Custom ICC Print Profiles

Custom Print Profiles

A print profile is generated by printing a series of colour test patches of known value through your printer and measuring the resultant print. This spectral data is interpreted by the profiling software to generate an ICC colour profile which is installed in your system and used by colour management savy software such as Photoshop, Lightroom or any colour managed application to allow accurate previews and output of your images

Standard or Polarised Profiles

A Standard profile is generated by reading your test chart under standard reflective conditions. This will generate a custom profile for your printer using your sepcific media. This profile works well for all gloss, lustre and satin media.

Matte papers such as Cotton Rag style papers exhibit a fall off in tonal separation as they approach the darker tones and into black. This is caused by flare off the dark target patches limiting the ability of the instrument to measure tonal separation in these areas.

To counter this effect we can use a polarisiong filter on the instrument which will "see through" the flare providing much better shadow separation.

For users of Cotton Rag papers, we recommend ordering a polarised profile which will be provided in addition to your standard profile.

Standard profile produced for Epson 3880 printer using Canson Print Making Rag (BFK Rives). Note the neutral curve line changes to a flat line at a Lab value of approximatly 20. This is the influence of flare. There is no printing separation in image tones below this value.		A polarised profile produced for Epson 3880 printer using Canson Print Making Rag (BFK Rives). Note the neutral curve line continues deep into the black areas to a Lab value of approximatly 6. The flare factor has been eliminated by the polarising filter. Tones in this area can be successfully printed.