Adjusting Color To Match Calibration Print

Hi folks,
I'm a little stuck at the moment with color managment. I have Photoshop displaying through a calibrated monitor and I have had my printer profiled yet I still have to make adjustments - but thats another issue and one I know how to solve (+0.5 Exposure Layer and 10% Saturation boost).
My real problem is with trying to get the images on my screen fairly accurately printed by a print company. I use Photobox here in the UK and they supply a calibration print and a matching downloadable image so that you can set up Adobe in order for you prints to match what you see on the screen.
Is there a way of adjusting the settings of my system so that as I work on an image it displays what I am going to get from Photobox - color and bightness wise. I understand that by setting the proofing preview it comes something close but how do I go about adjusting the setting and then creating a profile for the proofing tool to display.
As it stands my monitor displays nice saturated and bright calibration image but the corresponding print is much darker and less vibrant. I need to be able to set Photoshop so that the image I am working on will be the image that is printed.....I'm finding this hard to explain properly so I hope someone understands what I am asking.
Can anyone please advise on this.
Many thanks,
Rich

First set Ps Color Settings to correctly deal with profiles:
Ps> Edit> Color Settings> Color Management Policies: 1) Set RGB-CMYK-Gray to "Preserve Embedded Profiles"
Then 2): just below that, check the following three options: Profile Mismatches, Ask When Pasting, Ask When Opening.
Now open your Photobox 'calibration' file — it probably is not a 'calibration' file, but let's move forward.
Just before it opens you should now hit a Profile Warning — unless they are idiots, they will have an embedded profile in their image (most likely sRGB) — but pay attention to what profile they are using (and use their embedded profile in the opening mismatch dialogue). If their file opens without a profile warning (with my above Color Management Policey settings) then you are already using their profile in Ps.
If the profile warning says it does not have an embedded profile, get them on the phone and ask them specifically what ICC Profile they use...knowing what profile they use (and Converting to it) is the key.
++++++
Once you know their profile half the mystery is solved.
Open your file in Photoshop.
Then: View> Proof SetUp> Custom> Select their profile (to see how it will print in their work flow) — don't get stuck in "Soft Proofing" mode here (get the point and visit Proof SetUp sparingly and usually ONLY when you have a device-dependent printer profile or CMYK color space to get a feel for what's going on).
+++++++
To prepare your file for delivery:
Open in Ps> RESIZE (Image> Image Size) to print resolution (300ppi)> Edit> Convert to Profile: Destination Space> their profile> Okay
THEN: File> Save As .tif or .jpg
At the point you deliver your file Converted into their profile — and you still do not get the good color you see on your 'calibrated' monitor — they are screwed up (or your file is out of print gamut) — find a new printer (or re-examine your approach to preparing your color, read up on Gamut Warning in Ps Help).
It helps if you get a known good reference file like the Photodisc PDI AdobeRGB with the three baby faces and gray ramp (Google a download link) — for example — Convert the PDI image to their profile and if it doesn't come back looking like a professionally-balanced print, they are hosing it.
Likewise, if it doesn't look like a professionally-balanced file in Ps — neutral grays, nice healthy yellow-red skintones — your monitor profile is off.
+++++++
I recommend reading the late Bruce Fraser on this subject "Soft Proofing" in Photoshop...

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Ok so I've done what you said and this is what it's come back ....
I don't know that these are the errors , but they're the things which don't look right ...
Throughout the shut down there is a recurring line ;
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off the VIvid setting on the printer
Hi,
I'm not familiar with the Epson print driver in Windows, but is there a choice for No Color management? If Photoshop runs the color conversion, there should be no CM on the printers part.
In the first Print Dialog (Photoshop's) do you have the correct destination profile chosen? It should be Epson Lustre for that printer. And what is your source space? You should Soft Proof to the Epson Lustre paper to get a better idea of how it will reproduce. (In Photoshop go View>Proof Setup and go Custom and find the device to simulate- Lustre paper for your printer. Now you can work in your editing space like Adobe RGB and soft proof to your destination device)
Can you post a screen shot of the Photoshop Print dialog showing your settings?
And one of the Epson Print settings dialog too?
Thanks!
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Try the following: make temporary copy of the library and do the following:
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User/Home()/Library/ Preferences folder.
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3 - launch iPhoto and try again.
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OT

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http://www.gballard.net/psd/cmstheory.html
Read the extensive entire site carefully and follow the instructions carefully.

