Onscreen proofing and printing

Apologies if this has been covered previously, but I'm slightly confused about proofing.
Assume for a moment that I have a correctly calibrated screen. Let's say I've noticed quite a difference between the appearance of my onscreen and printed images. Let's also assume that I have a profile which allows me to soft proof the onscreen image to give me an idea of what it will look like when printed - and that this profile better matches what I'm seeing in my printed images. Shouldn't I, therefore, do all of my image adjustment (colour balance, brightness / contrast etc.) with this profile loaded ? It seems obvious to me, but I haven't seen this specifically mentioned anywhere.
Or - am I missing something ?
Paul

Yes, you are correct. If you are targeting a specific output device, it is best to edit the image while soft-proofing to that device. This will allow you to achieve the best results.
Cheers

Similar Messages

Color and Printing from LR

I'm a commercial photographer and spend much of my time photographing fine art for galleries and their publications. Color matching, therefore, is a critical part of my business.
I have calibrated my camera with a greytag colorchecker; I calibrate my monitor at least every week with a spyder. At each shoot, I capture the image with the greytag grid in frame. I shoot RAW .CR2. My workflow is to import using the camera calibration presets I developed for similar lighting conditions. I adjust whitebalance using the grey tone scale on the greytag grid in the shot. I adjust exposure and tone curve as necessary in LR, apply clarity, crop etc. Then I edit in CS3 for the final adjustments. I edit in RGB with a working profile that emulates the final CMYK/ICC profile of the 4-color press printer we use. I save the file and return to LR.
Th gallery wants proof prints from me. Here's the problem:
I print on a 9800 Epson wide format using semiweight matte paper. I print to a color burst RIP. I switch off color management in LR leaving that for the RIP. In the RIP, I print using the correct ICC for the paper. Prints are OK BUT there is a distinct over emphasis on the red/orange color range. This is a problem, since many of the images are of southwestern themes with redish hues.
If I take the same saved TIFF files, and print them from CS3 via the RIP using the same settings throughout, the output is excellent and mimics my moniot exactly without the color cast.
LR's work flow is ideal and convenient, but this printing feature is a major problem. Anyone have any suggestions?
Many thanks,
Andrew

Lightroom is sending the file to your RIP with the ProPhoto colour profile hence the colour shift.
LR is great at printing when you let
i it
handle to media profile. Most printer drivers and RIP software cannot handle ProPhoto so you if you must use the RIP, you're best exporting a version for proofing and print straight from Photoshop.

Onscreen Proofing Bug

I found a bug with aperture's onscreen proofing. I when enable the app crashes repeatedly. I frustratingly tried to figure out what was causing the crashes until I remembered I had turned on proofing. After disabling it aperture runs fine. I am using a 17" iMac core duo 1.5GB RAM.

I doubt this is a bug; there must be a configuration error on your machine. Perhaps you have a corrupted colorsync profile.
There are problems with onscreen proofing and how it displays for many people, but what you're mentioning (it just flat out crashes all the time) isn't something that's widely reported, and plenty of people have tried it. I suggest you go to /Library/Colorsync/Profiles and see if there's something wacky there.

Printer Profiles and Onscreen proofing

Is there a way to adjust the options for Onscreen Proofing with ICC profiles in Aperture?
I downloaded and installed the Premium ICC printer profiles for the Epson Stylus Photo R2400 printer and have noticed an issue when I use Onscreen Proofing with these profiles, especially the matte ones. The screen display is muted as if the contrast is lowered and the colors compressed. I viewed the same image in Photoshop with Proof Colors and did not see this problem until I turned Simulate Paper Color on in the Customize Proof Condition dialog. Then the image took on the same appearance. Interestingly, the problem does not occur when I use the Epson profiles that are installed by default with the software that comes with the printer. The images print fine in Aperture (better than from Photoshop) using either the premium or default profile. I just can't use the premium profiles for onscreen proofing.
The bottom line is that the Epson Premium ICC printer profiles appear to be incorrectly built and do not simulate paper color accurately. In addition, Aperture appears to simulate paper color by default and I can't find a way to turn it off. This is unfortunate since the default Epson profiles, which are less accurate for printing, provide more accurate onscreen proofing.
Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) 2.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM, NVIDIA 7800GT

I'm having the same issue and would love here a solution.
Tim

When I make a Book in Aperture and print a PDF proof version, all the modified photos (marked with Badges) are totally distorted. What is causing this? All other - non-modified photos - appear to be fine.

When I make a Book using Aperture 3 and print a PDF proof version, all images that have been modified within Aperture are distorted in PDF form. All other images appear ok.

