Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: grnbrg on December 13, 2018, 02:52:07 pm

Title: Can I specify a non-existent printer in Photoshop?
Post by: grnbrg on December 13, 2018, 02:52:07 pm
Is there a way to install a printer in Photoshop without the printer being present? I want to be able to embed icc profiles so that when I move the files to Indesign they take the icc profiles with them. Or am I completely misunderstanding the process? I want to design a book in Indesign for inkjet printing, and as far as I understand the process, the icc profiles have to come from photoshop; they can't be added later. But since I'm working at home, away from my studio printer, I can't get the computer to install the printer.
Thanks.
Title: Re: Can I specify a non-existent printer in Photoshop?
Post by: mcbroomf on December 13, 2018, 06:43:57 pm
You only need the ICC profiles.  They will install when you install a printer, but you can install them manually and they will be available in PS.  You could copy them from your studio computer or download the specific one's you need from the supplier.
Title: Re: Can I specify a non-existent printer in Photoshop?
Post by: grnbrg on December 14, 2018, 12:48:14 pm
Thanks. So you're saying that I don't need the printer installed, just the icc profiles?
Title: Re: Can I specify a non-existent printer in Photoshop?
Post by: kirkt on December 14, 2018, 01:21:28 pm
Is your intent to convert the artwork in PS from the PS working color space to the printer output color space?  To embed the profile in the artwork, you would need to convert to the output (printer-paper) color space in PS (with your desired rendering intent) via the printer-paper ICC profile and then save the artwork in a file format of your choosing with the "embed color profile" checkbox enabled.

Now the file is set up to be in the printer-paper profile color space with the profile embedded so that color-aware applications will interpret the color correctly.  This can all be done without accessing the printer but, as mentioned before, you will need to download and install the printer-paper profiles to your machine.  These profiles can sometimes be downloaded separately from the printer driver software, but sometimes they get installed during installation of the printer driver software, so you may need to go through that process to load the printer-paper specific profiles.  Bottom line is, you need to install the ICC profiles for the printer-paper combination that you need for your project and access those through PS for conversion from the working color space (or the original color space of your artwork) into the printer-paper color space.

On a Mac, the profiles live here:

/Users/<your user name>/Library/ColorSync/Profiles

for user level install, and here:

/Library/ColorSync/Profiles

for system level install.

kirk
Title: Re: Can I specify a non-existent printer in Photoshop?
Post by: mcbroomf on December 14, 2018, 03:09:42 pm
And if you're using a Win machine they are in;

C: Windows > System32 > spool > drivers > color
Title: Re: Can I specify a non-existent printer in Photoshop?
Post by: grnbrg on December 15, 2018, 02:39:02 pm
Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to know.