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From PHOTOSHOP (CS4) In the printer driver menu, the COLOR MATCHING pulldown shows the choices are grayed out. But go to the PRINT SETTINGS pulldown. There you should be able to select BLACK/COLOR Ink, color settings if appropriate (VIVID etc)...
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Color management problem when printing

(sorry for the double post, since the problem affect both illustrator and photoshop and in fact also indesign) in decided to repost it here in the photoshop forum. thank you for any help!)
hi ! im in charge of a big print lab in a university. All macpro quad running on 10.6.4, CS5 all updated.
i have a major problem when printing from all 3 CS5 apps : Illustrator (being the worst), photoshop and indesign : each one produces a different print even if i use the SAME color management options (the application manage color using my own color profile file created with a i-one tool from greta macbeath and using eye-one match 3). im printing on a XEROX 7750gx laser printer. very cool printer never had trouble with colors before with it, in any case it was always the software part that was causing color problems (like i suspect in this case).
how can 3 softwares under the same application collection and brand, using the same color profile and options (IDENTICAL ! it's triple check all the options!) can produce 3 different prints when printing the same image (it's a color psd created under photoshop CS5) ?!
i remember having some trouble like this when we first got CS1 in our lab, but not this bad... i've checked everything... i realy don't know how to fix this problem...
the best setting so far is in Photoshop when the application manage the color and using my color profile file in perceptual mode. best output so far, not the best i had in the past, CS4 was way more perfect with color management.
i realy need to find a solition 'cause the students expect the color to be almost perfect (and they almost were using CS4 in the past...
thanx for any tips & help !
+

many thanx for your reply & help.
i've just recalibrated everything in my workflow : my screen (perfect!), my xerox 7750 color laser printer. i've recreated a new color profile file for the xerox color. and the same thing is happening : a kind of pink color all over my prints and every adobe's applications is printing different results. in photoshop i can manage the problem when forcing to print in perceptual mode. not perfect but it's fine. and with the other software specialy like ACROBAT and INDESIGN there's no option like this so it prints very badly. only option is to print in adobe 1998 rgb or SWOP cmyk (depending of the color space of the image of course)... the image is use for my test is RGB. images in CMYK are doing the same exact thing.
by the way for calibration is use an x-rite (greta macbeth) eye-one tool with eye-one match 3.6.3. i calibrate the screens and create color profile with this tool since ADOBE CS1 and never had this much trouble with colors...
here's a capture from photostop CS5 print dialog. when using the option "match print colors" you can see the image with all the PINK NOISE when using the print in RELATIVE colormetric mode (at the bottom right). using perceptual is "fine" (not color perfect but OK).
http://i53.tinypic.com/qzge12.jpg
it's worst in Acrobat and Indesign since i can't use perceptual colormetric print mode...
im realy starting to think that i better uninstal CS5 and go back to CS4...
thanx for your help !

New Color Cartridge Won't Print

Hidy! This is my office printer, and it cannot be replaced because of strange budget rules so I HOPE we can get it fixed. I went through every troubleshooting thing imaginable. When I print a test page (where you open and close the lid four times), it prints in color. When I print from the troubleshooter to re-align or clean, it prints in color. When I print from ANY program, and I've tried Word, Adobe PDF Files, internet pages through Firefox, everything, it only prints in Black, as if Grayscale is on (which, I look in every single Printer Dialogue Screen just to be sure, it is NOT on. Is there another place I could be missing? I've unplugged, removed, restarted, to no avail. This is just...odd. I know sometimes it will just stop working, but the fact that it's working from the HP software has me stumped. Please help!!! I was SO close to having my print jobs done!