As if only the corrected layer would have remained on the photos.
So the geometry of the pictures is correct - they are not skewed or something? Only the colors and intensities are wrong?
. Only in printing when it is converted to PDF file some photos are unrecognizable.
Is it the printed pdf or the pdf viewed on the screen? If it is the printed copy you need to fix your print settings.
Does Aperture give a warning, that the high resolution images are not available?
We had some cases of books not being able to be printed, and that was due to a broken reference to the original files. Only the book could not access the originals, all other parts of Aperture could. To check for this, try to add one more adjustment to one of the images in question. Is it possible? Are the edits reflected correctly in the pdf of the book?
We were shooting with 3 cameras, Lumix5 shooting RAW, Cannon 100 shooting JPEG and SONY alfa850 shooting RAW.
Have you tried to reprocess the raw of the edited images? (Photos > Reprocess Raw)
Also try, to remove one of the images from the book and to add it again. That usually helps, if Aperture has lost the connection to the originals used in the book.
If you no have done so already, repair (and if necessary rebuild) the Aperture library.
See: Repairing and Rebuilding Your Aperture Library: Aperture 3 User Manual
Regards
Léonie

Jagged fonts onscreen and printing. Any advice?

I installed a library of company supplied fonts. I am unable to see any of them in my font list. But my regular fonts are now all jagged onscreen and print that way too!
Any advice?

Click on the flyout top right corner (PSE 10 and before) and bottom up corner (PSE 11 and after) of option bar of text tool and choose "Reset Tool". If it doesn't solve your problem then reset preferences.

Bad Posterization With Onscreen Proofing

Hey Everybody,
I just recently got Aperture and I LOVE it.
I'm only having one problem: I shoot RAW with my EOS 5D and need to output in the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color space. I know I should have Onscreen Proofing turned on set to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 in order to correctly adjust my images for printing, but when this feature is turned on, the images in the preview pane show SEVERE posterization and poor image quality. Can anyone help me out with this?
Thanks,
Nick
iMac Intel Core Duo 20" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Thanks for the input so far. The color profile I'm
using for proofing is sRGB IEC 61966-2.1. This is
because I don't print at home and my photo lab
requests all files to be in this color profile.
Even if you submit your files in sRGB for printing, using that for proofing will not help you understand what a print will look like, because most printers do not have as wide a color space as even sRGB. That merely helps them not have to do profile conversion before printing.
You need to either get a profile from them, or figure out what printer they use and find a profile for that yourself.
The weird thing is that when I export the image, it
doesn't seem to have that posterization. It's only on
the preview in Aperture.
I'm not sure why you get this effect, I don't get anything very noticable when I use the IEC61966-2.1 sRGB profile.
If I can think of any reason to proof for sRGB, the only one would be perhaps to see what an image might look like on a web page after exporting to that space. Still you should not see posteization you do not see outside Aperture after exporting.

Onscreen Proofing issue

I am trying to find a way to use the Onscreen Proofing feature in Aperture in a similar way to the technique that can be used in Photoshop to adjust the proofed image to match the original.
In Aperture I duplicate the version I wish to print.
I select the original and the duplicate versions such that the duplicate is the primary image and both images are displayed in the Viewer.
I choose a proofing profile for the paper I intend to use and enable Onscreen Proofing.
At this point BOTH images change slightly even though I have the Primary Only feature enabled.
What I want is to have only the duplicate version change when Onscreen Proofing is enabled so that I can adjust it to match the original version.
Is this possible?
Paul

No, not possible.
Proofing is enabled (for everything), or proofing is not enabled. It's not set on an image-by-image basis.

Onscreen proof very different than photoshop.

I just installed the various ICC profiles for my new Epson R2400 printer that are available on Epson's support web site. When I display a photo and use one of these ICC profiles for Onscreen Proofing as the Proofing Profile the image becomes horribly washed out. At first I thought "oh, you just can't compete with real light RGB" but they were pretty bad. So I opened the photos into CS2 and used the same ICC profile as a Proof Setup and did the same Proof Colors. Now in CS2 there was a very slight change - more of what you'd expect in a true proof. Now I haven't printed yet but I'm wondering if I should do all my printing from CS2 rather than Aperture. Or will the outputs be the same and there is just something wrong with the way Aperture proofs on screen. Thanks.
-Josh

Well I printed my first picture on my new R2400 using aperture directly. I used the Premium Glossy paper that came with the printer and I used the PremGlossyRPM ICC profile. Spectacular. Came out better than I thought, and definitely better than the Apple printed 8x10 I had ordered. So I'll just ignore soft proofing.
I loved Endura surface E. Any paper advice?

