Printing/Color Management Settings
A number of people have emailed asking about what settings I'm using re Printing/Color Management etc
Photoshop has all the horsepower I need when it comes to Color Management - in a profiled environment it's quick, easy and reliable. With the exception of Epson's Advanced B&W mode I don't see any reason to leave it up the 4800's driver to manage color.
When printing color I 'Let Photoshop Determine Colors' in CS2's Color Handling dropdown, and select whatever profile I'm printing on in the Printer Profile dropdown. In the example below I'm selecting a custom profile for Photo Rag (HMPR) created for me by ImageScience(IS).
With Photoshop managing color, I turn Printer Color Management off in the printer driver. Having both attempting to manage color ends in tears.
One side effect of this workflow is that the Epson printer preview will most likely look a little funky - ignore it.
Some people swear by the value of Soft Proofing in Photoshop. I've always preferred a real print in the hand - soft proofing on a monitor is no substitute imo, but can be handy as checkpoint before printing. I leave it off in Photoshop and toggle it on as needed. If you want to see what an image really looks like on rag you need to print it on rag, not just see it on the monitor. YMMV.
As a sidenote, I use GretagMacbeth's Eye One Display 2 to profile my monitor.
posted by Pete Walsh @ 10:46 PM 4 comments
At 10:17 AM, Babar Khan said...
Fantastic blog and very informative! Thanks for taking the time.
Just got my 4800 here in Canada yesterday - for some reason I'm finding the colour the Advanced B&W driver produces with the presets to be rather subtle. Any idea what could be causing the problem?
For example, Sepia setting on Premium Luster produces more of a "warm" look than a full out sepia, and nothing even close to the preview (I've got a colour-managed workflow/monitor etc.)
Can't for the life of me think of a setting that could cause this, except if I'm using the wrong profile (I'm assuming that PLPP is the right one!).
Thanks for help.
At 4:26 PM, Jim W. said...
I printed two different images that I had converted to neutral, B&W in Photoshop. The image I printed to PSmPP250 using the Epson profile looks great, although just a touch warm.
The image I printed to PLPP250 using the Advanced B&W mode (no profile) set to "neutral" looks, well, dead neutral!
I was surprised at the difference, although subtle. It might've been due to the different papers, or because of the Advanced B&W mode vs. using the profile. More testing is needed.
Enjoy!
-- Jim
At 10:00 PM, Pete Walsh said...
Hi Babar, I think that's one of the problems with the Adv B&W mode - the whole process isn't wysiwyg. I think Epson could have done a much better job - like an accurate, on the fly preview of toning effects on your own image.
When you say you're picking the right profile, that's just in the driver right? You shouldn't be picking a profile in PS's printer profile.
Also, I've mentioned elsewhere - someone in the Yahoo B&W prints group has made profiles available so you can softproof some of the Adv B&W Options in Photoshop.
At 10:02 PM, Pete Walsh said...
Jim one thing that would account for some differences is the different balance in inks used when printing using Color Mode vs B&W Adv.
I was actually surprised the difference between the two approaches is so relatively small. For an unknown reason I was expecting the B&W produced using Color mode to fall a long way short of those produced using Adv B&W. I've ended up using the Color mode more than the Adv B&W mode for B&W.
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