Hi @knmcnulty
Running the Print and Scan Doctor might help. The HP Print and Scan Doctor is a free utility (tool) that helps to quickly resolve common printing, scanning and connectivity issues including but not limited to:
Connectivity:
USB: Verifies that the USB connection from your computer to the HP product is working correctly.
Network: Verifies that the network connection between your computer and your network is working correctly.
Device Status Test: Checks for device errors such as out of paper, paper jams, carriage stalls, and paper feed issues, and then provides instructions for fixing the error.
Driver Check: Checks for missing or corrupt driver files.
Device Manager: Checks for problems in Device Manager that would prevent printing.
Device Online: Checks if the product has been paused or set to offline, and then sets the status back to online if necessary.
Print Queue: Checks for and clears pending print jobs in the print queue (a log of print jobs waiting to print).
Port Match: Checks the port settings for the HP product.
Device Conflicts: Checks for conflicts with other drivers, such as other printer brands.
Ink Issues: Checks the cartridges and ink levels for issues that affect print quality.
Print Settings: Checks and adjusts the print quality settings.
Test Print: Prints a test page for print quality evaluation, and provides options for cleaning and aligning the printhead if necessary.
Scan Tests: Checks the scan mechanism, drivers, and registry entries.
Source:Try the HP Print and Scan Doctor for Windows
Click here to download and run the Print and Scan Doctor> >>>>> www.hp.com/go/tools
If that does not resolve the issue, post back and let me know if there are any symbols other than green check marks and what they are next to of course. The wrench is not always easy to spot as the wrench and the check mart are in the green circle.
If you see only green check marks (), the tool did not find any problems.
If you see green wrenches (), the utility identified an issue and corrected it automatically.
If you see yellow exclamation points (), the test failed and required user action, but the step was skipped.
If you see a red X (), follow the on-screen instructions to resolve the issue.
If the issue persists, you might also consider removing the driver from the Server Properties and then re-adding it again;
1. In the ‘Devices and Printers’ folder
2. Choose ‘Print server properties’.
Win XP – With no printer selected, click ‘File’ then ‘Server Properties’.
Windows Vista – With no printer selected, press ‘Alt’ then click ‘File’ then ‘Server Properties’.
Windows 7/8 and 8.1 – Select any printer in the ‘Devices and Printers’ folder and click ‘Print Server properties’ above.
3. Click on the ‘Drivers’ tab at the top of ‘Print server properties’ window
4. Choose the printer you want to uninstall and click ‘Remove’
5. Choose 'Remove driver only'
6. The next screen will give a warning, letting you know that deleting the driver package will remove it from the system. Click ‘Yes’ to say that you are sure you want to do this.
If documents are stuck in the print spooler, you may see an error, cancel any documents pending in the print queue, or try restarting the print spooler, then try to remove the driver from ‘Print server properties’ again. If it still won’t remove the package, restarting the computer and the printer should resolve this ‘in use’ error and allow the driver to be removed.
After the driver is removed, open Start > All Programs > HP folder > Printer folder > HP Setup and Software (or the printer icon).
The Setup and software screen will open and you can click on Connect a new printer.
Thanks, I look forward to hearing back from you.
Please click the Thumbs up icon below to thank me for responding.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Sunshyn2005 - I work on behalf of HP

In PS C6 I'm getting a warning that "No color management" setting for printer isn't supported. Why?

I'm using Photoshop Extended CS6. I'm printing to either an Epson Stylus Pro 9900 or an Epson SP4900. In the print dialog, I get a warning I haven't seen in a long time. It says the setting "No Color Management" at the printer is not supported. This is patently false. I am given a link to download the Adobe Color Print Utility (which gives abominable results; I know this from repeated uses in the past), and a service note saying this issue is for Photoshop CS5. Clearly there is a problem, possibly a bug.
I have never had CS5 installed on this machine. I do have PS CS5.5 and PS CS6 on this machine (I have used all versions of CS in various suites from the start of the product line).
Can anyone explain this annoying intrusion on my workflow? Of course "no printer management on printer/Photoshop manages color" works... There must be an explanation.
Thanks.

