Color matching monitor and printer W2K, PSP 7.02
Jerry Sullivan
Hello,
I have Paint Shop Pro 7.02, windows 2000, Epson 870 printer, Iiyama 502
monitor and a Cannon G1 camera.
I have ICM profiles for the printer and the Monitor.
What settings for PSP and the printer driver do I use to make the
monitor match (or at least approximate) the printed result?
I've read the documentation, online help, FAQ, this news group and
various forums, etc, but I still am not clear on what to do.
I have tried various settings in the color matching preferences and the
printer driver, but the results have been poor. Some combinations result
in vary washed out screen display and print with orange cast (but it
matches pretty well).
I was getting better results using all default settings with the bundled
Photoshop LE and the printer set to Automatic Mode but I assume
(possible incorrectly) that proper configuration with the proper
profiles in PSP will be better.
Also, it seems that the PSP color matching dialog only allows selecting
profiles for the default Windows printer. Is there any way to select,
profiles for other printers? I also have an older HP printer (895) that
is much cheaper to play with and does a good job on plain paper when
printing highly process pictures.
I'm a complete novice with respect to digital photography.
Thank for any pointers.
Kris Zaklika
Let's start by defining what color management does and does
not do. Color management compensates for the different color
gamuts of various input and output devices. The gamut is the
complete range of colors a given device can reproduce.
"Compensate" does not mean that magically some previously
unavailable color can be output by a device. Instead it
means that the colors are manipulated in such a way that
the fact that some color cannot be reproduced is as
unnoticeable as possible. If the colors in the image are
wrong (in the sense that they are not the same as in the
original scene) color management won't fix them. Color
management works by converting the gamut of every device
for which you have an ICC or ICM profile into a reference
color space. In professional systems this is usually a
color space called CIE Lab. In Windows it is a more
restricted color space called s-RGB, which is related to
the colors displayed by a high-definition TV. Thus, for
example the colors known to a digital camera are mapped
as perceptually as possible into the s-RGB color space
and from the s-RGB space are mapped to the range of colors
your printer can reproduce.
PSP does not have color management built in. It uses the
color management functionality built into the more recent
versions of Windows. In fact, the Color Management Dialog
you see inside PSP (under File > Preferences > Color
Management) is provided to PSP by Windows. In this dialog
you should check Enable Color Management. Then choose
Basic color management since you don't want your monitor
or printer to try to pretend to be some other device
(which would be the alternative Proofing choice). Load up
your monitor profile and your printer profile and choose
Perceptual rendering intent. I'm afraid that you must set
the default printer before you enter this dialog. That's
the way Bill Gates has planned for you - why, I don't
know, since it is an irritation. In order for this to work
properly you must make sure that your monitor settings
(e.g. color temperature, white point, contrast, brightness,
whatever is available in your case) are set exactly as
they were to derive the ICM profile for the monitor.
(There are some calibration images that you can download
from http://www.jasc.com/monitor1.asp to make sure that
things are not grossly out of whack, but this is no
substitute for carefully reading the documentation. You
may also wish to visit your monitor manufacturer's web
site to see if there is any extra information there.) I'm
not familiar with your printer or it's driver but my Epson
Stylus Photo 750 has a Custom mode in the driver (accessed
via the Properties button in the Print dialog). The
Custom setting has an Advanced button that takes me to a
dialog where I can set ICM as the color management mode.
This is the setting that is supposed to be used with Windows
Color Management. Things should now work properly.
I would strongly recommend that before you attempt to match
print to screen you make sure that your monitor is set
correctly. Use the images in the link I provided. Beyond
that, if your monitor and printer displays match, any color
cast can be removed using PSP's filters (e.g. Automatic
Color Balance). Since the s-RGB color space used internally
in Windows Color Management is somewhat similar to the
gamut of a monitor, I would be extremely suspicious if your
color management settings cause the colors displayed on the
monitor to look significantly different from those without
color management (assuming your monitor is properly
calibrated and not overly ancient or in bright sun or
otherwise strongly illuminated). If this happens, you likely
have the wrong ICM profile. (Here, specific model numbers
and settings count - close enough is not close enough).
One final thing to remember is that ICM profiles are
for a "typical" monitor or printer of the type you have
and not for the _actual_ device you own. There is some
variation among devices coming off the same production line
and generic device profiles will not usually work as well
as those derived by properly calibrating your specific
device. If you are not using Epson inks in your printer,
don't expect the ICM profile for the printer to work either.
On a more positive note, I have found that it is perfectly
possible to match Epson output to screen without using
color management. It simply takes some systematic experiments
with the various driver setting - not a lot in my case.
Good luck
Kris
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kris Zaklika Jasc Software, Inc. The
Product Ideas: id...@jasc.com Power
Customer Service: customer...@jasc.com To
Technical Support: tec...@jasc.com Create
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kris Zaklika
>
> OK, it's time for another of my notes on Color Management.
One thing I forgot to mention. If your photos contain colors
that are out-of-gamut in the printer, then Perceptual rendering
intent is the best setting. However, when there are no such
colors the effect will be to desaturate your print somewhat.
In such a case, you might try Relative Colorimetric rendering
intent. However, using this setting you can get erratic results
depending on whether your photos do or do not contain colors
that the printer cannot print.
Jerry Sullivan
> Kris Zaklika wrote:
> One thing I forgot to mention. If your photos contain colors
> that are out-of-gamut in the printer, then Perceptual rendering
> intent is the best setting. However, when there are no such
> colors the effect will be to desaturate your print somewhat.