Black point compensation for onscreen proofing

Hi there,
In Aperture, is there any way to turn Black point compensation on for onscreen proofing (i.e. not using the export procedure, where this actually is available)? This option is available in Photoshop, for example.

Stephan,
I'd like to print photos via the web, and therefore
want to export the photos as JPEGs. I just checked
the options in the export preset panel, and realised
that one can select "Black Point Compensation" as an
option for the export.
Does anyone have any experience with this setting?
It's a fairly reliable fix if your test prints come back with murky shadows.
Should one use it, if one doesn't know the printer in
use?
I don't know of a good way to optimize files for unknown printers. I'd recommend getting a profile for the printer/paper combo used by your lab and soft-proofing on your Mac. Have you calibrated your screen, etc.?
The soft proof will get you in the ballpark. Definitely order small (8x10 or so) test print before laying out long green for a poster-sized one.
Cheers,
Andreas

Size & Quality - Exporting Pix from iPhoto for Display and Printing?

I would like to export pictures from iPhoto for use in PowerPoint.
If the pictures are in 4x3 format, exporting them using the "Custom" size option and specifying 1024 as the maximum pixels results in nice 1024 x 768 photos that fill the screen on most projectors. This is good.
The exported photos are also at 72 pixels/inch. This is OK for onscreen display, but not so good for printing.
Oddly, the results are the SAME (1024 x 768, 72 pixels/inch) whether one specifies Low, Med, High or Max quality in the iPhoto export panel -- though the file sizes ARE different (higher quality = larger sizes). (I used Photoshop Elements to identify the sizes of the exported photos).
What gives? I would have thought higher quality files would have been associated with higher resolution (more pixels/inch) but this doesn't seem to be the case, and I don't understand why the file sizes are larger.
Can someone recommend a way to export a batch of photos from iPhoto at a specific size (1024 x 768) and perhaps 300 pixels/inch) that I might use in PowerPoint for both display and printing? And perhaps explain the bloated file sizes with no apparent quality increase?
Many thanks!

Luxesto
Welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
If the pictures are in 4x3 format, exporting them using the "Custom" size option and specifying 1024 as the maximum pixels results in nice 1024 x 768 photos that fill the screen on most projectors. This is good.
The exported photos are also at 72 pixels/inch. This is OK for onscreen display, but not so good for printing.
DPI is meaningless for a digital photo until you display it - Dots Per Inch are just a meaningless number - the displayed DPI is the size of the photo in dots (pixels) divided by the inches of the display measures in inches - the DPI setting in the photo means nothing - see The Myth of DPI for a longer discussion on this.
Oddly, the results are the SAME (1024 x 768, 72 pixels/inch) whether one specifies Low, Med, High or Max quality in the iPhoto export panel -- though the file sizes ARE different (higher quality = larger sizes). (I used Photoshop Elements to identify the sizes of the exported photos).
What's odd? you said export with the largest dimension 1024 - that occurred just as you specified - what would be odd would be that the export were different form your specification
What gives? I would have thought higher quality files would have been associated with higher resolution (more pixels/inch) but this doesn't seem to be the case, and I don't understand why the file sizes are larger.
Higher quality means less compression (and therefore larger file size) - it does not mean a difference in compression - JPEGs have a compression from 1 to 12 available - iPhoto does 4 steps - small, medium, large and highest. I've not see the compression documented but I think of it as like 3, 6, 9 and 12
Can someone recommend a way to export a batch of photos from iPhoto at a specific size (1024 x 768) and perhaps 300 pixels/inch) that I might use in PowerPoint for both display and printing? And perhaps explain the bloated file sizes with no apparent quality increase?
Forget the DPI - just be sure the pixel sizes are correct - for printing you should have at least 150 dpi and 300 dpi is better - so at 150 DPI printing your 1024x768 photo can be printed at 6.8" x 5.12 " -- at 300 dpi it would only 3.4" x 2.55"
LN

Aperture, Display and Printer Color Match/Profile Calibration ?

I need to calibrate my HP Photosmart Plus B209a-m Printer to match what I see on my Acer X223w 22 inch display when using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5
The colors are pretty close to matching but each photo I print comes out deeper in color ( shadows and highlights are off )
I have the Acer display Color Profile set to Adobe RGB 1998, All photos shot with my Nikon D5000 in RAW format and Color Profile Adobe RGB 1998,
Aperture 3.03 Proofing Profile Adobe RGB 1998 and when I print a photo I set HP Color Matching / ColorSync to Adobe RGB 1998
I've been using Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II PP-201 for prints but can't find a profile for it to add to my HP Printer.
If I did find a profile how would I install it so it would show up in the drop down list of paper types ?

