Which Canon/Canson icc profile?

[mshea]

I'm preparing some files to be printed by Bay Photo using Canson Platine. They've advised me to use the Canson icc profile which, obviously, I should use. However, they aren't allowed to divulge which Canon printer they use. Any ideas on which Canon/Canson profile I should download? Sizes will range from 8 X10 to 40 X 60.

Merrill

[digitaldog]

What rubbish!
You can't use a profile for a printer and paper that isn't defined. If they can't tell you, or send you the profile, find another print provider.

[Nora_nor]

Printing image files is not done with paper profiles in the image file, duh.
The icc profile in the image file is usually AdobeRGB or sometimes ProphotoRGB which is bigger, and the canon printer can probably print colors outside AdobeRGB. But they take the image file into whatever they use to print image files from.

But with InDesign to pdf to be used in offset printer , CMYK, they should tell you something like Euros-something and rendering intent something, and it should be on their website.

[routlaw]

What digitaldog said, find another printer if they will not tell you which printer a profile is meant for. A properly done printer profile is for a specific printer and a specific paper used on that printer… period.

[David Eckels]

I just had some lovely work done by BayPhoto, which I use all the time.
I always accept color correction as part of the order process. You can find an ICC profile to download on the website, either for canvas or metal prints.

[Richard.Wills]

Agree that the information should be forthcoming, but devil's advocate.

Imagine I a have a small fleet of Canon machines, each more or less not quite the same as each other. Might I take the average (shrinking them all down until I have a smallest common denominator) of the profiles generated on each individual machine to make a universal profile across my 2100 4100 6100 red lined armada. Might that look like Canson's profile.

Assuming that all my machines were latest generation.

 

[routlaw]

Imagine I a have a small fleet of Canon machines, each more or less not quite the same as each other. Might I take the average (shrinking them all down until I have a smallest common denominator) of the profiles generated on each individual machine to make a universal profile across my 2100 4100 6100 red lined armada. Might that look like Canson's profile.

Assuming that all my machines were latest generation.

 

If it were that simple, but it isn't.

Yes if all of the printers were as you say using the same ink set and same engine one profile would theoretically work across all of these machines using a "properly built" printer profile. The problem is when they have two 4100 prints, and three 8400 printers and one old 8300. This is where you throw out the baby with the bath water. It simply will not work. When I sold my 8300 and replaced it with the 4100 I custom built all of my own printer profiles for the different media I use and this is the ONLY way any printer can guarantee consistent accurate results.

Using one printer profile of let's say Canson Platine paper across different machines with different ink sets and printer engines is a recipe for poor quality prints at best and a disaster at worse. I am on my 5th large format printer and a truck load of desktop printers and have been doing this for well over 20 years. If someone tells you different they either don't know what they are talking about or are charter members of the good enough society.

Apologies if this comes off snarky, arrogant and condescending but there is just so much misinformation on the subject it gets under my skin at times.

[Richard.Wills]

I know it's not, but it is possible to build a profile for different machines that brings them all down to the lowest denominator, so they all behave the same.

I hadn't checked to see the vintages of Bay's printers. When going from one machine to the next, then yes, specific profiles for The Machine (I run around 20 papers plus laminates, all calibrated and profiled to the current machine). Did as you did when I went from 9800>8300>8400.

I believe Andrew did something not dissimilar when he worked on profiles for Epson; average out the outputs from various machines, though istr they were all from same generation. But we've had the option to cross profile so our 8-10 channel machines can act as proofers for 4 colour process (cross profile is the wrong term, I think; sorry, keep losing words these days)

[digitaldog]

I believe Andrew did something not dissimilar when he worked on profiles for Epson; average out the outputs from various machines, though istr they were all from same generation. But we've had the option to cross profile so our 8-10 channel machines can act as proofers for 4 colour process (cross profile is the wrong term, I think; sorry, keep losing words these days)

When I built the profiles for Epson years ago, we sent 5000 patches to five different printers (5 models*) across the country to average into a profile. The average dE of the 5000 patches was about half of 1dE (invisible).
* http://pixelgenius.com/epson/

[mshea]

After a few back and forth emails, Bay Photos was able to send along all the needed paper, canvas, and metal profiles.

On another note, I'm new to canvas and metal printing. Can anyone point me toward relevant info and/or tutorials on preparing files?