Colour Management For Printing.

[barfl2]

Now I have calibrated both laptop/desktop monitors with my Xrite Display 2 I need some advice for the next logical step. I have in the past downloaded test images Getty/Digital dog/Northlight and printed them out on various papers (not got much Canon). and they looked pretty good but what was I comparing them to? Do I need to purchase a test chart and photo that? Necessary to calibrate high end cameras perhaps, but I have only got Canon a 720IS and the much better Canon G9.

Argyll seems popular but at present do not know how to use it. It looks very much for the experts.

Any suggestions appreciated

 

[Emulator]

I think it was mikling who posted this link:-
http://www.argyllcms.com/doc/FCMS2010_ArgyllTute.pdf

It struck me as useful guide on getting into Argyll.

 

[RogerB]

I have in the past downloaded test images Getty/Digital dog/Northlight and printed them out on various papers (not got much Canon). and they looked pretty good but what was I comparing them to? Do I need to purchase a test chart and photo that?

If you don't have a spectrophotometer then Argyll will not help you with your printing. If you want to know if your prints are accurate the easiest way is to compare them to a reference print. In the UK you can buy a reference print of the PDI Test Image. Google is your friend.

 

[barfl2]

I think it was mikling who posted this link:-
http://www.argyllcms.com/doc/FCMS2010_ArgyllTute.pdf

It struck me as useful guide on getting into Argyll.

Thanks for that unfortunately it looks as though unless you have a spectro. RogerB answer it will not help you very much.

I suspected as much but they are very expensive, a lot more sometimes than the printer you are trying to sort. A lot of people obviously purchase a colorimeter but it appears of limited use.

 

[Emulator]

There are some good natured members on this site who will produce you a profile with Argyll, to allow you to see the benefits of profiling your printer. Unfortunately I only use ColorMunki and copyright restrictions ban this. Live in hope!

 

[Grandad35]

Now I have calibrated both laptop/desktop monitors with my Xrite Display 2 I need some advice for the next logical step. I have in the past downloaded test images Getty/Digital dog/Northlight and printed them out on various papers (not got much Canon). and they looked pretty good but what was I comparing them to? Do I need to purchase a test chart and photo that? Necessary to calibrate high end cameras perhaps, but I have only got Canon a 720IS and the much better Canon G9.

Has your question been answered, or were you asking "How do I know that my printer colors are correct?" If that was your question, then the simple answer is "When the colors on the print look good to you." Your printer will never be able to print the full range of colors exactly as they appear on your monitor.

 

[barfl2]

Grandad35 I always assumed from yours and other posts that there may be other things happening when you select the print button. If you have not got a specific ICC profile I assume the printers print engine takes charge? You mentioned about removing some Canon Programs EX?.
I mostly use HP or Stihl paper and I.S. Ink. As I have not got a lot of Canon Paper/ink Its often a question of guessing what paper selection to use and achieving repeat results.

It would appear that the colorimeter does not help that much. The laptop screen is definitely a lot better but the 22" Asus which I would use for printing photographs anyway, looks much the same as it was when it was calibrated with the Windows program. I assume that all the patches the experts are taking using Colour Munki/Argyll/Spyder are to achieve perfection between the print/screen?.

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Has your question been answered, or were you asking "How do I know that my printer colors are correct?" If that was your question, then the simple answer is "When the colors on the print look good to you." Your printer will never be able to print the full range of colors exactly as they appear on your monitor.

Oh boy, "aint that the truth!"

I do a fair amount of printing and often discuss it with camera club members and friends. It is unbelievable how many tell me, nay INSIST with great pride, that their prints and monitor display are an exact match.

I don't know whether to recommend an optometrist, or go into the long discussion of why they are not getting the best results from either printer and/or monitor.

RS

 

[Grandad35]

<snip>…..It would appear that the colorimeter does not help that much. The laptop screen is definitely a lot better but the 22" Asus which I would use for printing photographs anyway, looks much the same as it was when it was calibrated with the Windows program. I assume that all the patches the experts are taking using Colour Munki/Argyll/Spyder are to achieve perfection between the print/screen?.

Laptops are notorious for poor color reproduction. It’s a good sign that the colors on your Asus monitor didn’t change much after calibration, but colors drift with time. I have an old CCFL/LCD monitor that lost half of its blue illumination after 3 years, and it had to be recalibrated every few weeks. My current LED/LCD monitor is showing very little degradation over time.

When you walk through a large electronics store have you ever noticed how the colors on the various displays are different, even though they are connected to the same video feed? This is the issue addressed by calibrating your monitor. If every display in a store was calibrated, they would all show the same colors. Once your monitor is calibrated, you can send a photo to anyone else with a calibrated monitor and be assured that they will see the same colors that you see. More importantly, a photo displayed with the correct colors on your calibrated monitor can be sent to any color managed printer and you should get a pleasing print. Getting your monitor calibrated is necessary to achieve a color managed workflow, but it isn’t sufficient – that’s where getting your printer profiled comes in. The “patches” discussed in other posts are small color samples that are used to generate a printer profile, and have nothing to do with calibrating your monitor.

Wrapping your head around color management is not a trivial exercise. The various articles on this link will give you a cursory understanding of the subject, if you are so inclined. I have included a few screen captures to illustrate why getting your printer to match your monitor isn’t a trivial exercise. The first image shows the range of colors (aka gamut) in the sRGB color space (solid) and the range of colors that my LED monitor can display (wireframe). Note that the monitor can display more colors than the sRGB color space, but that there are some small areas where it can’t display the entire range of colors. It shouldn’t be surprising that this is the case, since the sRGB color space was initially defined to match high end monitors in 1996.

The second image shows the gamut of my i9900 (8 color inkjet) printer (solid) against the monitor (wireframe). This is why I stated previously that there are lots of colors that you can show on your monitor that can’t be printed by your printer. It also shows that there are lots of colors that can be printed, but which can’t be displayed on your monitor. In addition to getting the correct colors in the areas where the two gamuts overlap, the printer profile must also handle what to do with colors that can be shown on the monitor but which can’t be printed. That’s where rendering intents come in.

One final point – there are LOTS of colors that we can see that are outside of the range of colors available on our monitors. The last image shows the same sRGB color space (solid) compared to a high end DSLR (wireframe). That’s why many people use larger color spaces (e.g. aRGB).

 

[stratman]

It is interesting that LCD monitors may have up to 16.8 millions colors for 100% NTSC Color Gamut but the human eye can distinguish up to 10 million.