Instructions for using ICC profiles. ICC color profiles for ink and photo paper INKSYSTEM Ink color profile epson l800

Our engineers have been calibrating Epson and Canon inkjet printers and building ICC color profiles for any ink and photo paper since 2007 and have accumulated valuable practical experience in the field of printer profiling. The real way to get high-quality color reproduction from your inkjet printer at a low cost is NOT to download someone else's color profile for free from the Internet, but to order our engineers to calibrate the printer by measuring the color gamut of your prints and creating an individual color profile specifically for your printer-ink-paper combination ".

SORRY WE DO NOT DO PROFILING ANYMORE

Inkjet printer models we profile:

CANON
PIXMA iP, iX, MG, MP, MX and PIXMA Pro series

CANON PIXMA ip1200 ip1300 ip1600 ip1700 ip1800 ip1900 ip2200 ip2500 ip2600 ip2700 ip2702 ip3300 ip3500 ip4200 ip4300 ip4500 ip5200 ip5300 ip3600 600 ip4700 ip4840 ip4940 ip7240 ix6540 ix6550 ix4000 ix5000 MG5140 MG5240 MX884 MG6140 MG6240 MG8140 MG8240 MP150 MP160 MP170 MP180 MP210 MP220 MP450 MX300 MX310 MP190 MP210 MP220 MP470 MX300 MX310 MP240 MP250 MP252 MP260 MP270 MP280 MP282 MP490 MP495 MP500 MP510 MP520 MP530 MP600 MP800 MP810 MP830 MX700 MX850 MP540 MP550 MP560 MP620 MP630 MP640 MP660 60 MX870 MP980 MP990 MX320 MX330 MX340 MX350 Pro9000 Pro9500 Pro-1 (and others on request)

EPSON
Stylus Photo, Office, Expression Home series
B, BX, C, CX, L, P, PX, R, RX, S, SX, T, TX, XP

EPSON Stylus Photo 1410 2100 2200 BX305 BX305F BX305FW C110 C67 C87 CX3700 CX4100 CX4700 CX5700 CX7700 C70 C80 C79 CX3900 CX4900 CX5500 CX5900 CX6900 CX69 00F CX7300 CX7300F CX8300 CX8300F C82 CX5200 CX5400 C91 CX4300 L100 L110 L120 L132 L200 L210 L222 L300 L312 L350 L355 L362 L364 L366 L382 L386 L456 L486 L550 L555 L566 L605 L655 L800 L805 L810 L850 L1300 L1455 L1800 P50 PX660 PX720WD PX820FWD R2000 R2880 R3000 R200 R220 R300 R320 R340 R270 R290 R295 R390 RX500 RX600 RX620 RX640 RX590 RX610 RX615 RX690 RX700 S22 SX125 SX130 SX230 SX235W SX420W SX425W SX430W SX435W SX440W SX445W SX525WD SX535WD B42WD BX320FW BX625FWD BX635FWD T1100 T26 T27 T30 T40W T50 T59 TX117 TX119 TX106 TX109 TX210 TX410 TX200 TX209 TX219 TX400 TX409 TX410 TX419 TX300 TX300F TX550 TX550W TX600 TX600F TX600FW TX510 TX510F TX510FN TX650 TX659 TX700 TX700W TX710 TX710W TX800 TX800F TX800FW XP33 XP1 03 XP203 XP207 XP303 XP306 XP403 XP406 (and others on request)

EPSON
widescreen Stylus Pro series

EPSON Stylus Pro 3800 3880 4000 4400 4450 4880 4900 5000 5500 7000 7400 7450 7500 7600 7700 7880 7890 7900 9000 9400 9450 9500 9600 9700 9890 9900 10000 10600 11880 (and others in which control is carried out through the driver, and not through the RIP processor)

Color profile - what is it? Why are color profiles needed?

Having purchased a color printer from Epson, Canon, etc., the user often does not suspect that the manufacturer included printer profiling in the price of the printer, also called printer calibration in everyday life - the production of “color profiles” (profiles) for inks and papers of its brand.

