Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Colour Management => Topic started by: mshea on March 18, 2011, 07:17:02 pm

Title: Where's the profile?
Post by: mshea on March 18, 2011, 07:17:02 pm
Hi All,

I have an Epson 3880, running on Macbook Pro, OS 10.6.6. I've been calibrating the Macbook with Colormunki and have gotten surprisingly good prints using the supplied profiles for Ilford GFS and a few other papers. Anyway, I just connected my new Eizo CG223W and calibrated it. Problem is, working on newly processed files with the Eizo, the prints look terrible, very washed out. I'm not terribly knowledgable about this sort of thing, and I may be totally off-base in my diagnosis, but it seems to me that PS is using the Macbook profile when printing, not the Eizo profile (I haven't tried printing through Lightroom 3 to see if the same thing happens). Does anyone have any suggestions on how to access the correct profile?

Thanks,
Merrill
Title: Re: Where's the profile?
Post by: Alan Goldhammer on March 18, 2011, 08:44:55 pm
One of the Mac users can probably help you out a little better than I but I would point out that you are confusing a monitor profile with a printer profile.  They are not the same thing and PS should not even recognize it.  You would continue to use the IGFS profile when printing.  I assume also you are talking about new images that you have developed since you profiled the monitor, correct?  Any preexisting image made should print out just the same as it always did assuming your printer settings were not changed.  When you profiled the monitor did you adjust the contrast and brightness downward?  If not, your prints would turn out too dark.  See:  http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml
Title: Re: Where's the profile?
Post by: howardm on March 18, 2011, 09:34:02 pm
PS should be using whatever working space you want (probably aRGB or Prophoto RGB).  That is found from the Edit -> Color Settings menu.

The Mac itself should be using teh Eizo profile and you'll need to use Applications -> Utilities -> ColorSync and then go to the Devices tab and see what the Mac is using as the profile.

Are you should you're not double profiling (ie. Photoshop is using the paper profile and the printer driver is also using a paper profile instead of 'No Color Management'
Title: Re: Where's the profile?
Post by: Wayne Fox on March 19, 2011, 10:23:31 pm
I'm not terribly knowledgable about this sort of thing, and I may be totally off-base in my diagnosis, but it seems to me that PS is using the Macbook profile when printing, not the Eizo profile
Well I suppose PS might not know what profile your display is set to (I've personally never seen this but I guess it's possible).  To make sure PS is using the correct monitor profile, select Color Settings from the edit menu, and click the RGB pop-up menu.  This is where you set your RGB working space (which should be set to sRGB, AdobeRGB, or ProPhotoRGB(best) .  You'll see a choice (don't select it, just read what it says)that will say Monitor RGB, and your display profile name should be listed there.

If this is correct, then you have another setting that's off.

I always recommend printing a known test target file and then comparing that to your display.  If the print is off, you have a printer/output profile setting issue, if the print is good and the display is off, you have a monitor display/calibration issue.  I've always recommended Bill Atksinson's, but it seems his download page is no longer publicly accessible.  Might try this one from outbackphoto.com (http://www.outbackprint.com/printinginsights/pi048/essay.html)

Title: Re: Where's the profile?
Post by: Luca Ragogna on March 19, 2011, 10:44:40 pm
... running on Macbook Pro, OS 10.6.6. I've been calibrating the Macbook with Colormunki ... I just connected my new Eizo CG223W and calibrated it.

I have the same setup (although a Samsung not an Eizo monitor) and I find that my monitor calibration doesn't stick if I put my laptop to sleep when I plug and unplug my monitor from my Macbook Pro when I have to carry my laptop around with me. I always recalibrate before doing any colour critical work even if I had calibrated the day before.

it seems to me that PS is using the Macbook profile when printing, not the Eizo profile

IMO, that's exactly what's happening. You have to recalibrate to fix it.
Title: Re: Where's the profile?
Post by: Nigel Johnson on March 20, 2011, 07:32:47 am
Quote
I've always recommended Bill Atksinson's, but it seems his download page is no longer publicly accessible.

Wayne,

I have also had this problem, but Marcin (username: Czornyj) on in another thread has identified a new address for Bill's files that is publicly available, the link is:
https://public.me.com/billatkinson (https://public.me.com/billatkinson)

Regards
Nigel