"We are certifying the printer and that is done through the driver. You want to know that the printer by itself can reproduce that Standard image accurately without any help or influence from any editing application then later on of course you can print using Color managed workflow through your editing application and turn off color Management in the driver. What you are forgetting is that the Canon driver actually utilizes the ICC or ICM profiles simply when you choose the matching paper choice for the Canon paper you are using then you choose your color matching 2 ICM or driver matching. This only works with Canon papers and a Canon printer. You would do the same thing using Epson papers with the Epson printer driver. Trust me it works I do it all the time. I also print with the application controlling color through an OEM or custom profile. I get identical results either way. This it Not for printing with other non OEM papers."
Is he saying then not to do this if any non oem paper is used?
The first sentence makes no sense to me.
The 2nd isn't necessarily correct or true. Accurate color means Lab values IN and Lab values OUT (which means, measuring solid patches) are colorimetrically close within an average deltaE (using more special software). Otherwise just remove accurate next to color. Might look nice; that's not a metric for accurate color.
Numbers IN and the Numbers sent to the printer HAVE to be changed based on something like an ICC profile. And if using that profile, does the user have any control over its conversions? None with PMC. With or without a 'hidden' profile in the path. So that alone makes it less than ideal. It's great if you don't have a clue about color management or you don't have a profile for the printer/paper or you don't know anything and just want KISS, press a button and who cares if it matches anything else.
Doesn't matter if Canon, HP, Epson or ANY printer that gives the options between PMC and AMC.
What are we supposed to do, when using papers that are not known to the driver when using PMC? Not good. Epson using PMC hasn't a clue you just put non Epson paper into the printer. A profile does. By its very nature, using an ICC profile and AMC means the paper, all the driver behavior and printer hardware are (well should be) profiled (defined)*.
You CANT get identical results using PMC and AMC if you simply examine the options provided in AMC. Pick a rendering intent? Check. Use Black Point Compensation? Check.
PMC works again,
if its setup correctly. And again, it's not ideal compared to AMC. And as Dave points out, in some cases, you're clipping colors from the source image data using PMC. Far from ideal.
The bottom line: Use either correctly and you'll get a
good print but one should provide more options, more control, potentially a much, much larger gamut meaning more saturated colors IF in the image ON the print. One's for amateurs. The other's for people who want full control over the printing of their images, including the ability to soft proof.
*And even with AMC, not all profiles are created equally, so there's that.....