What is a printer color profile? A color profile is a table of numbers that describe the color rendering of a particular combination of “printer - ink - paper - print_mode - viewing_lighting”. Each such combination has individual properties (characteristics): color gamut, dynamic range, etc. Accordingly, the profile describes in numerical language the possibilities of such a combination for use by a computer. The profile does not improve the characteristics of materials, but informs the computer about the characteristics of the materials. The profile developer uses special equipment to measure the characteristics of the combination “printer - ink - paper - print_mode” on numerous samples of color printing, and the profiling program corrects the obtained numbers (measurement results) according to the spectrum of a given typical viewing light source and arranges the numbers in a table in a certain format. Typically this is an ICC (International Color Consortium) standard format. The ICC profile constructed in this way can be embedded in a specific image file or written into a separate “profile file” (*.icc, *.icm) for batch use by a printing program with various images. In both cases, the computer uses numerical profile data to adjust the printer's performance. The more color samples measured when creating a profile, the higher the accuracy of the profile and the more accurate the color balance of the image printed with the profile.

The profile is a “digital reflection” of the color properties of the combination “printer - ink - paper - print_mode - viewing_lighting" and depends simultaneously on:

Structural technical characteristics of the printer (each copy of the printer has an individual “handwriting” of color printing)

The installed settings in the printing program and in the printer control program - driver ("paper type", "print quality", "print speed", "print resolution", etc.)

The ink used for printing (inks from different manufacturers form images differently due to differences in production technologies, materials, composition, etc.)

The paper used for printing (different brands and types of paper interact differently with inks and reflect the light that a person perceives as a color image)

Available lighting while viewing the print (the spectrum of the light source during viewing has a strong influence on human perception of color).

The computer adjusts the printer's performance using the characteristics of the printer, ink, paper, and viewing light source described in ICC color profiles. For example, for an inkjet printer, the computer regulates the supply of ink of different colors to the paper “according to the profile” for a given printing mode, within the capabilities of this printer, ink and paper, so that under a given type of lighting the print produces an image with the correct color balance. Color balance will be determined by the accuracy of the profile, and the visual quality of the print (saturation, contrast, detail) will be determined by the characteristics of the printer, ink and paper.

What if you want to print not with original Canon and Epson consumables, but with cheaper “non-native” inks, paints, and papers from independent manufacturers? (InkTec, OCP, Ink-Mate, Inko, Chameleon, Jet Print, InkMaster, Lomond, Privision, RDM, Revcol, Skyhorse, WWM, etc., etc.?) Then the original ICC color profiles you purchased together with the printer and recorded as files on your computer during the installation of the printer driver will no longer work. After all, original color profiles were created for combinations of original inks and original papers. Therefore, for “non-original” inks and papers, when printing with original color profiles (as well as when printing with a completely disabled profile - with unadjusted color rendition), the color balance on the print will be distorted. For example, gray color “turns blue”, blue sky “turns violet”, people’s faces “turns green”, etc. What to do?

you print the “target” on your printer and send us the prints by Russian Post

Upon receipt of your target prints, we measure their color range using special equipment. Based on the measurement results, we display a color profile. We convert the reference photo by profile into the color space of your printer. We send you a file of a profiled photograph via the Internet for verification printing - color proof. (This photo can be printed, but the printer profile cannot be extracted from it)

You are printing a profiled photo. If you are satisfied with the proof print, please let us know.

We send you an invoice for payment of the order and information about the payment procedure by e-mail.

Payment possible by bank transfer to our current account from your bank account or by receipt at a bank branch in cash, or online without commission using a VISA / VISA Electron, MasterCard / Maestro, MIR card, or online from a Yandex.Money wallet.

you pay for your order in a way convenient for you and receive a profile from us in the form of an independent file

Along with the profile file, we send you reporting files via the Internet (color measurement protocol, measurement accuracy report, etc. - in the volume according to the selected tariff) and a detailed reference guide on using color profiles for photo printing from various programs.