Well I'm pretty amazed that the prints are just slightly off, with all the things you're doing wrong in color management.
First off, you don't seem to know the difference between a device profile and a working space (i.e. 'synthetic' profiles), since you assigned AdobeRGB to both your monitor and printer. You should profile your printer and display with special hardware, like the X-Rite Colormunki. This will generate a profile, that will translate how color should look theoretically (by the assigned working space e.g. AdobeRGB), to how they will look on the hardware.
Secondly, RAW-images do not have a color profile! The setting in the camera only applies to in-camera JPEGs. RAW files only contain the voltages the CCD measured, this has to be translated into in image later.
Thirdly, softproofing in AdobeRGB almost never makes any sense. It doesn't make any sense if your are softproofing in AdobeRGB if you want to match screen to print. Your softproofing profile should be the profile that is specific for your printer and paper combination. The only synthetic profile that makes sense to softproof to is sRGB, since that is the colorspace used on the web. And even that is disputable since 99.9% of web user do not have a calibrated/profiled monitor.
Fourthly, Adding a color profile will not add a paper type to the drop down list in the printer driver. These are hard-coded in the printer driver and basically determine the amount of ink being placed on the paper.
So I'd suggest at this point to fetch yourself a copy of 'Real World Color Management' by Bruce Fraser (ISBN 9780321267221) and read it from the front to the back before you again embark on the path of color management.

Color management for web and print.

Hi there. I would like to post my images and have them print ready for clients. When I read about both of these I find one thing for web and one thing for print. I don't want to edit them twice. What would you suggest for easiest workflow? I like to post the images in an online gallery for my clients and if I really like them maybe use on my homepage. Do I have to edit twice or what is the optimal setting for a photographer. I do mostly portraits --family, baby, couples, etc.
I am pretty well versed in actual editing processes but my understanding in this portion is still lacking. I am trying prophoto rgb on photos today, but will this compromise my online quality?

brwmmw wrote:
…I knew of this option but did not know if it was optimal quality…
You define the quality of the saved image in the Save for Web and Devices dialog box.
brwmmw wrote:
…I have just been… using same files for web and print. I wanted to increase quality across the board in print and web…
That is absurd! (Sorry.) By doing that you are generating unconscionably and unnecessarily large image files. You're clients won't like that.
Remember that you have no control over how anyone sees your images on the web. Something like 97% of Internet users are running non-color-managed web browsers and uncalibrated monitor.
You and you're clients are best served when you stick to the lowest common denominator, namely sRGB images, for web.
brwmmw wrote:
…What mode do you use for prints?…
Personally, I like to stay in 16-bit ProPhoto RGB when I print my images myself. If sending them to a pro lab, I discussed it with the lab techs. But I have gathered a lot of experience by now. One really has to know exactly what one's doing to edit in ProPhoto RGB and stay in that color space. If sending my images to a cheap lab like Costco, I stick to 8-bit tagged images that I soft-proof with the specific printer profile that will be used by the local store.
You should—and probably do—know that ProPhoto RGB has a very wide gamut that includes colors that cannot be printed by many printers, and it's up to you to compensate for that. If you run into problems with ProPhoto RGB consider converting to Adobe RGB for print. Make sure the printer drivers that will be used to print actually support 16-bit printing, otherwise convert to 8-bit.
Since you're a pro, I would warmly recommend you watch the video tutorials comprising the "From Camera to Print - Fine Art Printing" series by Jeff Schewe and Michael Reichmann, that are/were available for download from the Luminous Landscape. They're working on a new 2011 edition, but the 2008 edition was just superb. Best $35 or so I've spent in a long time.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/videos/camera-print.shtml
Wo Tai Lao Le (no connection to Adobe or Schewe/Reichmnan/Luminous_Landscape.)
我太老了

