What photo paper size for creating ICC profile?

[lin]

For those who are experience with creating custom ICC profile? May I know what are the photo paper size that is required to be printed on for creating ICC profile purpose? Do I need to get A4 size? Will 5R ( 5" 7" 127 178 mm ) be good enough？Or if 5R is too small, will 8R or 6R or any other size other than A4 be sufficient?

Thanks in advance.

 

[crenedecotret]

It really depends on the profiling package you are using. A scanner based software like Profile Prism will do just fine with 5x7 or even 4x6.

If you are using a spectro, some software will only let you use 8.5x11 and up. The Colormunki software in theory needs 8.5x11 but i've been able to use it on 4x6 by using scaling in the printer driver. You then use a ruler to guide the device.

Argyll will support any paper size, providing your device can read patches off a 5x7 or 4x6 paper but the quality of the profile will be highly dependant on how many pieces of paper you are willing to sacrifice.

The easy route would be to get an A4 pack of the paper you want to profile, and then use the profile with the same paper in 5x7 size. Just inquire with the seller to make sure it's the exact same paper he offers in the different packaging sizes.

I might be able to tell you a bit more if you can provide extra details.. will you be profiling yourself? if so, what software/device ?

 

[lin]

It really depends on the profiling package you are using. A scanner based software like Profile Prism will do just fine with 5x7 or even 4x6.

If you are using a spectro, some software will only let you use 8.5x11 and up. The Colormunki software in theory needs 8.5x11 but i've been able to use it on 4x6 by using scaling in the printer driver. You then use a ruler to guide the device.

Argyll will support any paper size, providing your device can read patches off a 5x7 or 4x6 paper but the quality of the profile will be highly dependant on how many pieces of paper you are willing to sacrifice.

The easy route would be to get an A4 pack of the paper you want to profile, and then use the profile with the same paper in 5x7 size. Just inquire with the seller to make sure it's the exact same paper he offers in the different packaging sizes.

I might be able to tell you a bit more if you can provide extra details.. will you be profiling yourself? if so, what software/device ?

Thank you for your advice. I am exploring on Profile Prism with the IT target, I still reading but found it quite daunting. Not too sure if I eventually could create icc profile with the profile prism. Though I had a feel that it's something beyond my ability. If in the end I still couldn't know how to do it, I will just think of getting people to do the profile.

I had purchased several stacks of different 4x6 photo paper since that is what I used most often. But now realize that they are too small for profiling purpose. So if in the end, I had to get people to do the profile, I supposed they would probably want the photo paper size to be bigger. As such, I am not too sure what photo paper size that I should get other A4.

A4 would be a waste if I don't ever be using it.

 

[crenedecotret]

If you would have bought one massive amount of the same paper, says 200 sheets of the 4x6 paper, It would have been worth it to get it profiled, even if you needed 20-25 sheets of 4x6.

If you have several different packs of different brands and if you tend to not stick to a single brand, you really should try Profile Prism (f you can't afford a Spectro). It's very very easy. Basically you print the target, lay it down flat on your scanner with the IT8 and scan. When that's done you open the resulting image file in Prism, indicate where the corners are and that's about it. The results won't be as good as a professional profile, but it will certainly be better than no profile at all. You only need one sheet of paper, and you'll be able to profile as many paper as you'd like. The only thing is that you need to be using a decent quality scanner for it to work well. Also, sometimes the results may vary depending on the paper surface (gloss, luster, matte).

I'm saying all this as a Profile Prism owner... I have a Colormunki now but to be honest *some* of the PP profiles are almost as good (visually). Argyll (free) could work for you too, but if you find PP daunting, a command line tool might be challenging a bit.

There is another option.... If you are in the US, I've heard you can rent a Colormunki for 50-70$ for a few days. You could profile all your papers and your monitor and once that's done, just make sure you stick to the same ink and paper brands.

 

[WolfgangExler]

For those who are experience with creating custom ICC profile? May I know what are the photo paper size that is required to be printed on for creating ICC profile purpose? Do I need to get A4 size? Will 5R ( 5" 7" 127 178 mm ) be good enough？Or if 5R is too small, will 8R or 6R or any other size other than A4 be sufficient?

I use i1Profiler and regularly use A4 or US Letter format. For these paper formats I created testchart wirh 988 patches fitting to both DIN A4 and US Letter format.
I also created testcharts for use on 5x7 papers as well. As the paper is smaller I created 8 charts with 880 patches to have a comparable ICC profile quality

Wolfgang

 

[lin]

crenedecotret, WolfgangExler

Thanks for the input given. I think it would play safe for me to go about purchasing A4 size in case I still couldn't get the profile right.

For pass couple of weeks I had been reading and trying out the profile prism. I had a packet of A4 photo paper which I didn't want and I could try it to learn how to go about using profile prism. The beginning was daunting. I didn't think I would managed to get passed the actual task of going to profile with the profile prism. But I am glad I move forward and attempted. Unfortunately I could not get the color right with profile prism. After profile, the output image was dull and dark. But it has a features to modify the profile where by you fine tune the RGB and contrast and brightness as well as saturation. I managed to get reduce the darkness but unfortunately I couldn't get adjust the dullness of the yellow color.

I used the PDI test image below but I look at my printed result and the PDI test image, the sunflower and other yellow items such as the lemon remain dulled looking.

The source image that I was using

As for iProfiler, I probably need to go read about that software.

I heard that there is command line type ArgyllCMS and there is a dispcalGUI for it. Does this software with dispcalGUI able to perform profiling for printer with just IT8 Target and Scanner? I tried to install the dispcalGUI and ArgyllCMS but it doesn't seems to do anything. With profile prism, I just had to scan the printed target color test chart with the IT8 target and load the scanned image into the profile prism, and then set the corner edge accordingly.

 

[lin]

for the iprofiler must it used with their devices? That means that the entire package has to be purchased?

I still couldn't get profile prism proile printed result to be less dull and dark for the yellow.
I am not too sure about those highlight in yellow at the modified profile section.

Does the contrast reduce dullness?

first i adjusted the saturation and brightness to bring down the dark images and adjusted the red to reduce red cast, apply these changes, After printed the result still looking dull for the yellow, I tried to adjust the blue to reduce the yellow, and use the red exclamination mark to apply the changes, unfortunately the yellow still seems dull and dark and muddy looking.

 

[sampheap]

@lin, have you got the color improved yet?
@WolfgangExler, Can we just profile and printer and leave the monitor as is - it still print correct color?