canon color proliles

[mrelmo]

can anyone explain a little more about the color profiles i understand they have to do with the type of paper that you are using, but what adjustments is the printer making, i can list the different profiles if needed thanks

 

[Grandad35]

Mrelmo,

To generate a printer profile, a large number of color values are printed as "swatches" using the target printer with the target ink and paper with no color correction in the printer driver (this usually takes a few 8x10 sheets). The color of each swatch is then measured with a spectrophotometer (preferred) or a scanner, and the measured color value is compared against what the color should have been. This gives a table of "If you print this color, you will get that color" values. A printer profile is a reverse Look Up Table (LUT) generated from the initial table to give values for "If you want this color, then print that color" (this is actually an "inverse" of the original table). This allows the printer driver to modify the color data that is sent to the printer such that the desired colors are actually printed. This is a very much over-simplified explanation - there are actually 3 separate LUTs generated for 3 of the 4 different rendering intents (2 of the 4 rendering intents use the same LUT), and 3 more reverse LUTs generated for soft proofing. In addition, the profile defines that range of colors that the printer can actually generate.

If you are using the printing software that came with your printer, it usually selects the proper profile based on your paper selection and printer model (they assume that you are using OEM ink). The first link below has a link to a Canon document that explains how they identify their profiles.

Color management takes a lot of time to understand. Here are a couple of links to get you started:
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=625#p625
http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/

 

[mrelmo]

very interesting, thanks for the simplified explanation