settings, such as contrast and brightness, and help get as much accuracy and consistency as possible. Two leading manufacturers of monitor calibration systems are Datacolor and X-Rite. You will also need to have some sort of digital color management software, such as Photoshop or Lightroom.
One of the major limits to the accuracy and consistency possible from your monitor is the quality of the monitor itself. For example, a laptop will never be a high-end color critical display. Calibrating and profiling these displays will only help make them as good as they can be.
If profiling and calibrating your monitor is not immediately possible, but you need to edit your images, begin by choosing a white point and gamma, which sets the appearance of your monitor. Choosing white point or color temperature controls the color balance or the relative warmth or coolness of your monitor’s appearance. The choice typically ranges from 5000K to 6500K. Choosing a higher white point results in a cooler or bluer appearance on your display, while a lower number results in a warmer more yellow appearance.
The gamma setting controls contrast and dynamic range. The choice is typically 1.8 or 2.2. Selecting 2.2 offers a slightly higher contrast and dynamic range which results in lighter whites and darker blacks on your display.
Calibrating and profiling your monitor within the ranges mentioned above, or at a minimum setting the white point and gamma will enable Photoshop to display the color accurately. AdoramaPix recommends a white point and gamma combination of 6500K and 2.2. Note: for laptops or projectors it is sometimes better to set the white point to Native.
Using ICC profiles
AdoramaPix has created and provides custom ICC profiles for each printer and paper combination that they offer. The profiles can be downloaded from the home page of their website, http://www.adoramapix.com.
These profiles can be used to setup Photoshop to simulate how your image will look once it is printed on different printer and paper combinations available from AdoramaPix. This allows for an even better monitor to print match than is possible with monitor calibration and profiling alone.
Once you download or get the printer-paper profile, place it in a specific folder so that Photoshop will recognize it and allow you to select it. In Mac OSX this folder is Library/ColorSync/Profiles. In Windows Vista and XP this folder is \Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color.
Next, open your images in Photoshop and launch the Customize Proof Condition window by clicking on View > Proof Setup > Custom from the menu bar. Then select the AdoramaPix profile from the Device to Simulate pull down menu, as you can see below (Fig. 1) and click OK.
Fig. 1
You are now viewing your file as it will look after AdoramaPix prints the image. You should now “soft proof” or make adjustments to the image to bring the file as close as possible to your original. Once you are satisfied, convert the image to the new profile by Edit > Convert to Profile, (See Fig. 2). Remember, saving the image will override the original; instead you should “Save As” to a different location to preserve the original.
Time Saving method for Soft Proofing: Click View>Proof Setup>Custom (as above instructions). When the Customize Proof Condition dialog box opens, click Save instead of OK. This will open a navigation window to Adobe’s proofing folder where you can store the profile specifications; name the file something similar to the profile so you’ll be able to discern which profile you’re using, i.e. Lustre or AdoramaPix Lustre. You can now use the saved profile for future images by View >Proof Colors, then selecting the profile name you just created in the bottom of the drop down list. This is helpful if you have multiple profiles saved as you can now select between different profile types quicker. The name of the profile will appear at the end of your file name, but please note that this does not mean the adjustments have been made or that it is ready to print. You are now ready to Soft Proof your image, see instructions above.
If you feel that this is beyond your expertise, or you are not confident that your monitor is fully calibrated, please ensure that at the very least you are using sRGB color space. See below to learn how to convert your files to sRGB for printing.
Color Space
Although you can work on your images in color spaces such as AdobeRGB (1998) or ProPhotoRGB, images need to be converted to either sRGB or the specific printer paper profile, as shown below, before sending your files to AdoramaPix.
AdoramaPix printers expect that all the image files sent be in sRGB. If you send your image that is in AdobeRGB (1998), for example, the result would be a flat, unsaturated print.
To convert an image to either sRGB or an AdoramaPix profile in Adobe Photoshop launch the following Convert to Profile window from the menu bar by clicking on Edit > Convert to Profile (see Fig. 3).
