AdobeRGB option in Printer Profile (Canon Driver)

Roberto Smith

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I've been trying to get my Canon Pixma Pro 100s to print in Adobe RGB colour gamut instead of sRGB. I spent a lot of time trying to download and install the AdobeRGB .icc file but it never seemed to work (can't select it from Printer Profile in the driver and the only .icc file I can get from Adobe is only 1kb in size so I doubt it's the actual working file).


However I did manage to download *something* from the Adobe site and then installed it. I wasn't sure what it did but I did notice that in my Canon driver, in Main tab > Color/Intensity (click Set) > Matching tab > Select ICM from Color Correction then Input Profile drop-down menu (see attached picture!) there used to only be an option for "standard" for the Input Profile, but now there's an AdobeRGB(1998) option as well.


I found selecting this actually allows me to print out in the AdobeRGB colour space without specifying it in the software I'm using (which effectively has no colour management so I can't select any printer profile from there).


I'm just wondering if anyone knows what I did. I tried for ages to download and install the AdobeRGB .icc profile but the only file I can find is 1kb in size so I doubt it really is the .icc file, and copying it into the correct windows folder doesn't actually make it show up in the Printer Profile menu anyway.


Does anyone know what it was that I installed for AdobeRGB to show up in the Input Profile? I attach a second screenshot, this is from the Adobe website stating that AdobeRGB is only available for the Input Profile if you've installed it, but I can't actually remember what I installed, where it came from (other than it was somewhere on the Adobe site), what sort of file type it was etc.


Can anyone help? I'm just worried that if I ever need to replicate what I did I won't be able to do it!


Thanks :)

Ps - if it helps, this is where I got the first screenshot from:

https://ij.manual.canon/ij/webmanua...eries/1.0/EN/PPG/dg-c_color_correction03.html

So maybe I did install the AdobeRGB .icc profile? Or something that made it appear in the Input Profile menu as an option, I just don't remember how I did it!
 

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The Hat

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Can anyone help? I'm just worried that if I ever need to replicate what I did I won't be able to do it!
Try opening your printer properties, then click on Colour Management Tab and there you can then click on the Colour Management button, and you will see Profiles associated with your device.. Further down on the same Tab click on the Add button and install the many profiles that are in the system..

If the profile your looking for is not there then click on the browse button to install it yourself..
 

Ink stained Fingers

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AdobeRGB is not a printer profile but a color space - similar to but larger than sRGB, my adobe.icm file size is 560 Bytes.

I recommend to look for some introduction into color management - color spaces - printer profiles etc
 

Roberto Smith

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AdobeRGB is not a printer profile but a color space - similar to but larger than sRGB, my adobe.icm file size is 560 Bytes.

I recommend to look for some introduction into color management - color spaces - printer profiles etc
Can you tell me where you got the adobe.icm profile from? I've been trying to get the Adobe ones but even from their own website they don't seem to work. If you go here:

https://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/iccprofiles/icc_eula_win_end.html

It allows you to download a .zip file with a load of profiles in it, the issue is they can't be the correct ones as all the RGB ones are only 1kb in size (see attached picture). You can right-click these and Install Profile or manually move them to the correct folder, but they then don't appear in any menu as a selectable option. I'm guessing Adobe don't want people to have access to them and they replaced the actual files with some sort of dummy file?

Edit: I'm on a desktop PC running Windows 10
 

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Ink stained Fingers

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(can't select it from Printer Profile in the driver and the only .icc file I can get from Adobe is only 1kb in size so I doubt it's the actual working file)
Adobe RGB 1998 is not a printer profile - no wonder that you can't select it
 

Roberto Smith

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Adobe RGB 1998 is not a printer profile - no wonder that you can't select it
Hi yes I know it's not a printer profile, what I mean is that even if I install the Adobe .icc file, it's not selectable anywhere even though it's in the right directory.
 

Roberto Smith

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I'm probably not being clear in what I'm asking....so this Canon website:

https://ij.manual.canon/ij/webmanual/PrinterDriver/W/MG2500 series/1.0/EN/PPG/dg-c_color_correction03.html

The first paragraph states:

Printing with ICC Profiles​

When the image data has a specified input ICC profile, you can print by using the color space (Adobe RGB or sRGB) of the data effectively.

Then a bit further down on that page:

Specify an ICC Profile with the Printer Driver, and then Print​

Print from an application software that cannot identify input ICC profiles or does allow you to specify one by using the color space of the input ICC profile (sRGB) found in the data. When printing Adobe RGB data, you can print the data with the Adobe RGB color space even if the application software does not support Adobe RGB.

1659982965141.png


Then there's the above part. Somehow I managed to get "AdobeRGB" to appear in the Input Profile drop-down menu, when before all that was there was "Standard". Problem is I don't remember how I did this,

I actually contacted Canon and they don't know either! :-/

I'm guessing the option I now have selected tells the printer / software to use AdobeRGB colour space rather than sRGB. It definitely makes a difference to the printer output though, colours are more saturated etc.
 
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Ink stained Fingers

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I'm stepping out of the discussion at this point, it appears to me from the quoted text by Canon that there is some misleading use of the terms 'color profile' and 'color space', it could be some translation error from japanese to english and/or trying to press the description of different situations into the same sentence.

A typical image data file contains a range of image property information liike the size - X x Y pixels - 8 or 16 bit data - a date - and a data field specifying the color space used for generation of the image file - and the color space is typically sRGB or AdobeRGB, there are other color spaces possible but pretty rare. If this data field is missing color space aware software defaults to sRGB unless specified otherwise in some parameter setup of this software.

'Hi yes I know it's not a printer profile, what I mean is that even if I install the Adobe .icc file, it's not selectable anywhere even though it's in the right directory.'

We re going in circles - the Adobe.icc file is defines a color space and is not a printer profile so it is not selectable as such.
 
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The Ninth

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I found selecting this actually allows me to print out in the AdobeRGB colour space without specifying it in the software I'm using (which effectively has no colour management so I can't select any printer profile from there).

if the software does not support color management, it is unlikely that it can send data to the printer in Adobe RGB color space. If you manually set the printer driver to expect Adobe RGB input data, it will interpret the input data wrongly, which probably leads to the changes you see in printer output.

There is two things two consider: the color space of the input data and the color space of the printer/paper combination.

The input data is usually in a working color space such as sRGB, Adobe RGB or ProPhotoRGB. So if you want to make use of a larger color space, you need input data that actually fills that larger color space. That starts from recording the image either in RAW, or if you use JPEG setting the camera to use Adobe RGB. And then you need the larger color space as working color space throughout your editing workflow. My personal recommendation would be to go with ProPhoto RGB instead of Adobe RGB, since the capabilities of modern inkjet printers already exceed Adobe RGB. I wrote a bit more on this in an article on ProPhoto RGB on my blog.

For the for the printer/paper combination you have ICC profiles describing the available color gamut, either generic profiles from the printer or paper manufacturer, or individual profiles created for your specific printer by yourself or a service provider.

Then you need to make sure that the input data is converted properly into the color space of the printer/paper combination. This can happen in the application if it has that capability, like Photoshop or Lightroom do. In that case you disable the matching in the printer driver, by setting that correction option you showed to „None“. Or it can happen in the printer driver by choosing the right ICC profile there.

So your misconception is that you can just make a setting in the printer driver to use Adobe RGB, when there is much more to it.

What is the software you are using, and how does the input data look like?
 
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