CS5 Color Calibration and Printing Problems vs. CS3

We are migrating from CS3 to CS5, and i'm working on getting the printing right.
We are on MacPro towers, 10.6.6, with LaCie LCD Monitors and an Epson 2200. Calibration on monitors and printer done by EyeOne Pro and Profilemaker Pro.
Printing: In CS3, creating the profile was done by printing the appropriate Eye One testchart. It gets opened with 'no color management', and is printed out with 'no color management'. This way, the testfile is being printed as the printer prints, with no tweaks. The color adjustment controls (brightness, saturation, cyan, magenta, etc) within the Epson driver are set to Zero. Then, this print is scanned in, using the Eye One, and you get the profile of the printer.
Now, when printing actual files, 'Photoshop Manages Colors' is utilized, and the created Profile from Eye One is selected.
We have had great luck with this, matching screen to print. If a slight tweak is needed, then we could use the Epson color adjustment controls to modify slightly.
Again, we've had great prints consistently for years using this method.
Now comes CS5...
Printing. Trying to use our existing profile...
When 'Photoshop Manages Colors' and the Profile are selected, now the Epson color adjustment controls are greyed out. So, we lose out on the 'tweaking' possibilities. I'm a fan of profiles, but now i have absolutely no control after the fact.
Trying to create a new profile....
'No Color Management' is not longer available as an option in 'Color Handling'. So, now i can't even print out the baseline testchart without adding some sort of profile to it? If i would choose 'Printer Manages Color' for this testpage, I would normally set the Epson Color Adjustments to Zero to get this baseline print for profiling. But now, If I would do that, it's only going to be greyed out when i go back in and let Photoshop manage the colors. Sheesh...
To make matters worse...
I pull up the same testchart in CS3 AND CS5. We are on a calibrated monitor, using North American Prepress presets on both programs. Same monitor, same color settings, same file. AND the testchart looks different in each program. Similar, but definite differences in shades. Eyedropper readings are the same for both programs.
So, CS5 is even rendering color differently on screen, and i have little or no way to create my custom profile or control my printer? Sheesh....
Any help or direction is appreciated.
Rich

thanks for the input.
I will look at the links you recommended. When 'Compensate for Scene-Referred Profiles' is unchecked in CS5, the monitors match. I'll need to do some research to see that that 'compensation' is, and what's happening.
As for the 'not considered a good color managed workflow'...
That's fine. But I would consider a good managed workflow using a calibrated monitor, and using a profile that matches the printer and substrate being used, right? When i plug in the canned printer profile in CS5, i get unsatisfactory results. With that 'correct' workflow, there is no way to modify what is ending up on the printed page. You get what you get.
Even if i back up to CS3, create a custom profile with the Eye One, run Colorsync/Profile all the way through, and eliminate the Epson Color Adjustments, I'm still obeying a 'correct' workflow, but what if my prints are slightly too Cyan? Or slightly too open/light? (granted, Profilemaker Pro does have a profile 'editor', but it's convoluted and extremely difficult to use. I've never gotten good results with it.)
If you have no way to do small adjustments at the back end on the printer, and it's been 'profiled' correctly, and the prints don't match calibrated screen with proper color spaces....
uh....then what do you do? which one is right? The screen or the printer?
I've had hundreds of images over the years go from screen to client (or press if we were controlling the print phase of the job), which then got printed, and have had basically 'zero' client issues with color. We have great color here on screen, from capture into post production.
But when my client wants a proof, in house, they want to see what they've been seeing all day in the studio and in post. How am I supposed to adjust my prints if a 'proper color managed workflow' isn't giving me matching proofs?
I sincerely appreciate the input here. I'm just frustrated, because even if my 'workflow' isn't technically correct, it's not without merits and I've had excellent consistent results that just 'worked'. Now, i've got to find a new method within CS5.

When I create & tile patterns in AI CS6, I see unwanted seams, both onscreen & when I print

Depending on the percentage of zoom I use to view the patterns, the swatch bound seams show up in various locations. The more I zoom in, the less I see the seams, so I figured it was a screen glitch. But, when I save the file and open it in photoshop, I still see the seams. And when I print to my Epson Stylus Photo R2000, the image is crisp and beautiful, but those tiny seam lines are still showing up in print.
* How do I avoid pattern seams, both onscreen & when I print?

So here's what I've learned so far:
To remove those unsightly pattern seams on your web-only files, make sure to choose "art optimized" when saving for web.
(Thanks Mike!)
As for high-res print, I am still unable to remove the seams. When I open my AI file in Photoshop, the seams are still viewable, and when I print the file on premium presentation paper, they are clearly there.
Now, I can save the AI file as a 'high quality print' PDF, and when I open it in Photoshop with anti-aliased checked, the image looks clean, but the seams are there. If I uncheck anti-aliased, the seams disappear, BUT the image edges are pixelated. Are there any other suggestions out there for printing Illustrator cs6 patterns W/O seams? Thank you!!

Onscreen proofing and printing

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for