An excellent question, and worthy, in fact of an essay, if not a chapter in a book on color management and proofing issues. And as you suggested earlier, it's a philosophical question (not strictly conceptual to my way of thinking).
It's also a question I can't answer, in terms of practicality and a personal sense of efficacy in dealing with a monolithic process (producing a print). That is, I can't answer for you, or anyone else I'd venture to say.
Stepping back for the briefest of moments, we should remember we live, on computers, in a virtual world. Whatever we see is a simulation, or if you prefer a simulacrum. Plato would probably say, not much better than the play of shadows on the cave wall from the flickering flames.
It's called soft proofing for a reason. The only hard proof is a print. I am old enough to remember the days when producing a color print from a chrome (requiring an internegative) or even directly from negative images, was an art, best left to skilled technicians in a lab. And even then it was an iterative process. Making an image ready for accurate color rendition in lithographic reproduction was the same things, maybe times ten. And required sometimes a whole team of skilled technicians, the last of them being the press operator. You can't appreciate the full impact of these facts of life back then unless you have been "on press" in some plant, invariably in the hinterlands, looking at actual press proofs under 6500K calibrated proofing lights, comparing them against the original chrome, the separation proofs used to make the plates. You had to understand not only the physics (and biology) of RGB imaging, but the intricacies of subtractive technology, aka CMYK. As in so much else in life, less is more, and so you had to understand that sometimes the least adjustment was the best (because you were also dealing with the physical constraints of layers of ink on paper), so if an image looked too green on the press sheet, it might be best to throttle up on the magenta just a touch, rather than cut back on the yellow and cyan. You balanced one against the other, because of the possible effects on other parts of the image.
This long-winded, probably tiresome if not boring, anecdote is meant to be illustrative of the analogous situation in which we find ourselves printing images with digital technology, combined with electromechanical devices spraying pigmented fluids in drops measured in picoliters of volume on substrates of varying physical properties related to absorbency, refractive index, contribution to an arcane phenomenon known as metamerism.
We can't hope to see anything but a, pardon the expression, simulacrum of the combination of the effects of these phenomena (and other phenomena as a result of the interdigitation of these different technologies, at the software level, and even more so at the hardware level), at least not on a screen (which introduces a whole other set of variables). We can't see what we will get unless we actually go through the ordeal and expense of producing a hard proof. And then using our experience and deductive skills to make adjustments, not unlike maneuvering a rover on the moon from a control station on earth, that will produce the desired outcome within a very narrow (I assume) set of parameters.
Personally, I prefer working in Lightroom and in Photoshop in order to produce the image I would like to see in an ideal, if you like a Platonic, world. If what was on the screen could somehow be transferred magically to the surface of a lovely unsullied sheet of Arches cold press watercolor paper, 350g/m^2 coming out of an Epson 9900... (I've done it). Not so easy.
What the soft proofing capabilities of Photoshop are good for, from my point of view, is to show me how far off the image I am looking at as ideal will fall short on the intended target substrate. I must always remember, it is not a wholly accurate rendition of what the printer will do with a sheet of paper from a particular production run, with the particular combination of inks (with varying dates of origin of manufacture), never mind the vagaries of temperamental nozzles in the printhead, not to mention conditions of humidity, temperature, etc.
What the softproof tells me is that the red in that scarf on my subject really needs bumping up, if I expect the level of vibrancy I see I need in the ideal rendition. And I make the adjustment in the RGB representation on the screen, etc. When I have made my by guess and by gosh adjustments to all problem areas as suggested by the soft proof (it is only as accurate after all as the RGB image is in depicting any realistic expectation of a final result—the only assurance I have is that if I really want people to see my image as I see it on the screen I had better show them the screen...), I make a print. Sometimes I have to make two or three until I am satisfied this is truly the best I will get from the beautiful, but arcane, surface of the paper I have chosen.
In short, it's a risky business, and expensive.
If you want fast and affordable, frankly, stick to premium grade high gloss surfaces, preferably from Epson, in your case, or the manufacturer of your printer in general (Canon, incidentally, produces spectacular results on their Pixma Pro series printers and their own papers, especially the Pro Luster surface... I don't even bother with soft proofing... so there is an exception even to this rule I am taking a lot of time to point out to you). High gloss papers tend to have the widest gamut, give the deepest blacks, and the best renditions of saturated color, red and blue particularly, for some reason often the hardest spectral colors to render with the level of saturation you might like. Especially if you tend to shoot vividly colored subjects.
If you regularly use matte surface, or so-called fine art or watercolor surfaces, I think even if you adhere to the workflow implied in your question... Just set the computer and screen to "soft proof" in effect in Photoshop and work from their, and hope for the best... you are in for massive chronic dissatisfaction.
One last thing, I produce what I consider a basic working image in Lightroom, add further effects using a battery of third party effects software (from Google Nik, OnOne, Imagenomic, AlienSkin, etc.) and then go to work further on the image in Photoshop, but I never save the image, except as a revised file, once I'm done with Lightroom adjustments (which are never applied to the RAW file, but kept as meta-instructions separately in the LR database). So any effects added produce a new file. Any changes in Photoshop produce a new file. And when I am working, finally on an image to make into a committed hard print, I NEVER save the settings I use to produce a print, including a print I deem acceptable for exhibition. If nothing else, I can honestly tell a print buyer they are getting a unique "hand-made" image. I don't feel I'm operating a factory after all, but a studio. Further, changes in technology occur dynamically and continuously. I don't know what I would do with the settings I derived from working solely in the "soft-proofing" mode you think you might prefer in your workflow, if a new paper or ink set, or printer came along that solved the problems I had to fudge around to get a decent print with the existing technology at the time. At least if I work solely in RGB trying to achieve an "ideal" rendition, I will always be able to start from that same point, the next time I want a print worth saving of that image.
We've gone, or I've gone, way off topic here, and I beg the indulgence of anyone else who might be reading this, hoping for a simple fix to the original simple problem.
H