> In such a case, you might try Relative Colorimetric rendering
> intent. However, using this setting you can get erratic results
> depending on whether your photos do or do not contain colors
> that the printer cannot print.
The only choices for rendering intent in the color management dialog are
are: pictures, match, proof, graphics and match.
Are the terms you used equivalent to these settings?
Thanks for the help.
Kris Zaklika
Excuse me, these are the choices that appear in the dialog
accessed using File > Preferences > Color Management in PSP?
Because that's what I'm talking about. If I had to guess
you are talking about something in your printer driver.
Is there a Help button in the driver or a tooltip that tells
you what each of these is? There is for my Epson printer.
What Windows version are you using?
>
> Are the terms you used equivalent to these settings?
>
> Thanks for the help.
Jerry Sullivan
> Jerry Sullivan wrote:
> >
> > In article <3ACD2410...@jasc.com>, kzak...@jasc.com says...
> > > Kris Zaklika wrote:
> > > One thing I forgot to mention. If your photos contain colors
> > > that are out-of-gamut in the printer, then Perceptual rendering
> > > intent is the best setting. However, when there are no such
> > > colors the effect will be to desaturate your print somewhat.
> > > In such a case, you might try Relative Colorimetric rendering
> > > intent. However, using this setting you can get erratic results
> > > depending on whether your photos do or do not contain colors
> > > that the printer cannot print.
> >
> > The only choices for rendering intent in the color management dialog are
> > are: pictures, match, proof, graphics and match.
>
> Excuse me, these are the choices that appear in the dialog
> accessed using File > Preferences > Color Management in PSP?
> Because that's what I'm talking about. If I had to guess
> you are talking about something in your printer driver.
> Is there a Help button in the driver or a tooltip that tells
> you what each of these is? There is for my Epson printer.
> What Windows version are you using?
The choices above for rendering intent areappearing in the dialog
File/preferences/color managegement. The "enable color management"
checkbox is checked and the "basic color management" radio button is
selected.
I am using PSP 7.02 on Windows 200 SP1, with an epson 870 printer with
the latest drivers.
I am getting pretty good results using the picture rendering intent.
Kris Zaklika
Sorry, I assumed Win 2000 would have the same sensible
names (i.e. those that mean something to people who have
read a bit about color management) as Win 908 but apparently
Bill Gates has decided to eliminate the meaning from the
names in Win 2000. I'll have to do some reading to figure
out how to translate the Win 2000 names. Sorry about the
confusion. Glad you are making some headway.
Kris Zaklika
Rendering Intent in Windows Color Management. As a result of
discussion I became aware that, between Win 98 and Win 2K, Bill
Gates had changed from the nomenclature approved by the
International Color Consortium to his own. This has led to some
confusion, and I'd like to post a translation of terminology in
case any other readers are trying to follow my suggestions.
Perceptual (Win 98) = Picture (Win 2K)
Absolute Colorimetric (Win 98) = Match (Win 2K)
Relative Colorimetric (Win 98) = Proof (Win 2K)
Saturation (Win 98) = Graphics (Win 2K)
These terms have to do with gamut mapping. The color gamut of a
device is the complete range of colors it can reproduce. Problems
arise when one device cannot make some colors that another can
make. For instance pure RGB blue is usually impossible to
reproduce with CMYK printing inks, and the color of pure cyan ink
is usually impossible to reproduce with an RGB monitor. Color
management tries to alleviate problems caused by the color gamut
incompatibilities of various devices, both input and output.
Briefly, the idea is to warp the gamut of one device onto the
gamut of a reference color space (s-RGB in Windows) and then warp
the gamut of another device onto the same space. Then, using
colors from this reference space, it is possible for output on
one device to look similar to that on another. The Rendering
Intent governs what "similar" means in this context, since it
really is impossible to output exactly the same color range on
one device and another and you have to fake it somehow.
Perceptual rendering tries to fit all source gamut colors into
the target gamut. One way to do this is to scale the gamut to
fit. This desaturates all the colors but keeps the balance
between the different colors. It usually preserves the appearance
of the image, which is why it is termed perceptual. It is usually
recommended for natural images like photos.
Absolute Colorimetric rendering displays source colors exactly
the same in the target color space, except when they lie outside
the target color space. The saturation or, usually, the lightness
of such colors is manipulated to make them lie on the edge of the
target color gamut. This has little to recommend it unless every
color in your image is known to lie inside the target gamut.
Relative Colorimetric rendering is the same as Absolute except
that the white point (i.e. the color judged to be pure white) is
moved from its location in the source color space to its location
in the target space. This rendering can be a useful alternative
to Perceptual when you have an image composed of unsaturated
(pastel) colors that could be further unsaturated by a Perceptual
rendering. (Different colors that lie outside the target gamut
can, however, end up being mapped to the same color in the target
space.) It is often recommended for vector art like logos where
you need a rather exact match but for very few colors.
Saturation rendering maps the most saturated primary colors from
the source color space to those in the target. This can cause
changes in hue, lightness and saturation, but that is ignored.
The primary purpose of this rendering is to get colors that are
as vivid as possible without regard to color fidelity. It might
be useful for things like simple business graphics.
For most people Perceptual rendering intent is the best choice,
with Relative Colorimetric rendering a possible alternative.
I hope this helps to clarify the matter.
[snip]