OT: ...but hopefully of interest to many ...COLOUR MANAGEMENT :-)

[RJK]

Having spent many happy, ....(and frustrating), hours reading and
experimenting with colour printing
....and extensive "fiddling" with colour management, it seems to me that one
has to grasp a LOT of concepts, (relating to colour management), in order to
make a few simple settings in software, which result in predictable colour
print out ! i.e. the picture that comes out of the printer faithfully
matches what one was looking at on screen.

This consists of "profiling" ones monitor. i.e. Leave it switched on for an
hour,
and then run a utility to get brightness and gamma adjusted as accurately as
possible - and create a "monitor profile." This also becomes, (if chosen
during profiling), the Windows default monitor *.icm ...or was it *.icc
monitor profile.

Now !
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/icm/icm_9l7x.asp
looks very interesting, and I'm sure that whoever wrote it knows exactly
what they are talking about. This link obviously relates heavily to:-
http://www.normankoren.com/ deliberations on "colour management" and
"workflow."

There are some concepts here that seem, (to me at least), to be very
elusive. i.e.

In Adobe Photoshop there is a "working colour space." ...to which the
monitor colour profile is applied - solely for on-screen display of the
loaded picture, and according to ones current settings in Adobe, or actions
just prior to loading a picture, the current colour profile attached to the
picture is kept, (if there is already a profile attached to it), changed to
a different one of your choice, or removed.

The diagram "Colour management basics," (quite a way down that page), on
http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html
seems to indicate that there should be one "translation," or "profile"
applied between the "working space" and printer but, what seems to be
happening whilst fiddling and test printing with my setup, is that profiles
are being applied twice ...somewhere, resulting in prints that are too dark.
!

It's all very well reading over all the concepts involved, over and over
again but, relating and applying those concepts in application software that
fully supports *.icc and *.icm profiles is VERY difficult !!!!

regards, Richard

 

[Malke]

Having spent many happy, ....(and frustrating), hours reading and

(snippage)

Why are you cross-posting to windowsxp.general? There really is no need
to do this; the two operating systems have their own newsgroups for a
reason.

Malke

 

[RJK]

Well, seeing as my post was "off topic" I posted to both NG's because
brilliant brains have always resided in W98 general discussion Newsgroup,
and there's also a few in the XP general NG as well. My hope was to catch
the attention of someone who's fought with colour management in Adobe
Photoshop or other graphics application that handles colour profiles, and
who could throw me a few clues. Such a person could reside" in only one NG
!

I didn't wish to start a thread on the rights and wrongs of cross-posting -
which is what you two seem to want to do

If you have any sensible advice, {on how to make "colour workflow" settings
in Adobe Photoshop i.e. make colour management settings, and other settings
accessed via "print preview," and explain what's happening with "proof"
settings, that are only partially applicable to inkjet photo printing, as
opposed to CMYK colour seperation preparation - "view" settings etc. in
Adobe ...and could explain what's happening when selecting "ICM" in Epson
printer driver. i.e should there be a colour profile attached to the graphic
when it's sent from the "working space" to the printer driver that's been
set to ICM, or should there be none - or which is the best one ? ....or
should it be the one supplied with the printer ??? ...how to make settings
to avoid a colour profile being applied to a photo twice ...and so on ?
-) }, I'd be pleased to hear it

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

....oh my goodness ! ...
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/qimagehlp/icc.htm
gives some hints !

and look what I found !
http://www.praxisoft.com/pages/workshop.started.html

regards, Richard

Well, seeing as my post was "off topic" I posted to both NG's because
brilliant brains have always resided in W98 general discussion Newsgroup,
and there's also a few in the XP general NG as well. My hope was to catch
the attention of someone who's fought with colour management in Adobe
Photoshop or other graphics application that handles colour profiles, and
who could throw me a few clues. Such a person could reside" in only one
NG !

I didn't wish to start a thread on the rights and wrongs of
cross-posting - which is what you two seem to want to do

If you have any sensible advice, {on how to make "colour workflow"
settings in Adobe Photoshop i.e. make colour management settings, and
other settings accessed via "print preview," and explain what's happening
with "proof" settings, that are only partially applicable to inkjet photo
printing, as opposed to CMYK colour seperation preparation - "view"
settings etc. in Adobe ...and could explain what's happening when
selecting "ICM" in Epson printer driver. i.e should there be a colour
profile attached to the graphic when it's sent from the "working space" to
the printer driver that's been set to ICM, or should there be none - or
which is the best one ? ....or should it be the one supplied with the
printer ??? ...how to make settings to avoid a colour profile being
applied to a photo twice ...and so on ? -) }, I'd be pleased to hear it


regards, Richard