Resolving color management with Epson printer

Using an Espon Stylus Photo RX600
InDesignCS 3.0.1
PhotoShop 8.0
I continually struggle with color when printing scanned images or images off of a camera card into PhotoShop and/or InDesign, and with the warning messages (upon opening) for tagged or untagged photos,
Are the dialog box choices regarding printing choices for newer versions of PS and ID more user-friendly regarding color management choices, hence I would be better off upgrading strictly for that purpose?
I'm using a PowerBook,
Step 1 instructions from a post in this forum suggest calibration first.
i have calibrated my monitor. I have a name for the calibrated color settings and can call them up in Color Settings before I open the photo in Color.
step 2 advice in an earlier post reads :
dont apply double profiling, let the application, Photoshop Cs in my case, handle the colour management and make sure no colour adjustment is checked in the printer driver, this is located in the colour management section of a drop down menu.
this advice, step 2, is hard to follow because I do not know which phrase/choices in the dialog boxes refer to letting the SOFTWARE handle the printing and which refer to letting the PRINTER handle the printing. Either workflow would work fine. The Epson has wonderful capabilities when I get it managed correctly.
I have repeatedly tried to use a workflow by Ballard but can't interpret the advice similar to "step 2" above in tandem with the opening choices for untagged photos.
A single workflow would be great, but I need a solution that works no matter what the source of my photo (scanner, camera card being the most frequently used, I use an Olympus digital and a Casio digital).
Thanks for any advice. Right now I'd just like to hit my printer with a rock, but I doubt that would solve anything.

Please follow g ballards advice. You must understand first before you click. You NEVER USE the monitor profile except for the monitor itself. Hopefully you calibrated your monitor with an actual calibrator, which one was it?
The Epson will give you what you need and want if you actually know what you're doing.
There's a lot to understand, but it will become second nature once you follow the steps.
It appears that you don't understand calibration, color spaces, profiles, rendering intent, device dependence, and output.
You haven't given any system specs. Why are you using Indesign 3 and PS 8? Where is PS 10?

Adjusting Color To Match Calibration Print

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