Custom ICC Printer Profiles

[TAW]

I am curious how many of you use custom IIC printer profiles and how effective they are? Also, what product do you use to profile your printer? Does anyone use a third party to generate the profiles?

I often use x-rite color passport to profile my camera (1Dx) and I use the ColorMunki to profile my display weekly (Dell Ultrasharp 3014). I use the Epson provided ICC profiles for my 3880. I consistently find myself printing a photo 4 or 5 times until I am happy with it... Then I have one image that looks good on my monitor/ the web and a different image for printing.

I would appreciate any advice or direction!

Have a GREAT day!
tom (Win the Day)

 

[tolusina]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/838847-REG/Datacolor_S4SR100_Spyder4_Print_SR.html

I'm liking it a lot. It's the last link in the color managed workflow chain.

I soft proof in Lightroom using the icc profile specific to the paper/printer/ink I'm using, prints match what I see on screen close enough that I usually only print once.
I use downloaded icc profiles only to get a general idea of how a particular paper will print, a paper shopping aid. I'll soft proof and print with downloaded profiles only when I've bought a sampler pack and only have two sheets of a particular paper to work with.

I find the printer profiling process tedious, time consuming and very gratifying in the end. I consider it time and money well spent.
---
I calibrate the monitor just prior to print proofing and printing.
Monitor thoroughly warmed up for at least two hours, done at night with room lights off, I start the X-Rite process, come back in ten minutes or so when it's done.

Print profiles are essentially error files.
The profiling software sends a print job to the printer of a couple of pages of specific colored squares.
The spectrocolorimeter is then used to read/measure the actual colors printed, software knows what colors it told the printer to print, it now knows what colors the printer actually printed and generates an error correcting icc profile.
Softproofing then corrects to monitor's display to show what the printer will do.

Take thoughtful care when naming your custom profiles descriptively, don't just date them or number them sequentially.
I include a printer designation as well as paper name, if I was switching inks around, I'd include that too.

 

[TAW]

tolusaina,

Thanks for the advice and the link. I know this would save me a small fortune in paper and ink. I also really like the idea of using the vender supplied profiles when testing paper and then making a custom profile once you know you are going to continue to use the paper. I am going to dive in and give this a try

Have a GREAT weekend!
tom

 

[alexanderferdinand]

I recommend the Spyder products too.
Making paper profiles is a nerve consuming work, but the two profiles I made are fitting much better then the profiles, offered by the paper producers.

Good luck and be patient clicking your way through the fields!!

 

[melhughes]

I had an X-Rite Colormunki but recently upgraded to the i1Photo Pro 2. There is a big difference in price ($500 vs. $1500) but also a huge difference in capability.

The Colormunki send 55 color patches to the printer twice for a total of 110. The i1Photo Pro 2 sends 1600. I use the i1Photo Pro 2 to also calibrate my Eizo 243 CG monitor. I use the X-Rite Colorchecker Passport to create a camera color profile for my Nikon D810 camera. I do a lot of prints with the Canon Pixma Pro-1 printer using Ilford Galerie Prestige Gold Fibre Silk paper.

I have found if you use the X-Rite Colorchecker on the camera and the i1Photo Pro 2 for the monitor and printer/paper combination, there is NO error. The camera display, monitor and printed image are exactly the same; every time, no exceptions.

There is just no mystery anymore; it just takes a lot of money. Keep in mind the cost of ink and paper can be upwards of $5-6/page for my setup but the "do it right the first time" capability of this hardware/software saves a TON of time and frustration