Spurred by the cheap OEM cartridges on eBay, I recently jumped onto the home printing bandwagon by purchasing an Epson R2000. One of the main criteria for me was to get accurate prints out of the box, and had spent the past week trying to figure out Argyll CMS profiling using a Colormunki.
While there were many resources to kickstart the process (many of them generated by users here), I realised that this remained relatively daunting to the initial user. After some experimenting, I've managed to successfully create a 675 chart profile onto an A4 sheet without any issues, and would like to make my maiden contribution by writing a tutorial. As it's my first post, I won't be able to direct-link images/URLs, but have pasted the links nevertheless.
Of course, this is still WIP, so will add more stuff as I go along.
Would like to extend my thanks to the following resources/users for the inspiration:
nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7706&p=1
dpreview.com/forums/thread/3251239
argyllcms.com/doc/ArgyllDoc.html
and more...
1) Generating Argyll printer profiles
The first step is to let Argyll generate a colour patch using specific requirements. For my customized profile, I'm generating a 675 colour patch (-f675) at high settings (-G) with a 8 white patches (-e8), while creating verbose help commands (-v2)
targen -v2 -d2 -G -e8 -g128 -f675 -t <profile_name>
This will create it1/it2 files which contain the colour information for generating the image file.
2) Generating a print target
The next step is to use printtarg to generate a TIFF target file (-T500), by telling Argyll that I'm using an i1Pro (-ii1), which will allow me to generate much smaller target sizes. I've also set the width of the cells to be at 0.89 (-a0.89), with no margins created (-m0, -M0) but the margins are still there anyway. Have specified my print output size to an A4 (-p210x297).
printtarg -v2 -ii1 -a0.89 -b -T500 -m0 -M0 -P -p210x297 <profile_name>
3) Editing the target file in Photoshop
I load the created TIFF file in any image editing program, remove as much of white space and replace the fonts with smaller ones. (see image below). I also force-scale the final image to be in A4 format.
For US Letter users, you can tweak around with the <-a> and <-p> settings to tweak the width and length of the colour cells. From what I measured, the min width (to fit the aperture on the ColorMunki) needs to be at 0.8cm, with a suitable length at 0.9cm.
4) Actual printing of the file
Print the target TIFF using the Adobe Color Profile Utility - this ensures all color profiling is turned off to prevent double transformations. I've read of workarounds with later versions of Photoshop, but didn't want to take the risk (and waste paper/ink). Be sure to set all margins in ACPU to zero (there's a bug nevertheless), and set your Epson to print on Borderless settings.
You'll get a printout like this. Just make sure that the min width of the cells are at least 0.8cm.
5)Scanning with the ColorMunki
As inspired by pharmacist's self-creation of a ruler guide, I've taken the initial concepts and created an improved version of the ruler. Used semi-stiff plastic sheeting (to give it some flex), while using a heavy metal strip as a weight to weigh the paper down. Also pasted some white vinyl film on top to ensure a smooth surface. Also stuck a plastic knob on top to allow me to easily slide the ruler along the paper.
It's late here, so I'll explain more on the ruler design later. Will also share some tips on a proper scanning technique later.
I've created a *.bat script here
----
ECHO
D: //this should be the drive where your Argyll folder is kept
cd\
CD Argyll //this is the folder
chartread -v -H -T0.4 <profile_name> //this reads with a 0.4 threshold
PAUSE
@echo off
set /p Filename= Filename of ICC profile:
colprof -v -qh -i D50 -o 1931_2 -S AdobeRGB1998.icc -cmt -dpp -D%Filename% -O %Filename%.icm <profile_name>
PAUSE
iccgamut -w %Filename%.icm //this creates *wrl files for 3D viewing
---
Based on this, I finally get WYSIWYG prints on a calibrated monitor. Could never have been happier.
Hope this helps, and happy scanning!
While there were many resources to kickstart the process (many of them generated by users here), I realised that this remained relatively daunting to the initial user. After some experimenting, I've managed to successfully create a 675 chart profile onto an A4 sheet without any issues, and would like to make my maiden contribution by writing a tutorial. As it's my first post, I won't be able to direct-link images/URLs, but have pasted the links nevertheless.
Of course, this is still WIP, so will add more stuff as I go along.
Would like to extend my thanks to the following resources/users for the inspiration:
nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7706&p=1
dpreview.com/forums/thread/3251239
argyllcms.com/doc/ArgyllDoc.html
and more...
1) Generating Argyll printer profiles
The first step is to let Argyll generate a colour patch using specific requirements. For my customized profile, I'm generating a 675 colour patch (-f675) at high settings (-G) with a 8 white patches (-e8), while creating verbose help commands (-v2)
targen -v2 -d2 -G -e8 -g128 -f675 -t <profile_name>
This will create it1/it2 files which contain the colour information for generating the image file.
2) Generating a print target
The next step is to use printtarg to generate a TIFF target file (-T500), by telling Argyll that I'm using an i1Pro (-ii1), which will allow me to generate much smaller target sizes. I've also set the width of the cells to be at 0.89 (-a0.89), with no margins created (-m0, -M0) but the margins are still there anyway. Have specified my print output size to an A4 (-p210x297).
printtarg -v2 -ii1 -a0.89 -b -T500 -m0 -M0 -P -p210x297 <profile_name>
3) Editing the target file in Photoshop
I load the created TIFF file in any image editing program, remove as much of white space and replace the fonts with smaller ones. (see image below). I also force-scale the final image to be in A4 format.
For US Letter users, you can tweak around with the <-a> and <-p> settings to tweak the width and length of the colour cells. From what I measured, the min width (to fit the aperture on the ColorMunki) needs to be at 0.8cm, with a suitable length at 0.9cm.
4) Actual printing of the file
Print the target TIFF using the Adobe Color Profile Utility - this ensures all color profiling is turned off to prevent double transformations. I've read of workarounds with later versions of Photoshop, but didn't want to take the risk (and waste paper/ink). Be sure to set all margins in ACPU to zero (there's a bug nevertheless), and set your Epson to print on Borderless settings.
You'll get a printout like this. Just make sure that the min width of the cells are at least 0.8cm.
5)Scanning with the ColorMunki
As inspired by pharmacist's self-creation of a ruler guide, I've taken the initial concepts and created an improved version of the ruler. Used semi-stiff plastic sheeting (to give it some flex), while using a heavy metal strip as a weight to weigh the paper down. Also pasted some white vinyl film on top to ensure a smooth surface. Also stuck a plastic knob on top to allow me to easily slide the ruler along the paper.
It's late here, so I'll explain more on the ruler design later. Will also share some tips on a proper scanning technique later.
I've created a *.bat script here
----
ECHO
D: //this should be the drive where your Argyll folder is kept
cd\
CD Argyll //this is the folder
chartread -v -H -T0.4 <profile_name> //this reads with a 0.4 threshold
PAUSE
@echo off
set /p Filename= Filename of ICC profile:
colprof -v -qh -i D50 -o 1931_2 -S AdobeRGB1998.icc -cmt -dpp -D%Filename% -O %Filename%.icm <profile_name>
PAUSE
iccgamut -w %Filename%.icm //this creates *wrl files for 3D viewing
---
Based on this, I finally get WYSIWYG prints on a calibrated monitor. Could never have been happier.
Hope this helps, and happy scanning!