Profiling time - from the date of receipt of your “target” fingerprints to the date of creation of the profile - on average 2 business days (depending on the size of the order queue).

Please note that we DO NOT accept orders for profiling for sublimation and thermal transfer printing (where images are transferred from one surface to another when heated).

Before you begin, you must place the ICC profile files in the appropriate folder (windows/system32/spool/drivers/color). Please note that after each addition of ICC profile files to the corresponding Windows folder, you must restart the graphic editor.

When printing an image, you must perform the following procedures:

1. In the Adobe graphics editor, go to the Print with preview menu and set Color Management in the additional options. In the Profile line, select the desired ICC profile in accordance with the selected Lomond media. Set Perceptual in the Intent line. Send for printing.

2. Having selected the desired printer, go to the "Properties" section. In accordance with the table, set the print quality and type of paper used. In the "Color Management" section, make settings in accordance with the selected profile type. If you are using a profile of the second type, you must disable color management by making the No Color Adjustment option active. If you are using the first type of profile, it is advisable to leave the default settings in this section and select the media type in accordance with the ending of the ICC profile file name. However, if desired, you can change the brightness, saturation, contrast, color tone, and connect special features to improve the image.

Printer settings when printing

Example 1. You want to print a picture on semi-gloss Lomond photo paper with a density of 170 g/m2 on an Epson Stylus Photo 1290 printer with Epson cartridges using a straight profile (with color management disabled in the printer driver). The first thing you need to do is make sure that the ink in the cartridge you are using is original. To do this, you need to print the gray scale on Epson paper without using ICC profiles, making the appropriate settings in the printer driver. If the print really has a gray scale without color shades, you can continue working, but if not, the further result is unpredictable. Next, in the Adobe graphics editor, set the Lomond_Photo_170_Semi_Eps1290_InkEpson_NoColorAdjustment profile, and in the printer driver, turn off color management (No Color Adjustment) and print. If it is necessary to correct the print, this can be done in a graphic editor.

Example 2. To print on the matte side of Lomond glossy-matte paper with a density of 180 g/m2 on an Epson Stylus Photo 900 printer with Lomond cartridges with the ability to correct the resulting prints in the printer driver, you should select the following ICC converter profile Lomond_Glossy_180_mattside_Eps900_InkLomond_PhotoQualiti, installing it in the Adobe editor. In the printer driver, select the media type - Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper and print quality - Photo. At the same time, it seems possible for you to use additional functions of the printer driver to improve the quality of the resulting prints without editing the image itself.

Note. Please note that ICC profiles for Epson printers are designed for use in Adobe software products and may not work correctly in other cases. Profiles for other printers also work correctly under Windows.

From this article you will learn how to edit the color profile of your printer yourself and without expensive equipment. This method is suitable for both regular photo printing and sublimation transfer, as in my case. So, let's go! Until now, I hadn't even thought about changing the color profile of my sublimation printer. The ink that I initially used reproduced colors perfectly and did not lie at standard printer settings. And on various printing forums, every now and then I came across pleas for help in sorting out color rendering. One person's face turned out red, another's white color was not white, but beige, and the third's black fill turned out to be dirty green. I was still wondering why people have all sorts of problems, so I filled in the ink and immediately everything worked. But, as they say, there is a first time for everything. After six months of work, I decided to change the sublimation ink to another manufacturer. Moreover, the printer remained the same. I bought ink and new refillable cartridges for it. I installed them in the printer, filled in the ink, printed a sample and went nuts - the faces turned unbelievably red, the gray color turned green. He rushed to solve the problem. In the printer's print settings, on the tab Advanced went to the menu Color Correction and, by clicking on the Settings button, went to a window where you can manually adjust a particular color using the sliders.

Helped a little. At least I was able to finish printing the order that was hanging on me at the time.

But it was clear that it would not be possible to always configure the printer this way - the settings were too rough and not precise. Then I remembered those forum members who found themselves in the same situation as me. Their problems suddenly became so close and dear.

