convert image from color space to a printer profile before printing?

[buggz]

Hello everyone,

From another forum a user suggested:
>For Printing, you want to convert your ProPhoto or Adobe 98 color space image to the printer profile if possible.

I've never read this suggestion before.
I didn't even know you could do this.
I just tried it, and it does work.

Is this good advice though, or no?
Just wondering, as I am always eager and wanting to learn new things.

I currently print 16b ARGB .tif ifles via Qimage Studio.
Shrug, it seems to work for me...

[Sven W]

Hello everyone,

From another forum a user suggested:
>For Printing, you want to convert your ProPhoto or Adobe 98 color space image to the printer profile if possible.

It's possible, but don't save that file 
Why do you want to convert, when that is exactly what is done in PS Print Dialogue. On the fly.
The Qimage guys maybe have other workflows.

/Sven

[Light Seeker]

I go directly from my source profile, one with a wide gamut, to the printer profile. The fewer colour space / profile changes, the better, IMHO.

Terry.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Hello everyone,

From another forum a user suggested:
>For Printing, you want to convert your ProPhoto or Adobe 98 color space image to the printer profile if possible.

I've never read this suggestion before.
I didn't even know you could do this.
I just tried it, and it does work.

Is this good advice though, or no?
Just wondering, as I am always eager and wanting to learn new things.

I currently print 16b ARGB .tif ifles via Qimage Studio.
Shrug, it seems to work for me...

That you never read about it has more to do with the fact that there is little reason to use it. With some exceptions.

Like all color managed applications Qimage will do that P2P conversion on the fly just before the print run and delivers in 99% of the cases a similar color that Photoshop will deliver on a Windows platform, whether using P2P or the normal color management route in printing. Photoshop on Macs can have flaws which is another issue.  If you use that more complex P2P route make sure that no extra color management is active in the application you print from or in the printer driver.

Your 16 bit files are brought down to 8 bit in Qimage before processing, Qimage doesn't know a full 16 bit pipeline yet. That is also one of the differences between the Photoshop color management and Qimage's color management, the first can do it in 16 bit while I guess that Qimage does it in 8 bit. Whether you will see a difference is questionable.

I had some difficulties with B&W greyscale images and QTR created B&W greyscale profiles in Qimage so used Photoshop to do the P2P conversion to the QTR B&W profile before printing through Qimage with all CM off. But only for that somewhat odd workflow.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

[RFPhotography]

Your 16 bit files are brought down to 8 bit in Qimage before processing, Qimage doesn't know a full 16 bit pipeline yet. That is also one of the differences between the Photoshop color management and Qimage's color management, the first can do it in 16 bit while I guess that Qimage does it in 8 bit. Whether you will see a difference is questionable.

You still can't print in 16 bit out of Photoshop in most cases.  It's the OS, not the host app that's the issue.  Canon does provide a separate 16 bit driver with some of their printers in Windows but I don't believe all and Epson doesn't handle 16 bit in any of their models in Windows.  On a Mac, 16 bit printing is possible natively.

[stretchdcanvas]

In a color managed workflow that is not what you want to do because that profile will get applied twice. 

In some rare cases, when there is no color management in the pipeline that may be an appropriate thing to do. 

When making a Hexachrome file you convert to the printer profile but when the rip sees Hex (and Lab) files it bypasses all colormanagement and sends it directly to the printer.  It's profile is only applied once.

[Sven W]

You still can't print in 16 bit out of Photoshop in most cases.  It's the OS, not the host app that's the issue.  Canon does provide a separate 16 bit driver with some of their printers in Windows but I don't believe all and Epson doesn't handle 16 bit in any of their models in Windows.  On a Mac, 16 bit printing is possible natively.

ImagePrint has printed true 16 bit, both color and b&w, since v5 (now v8)
And the CM workflow is similar to PS. It sends the color managed data to the printer, without alter the saved original image.

/Sven

[RFPhotography]

That's because ImagePrint bypasses Windows and communicates directly with the printer.  That's why Canon's 16 bit printer driver can do it too.  In order to print 16 bit on a Windows-based machine, the printer driver/RIP has to communicate directly with the printer and effectively shove aside any Windows interaction.  ColorBurst can do it as well for the same reason.  Windows does not natively support 16 bit printing.

[digitaldog]

Why do you want to convert, when that is exactly what is done in PS Print Dialogue. On the fly.
The Qimage guys maybe have other workflows.

Converting in Photoshop output space provides some functionality that may not be available natively with other apps such as ACE, Black Point Compensation and dither. IF you are doing work where he output numerically has to match printing from Photoshop, OK maybe you’d do this with a 3rd party app. Conversions like this in Photoshop are usually done when you want to send the document in an output color space to someone else (you are not doing the actual printing), otherwise, using Print though Photoshop will provide these options without the step of using Convert to Profile and saving off an iteration. Convert to Profile will allow you to bypass ACE or dither and use another CMM, but Print will not.

Of course, if you print through Photoshop CS5, you can’t use Convert to Profile first (nor would you need to). There is no No Color Management option any more.