Processing for printing through Qimage one

[cortlander]

I am confused about color space at various stages of my printing workflow. Objective is to create a file in CO, size it with Topaz Gigapixel, and print it from Qimage One. I am using an iMac with Catalina. The confusion is with the color spaces:

I prepare my prints going through Capture One 20, perhaps Topaz Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, Affinity Photo etc back into CO everywhere using Prophoto as the color space. In CO, I create a layer for printing adjustments, turn on the proofing with a process recipe set to a Matte profile like Hot Press Natural (if it is the paper I am using) and make adjustments.

1. File created in CO in Prophoto
2. Proofing adjustments made using ICC profile for Hot Press Natural (or any paper)
3. Export from Process Recipe to Output folder using which profile? Hot Press Natural or switch to AdobeRGB if that is what Qimage input needs?
4. Run in Topaz gigapixel to get the desired file size. Should this color space be AdobeRGB?
5. In Qimage set the profile for Hot Press Natural and print to a roll on Epson P800.

Help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

[kamma1]

I stick to ProPhoto until the image is sent to the printer:  C1 >> Affinity >> C1 >> Qimage.  I don't use Topaz, but I do check the proofing profile in C1.  Occasionally I go directly from Affinity to Qimage.   

I haven't had any problems with this as a workflow, though printing is one of the times I miss using LR, as it's a lot simpler than going to a separate program. 

[cortlander]

I stick to ProPhoto until the image is sent to the printer:  C1 >> Affinity >> C1 >> Qimage.  I don't use Topaz, but I do check the proofing profile in C1.  Occasionally I go directly from Affinity to Qimage.   

I haven't had any problems with this as a workflow, though printing is one of the times I miss using LR, as it's a lot simpler than going to a separate program.

Thanks. So do you temporarily switch to the profile of the paper you are going to print to, make the adjustments for that profile in either CO or Affinity, and switch back to Prophoto before sending it to Q1?

[kamma1]

I leave the process recipe on ProPhoto RGB throughout.  When I want to proof a specific paper I choose it in View>Proof Profile and then just toggle the views back and forth with the Enable Recipe Proofing button. 

In QImage I check the different rendering intents to see which I want to use, and print.  QImage makes copies of the files in its own directory, which I periodically delete in order to save space.  I wish I could find a way to turn that feature off.

I don't think there's any reason you couldn't export the file with the specific paper profile instead, but I haven't tried that, and prefer to keep the files output agnostic until they are being sent to a specific device. 
 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Thanks. So do you temporarily switch to the profile of the paper you are going to print to, make the adjustments for that profile in either CO or Affinity, and switch back to Prophoto before sending it to Q1?

Hi,

You can proof in CO, to see if adjustments are in order, but there is no need to output in that colorspace. Conversion to the output colorspace should be done as late as possible in the process, e.g. in Qimage (which can also apply dithering to the 8-bit/channel print pipeline, after the conversion to output space).

Cheers,
Bart

[cortlander]

I don't think there's any reason you couldn't export the file with the specific paper profile instead, but I haven't tried that, and prefer to keep the files output agnostic until they are being sent to a specific device.

Your way is much cleaner and makes a lot more sense. The export thing has never worked well for me.
Thanks so much for your help, kamma.

[cortlander]

Hi,

You can proof in CO, to see if adjustments are in order, but there is no need to output in that colorspace. Conversion to the output colorspace should be done as late as possible in the process, e.g. in Qimage (which can also apply dithering to the 8-bit/channel print pipeline, after the conversion to output space).

Cheers,
Bart

This is a good rule and does help me understand the printing workflow better. Thank you, Bart.