In a word, I began to look for the necessary information, which, by the way, turned out to be quite a lot on the Internet. True, the advice of various gurus was often quite contradictory. After collecting what I needed, digesting it, and discarding the trash, I was able to edit my color profile pretty well. And now I want to tell you, my readers, how to do this.

I will try to explain my actions in simple, understandable language, supplementing my story with images. I think even a beginner can figure out the profile.

To begin with, just a little theory. What is a printer color profile?

In simple terms, a color profile is a set of printer commands written as a file. Thanks to the algorithm written in this file, the printer knows how much, what kind of ink and in what place on the printed sheet to pour it during operation.

You've probably seen various modes in the print settings window - Glossy paper, Matte, Super glossy etc. Under each such setting there is a separate color profile with a set of commands suitable for the selected paper type.

As long as you use original cartridges and photo paper recommended by the manufacturer, you will not have any problems with printing. The photos will be of excellent quality. But the cost of these photos will bother you a little. Alas, original consumables are very expensive.

Therefore, we have to look for an alternative on the side - install and fill them with ink from third-party manufacturers. As a result, the cost of printing is pennies, but in return there may be problems with color rendering. After all, the manufacturer sharpens the profiles for their ink and paper. He doesn't care about your problems related to other people's ink.

Fortunately, the problem can be easily solved by simply profiling the printer. And although many people believe that this is a very complex procedure that only specialists can do, I will try to prove the opposite to you. Anyone can do this at home.

It is worth mentioning that for professional profiling, which uses an expensive spectrophotometer, this method is not suitable. To professionally set up a profile with ideal color rendition, you should contact specialists. It’s very easy to find them on the Internet by typing the corresponding request in Yandex.

If your hands grow from the right place and you are satisfied with color correction, as they say, at the everyday level, then this article is for you. Read on and repeat after me.

The color profile is built for a specific printer, ink and paper. Remember this and always use the same consumables and settings.

To print photographs and pictures we will use the following combination:

Printer - Ink - Paper

Here the correction must be carried out, focusing on the final paper print.

For sublimation printing, a fourth link is added to our link:

Printer - Ink - Paper - Sublimation blank (fabric, mug, etc.)

In this case, we will adjust the profile based on the imprint on this particular blank, and WILL NOT pay attention to the paper imprint. I hope this is clear?

So, let's go!

To work we need a program Adobe Photoshop and a plugin for it Color DarkRoom. You can download the plugin from the manufacturer's official website. True, they ask for 75 American rubles for it, but I think anyone can easily find a cure for this problem on the Internet :) After downloading the plugin, we begin installing it. First, the plugin is installed in the folder with your OS, by default C:\Program Files\AMS\Color DarkRoom. Then, during installation, you need to specify the folder with Photoshop plugins. This - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop\plugins or in older versions C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop\Plug-ins\Filter Now, launching Photoshop, open the color map with which we will edit our profile. Come on File--Open--C:\Program Files\AMS\Color DarkRoom\Color_Card.

A color map appears in the program window.

It is worth saying that the plugin Color DarkRoom works with profiles with *icm extension. If your profile extension is *icc, it’s okay - you just need the right one.

The first thing you need to do is find out which profile your printer is currently using. Go to the menu Start--Devices and Printers. On the printer we need, right-click and select

Now go to the “Color Management” tab and click the button with the same name:

If there are several profiles in this list, then we remember the name of the one next to which it is written in brackets (by default).

Now we need if your file has it, like mine *icс. All printer profiles used on your computer are stored in the folder C:\Windows\Sistem32\spool\drivers\color. We go into it, look for the profile we need (we remembered the name earlier) and in the same folder save a copy of it with a different name. This is very important - do not touch the original profile, work with a copy! I named my profile “Mikey-Sublim-00”. If necessary, we change its extension. After this, you can close the folder.

We need to print a color map with the initial profile so that we know which colors we will adjust. You can print from absolutely any editor, for example from Photoshop, by going File--Print: