Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Colour Management => Topic started by: danstart17 on September 15, 2020, 08:08:23 am

Title: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: danstart17 on September 15, 2020, 08:08:23 am: Hi

Has anyone successfully created a custom CMYK colour profile for their printer?

I'm currently using Argyll and although I feel close, my colours appear lighter than whats on my screen (Calibrated Macbook Pro 2015). My default profile is much better and although I prints what I see on screen it lays down a little too much ink on some colours and starts pooling hence why I wanted to create a custom profile.

I've tried and tried and I can't get close and I'm at the verge of deciding that its not possible.

Just wondering if anyone has successfully created one and can discuss it.

Thanks
Title: Re: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: digitaldog on September 15, 2020, 10:23:56 am: Depending on the printer and driver, you absolutely do NOT want to be making CMYK profiles and sending it CMYK data. So specifically, what printer, with what driver and what's the goal (Proofing?).
Title: Re: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: danstart17 on September 15, 2020, 11:52:19 am: Hi

It's Roland Large format VS-640i and using it's own Roland Versaworks RIP.

I have checked the default profiles and they are all CMYK so I went the same route.

I can't look more in-depth at those profiles because they are version for and I am using Argyll which only accepts version 2. The goal is to try and print the colours on screen or as close to without pooling.
Title: Re: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: digitaldog on September 15, 2020, 12:57:56 pm: Quote from: danstart17 on September 15, 2020, 11:52:19 am
I can't look more in-depth at those profiles because they are version for and I am using Argyll which only accepts version 2.
Version 2 as in ICC spec (V2 vs. V4)? There is no reason to build V4 ICC profiles. And reasons not to.
Title: Re: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: danstart17 on September 15, 2020, 02:12:57 pm: What is the best way to see if a profile is good or bad.

Maybe my profile is good but my screen is bad.
Title: Re: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: digitaldog on September 15, 2020, 03:06:09 pm: Quote from: danstart17 on September 15, 2020, 02:12:57 pm
What is the best way to see if a profile is good or bad.

Maybe my profile is good but my screen is bad.

You should always test output using good color reference images designed for that task. The color reference images RGB values, which you'll convert to CMYK, are such they are set for output and are editing and display agnostic. Test the output this way and examine for the same color issues so we know it's not your image specific issues causing the problems:
http://www.digitaldog.net/files/2014PrinterTestFileFlat.tif.zip
Title: Re: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: danstart17 on September 16, 2020, 05:00:18 am: Thanks

I can't actually print that file, I'm guessing it's a 16bit tiff file and my rip seems to only accept 8bit tiff files.
Title: Re: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: digitaldog on September 16, 2020, 10:40:14 am: Convert the image to 8-bits per color.
Title: Re: Making a CMYK printer profile
Post by: aaronchan on September 17, 2020, 12:24:12 am: May I ask if you have performed your own linearization and ink limitation before you make your profile?
If you use the default linearization curve and ink limitation, have you remove your "default" ICC profile before you print your own target chart?

If you did perform your own linearization process, that could be because you have picked the optimal individual color restriction?

Just my guess.
Aaron