Printer profiles - what exactly are they and where do I get one?

[fridayschild]

Hi, sorry to bother you all again, I'm thinking of getting an Epson P50 from Coralgraph and I was told that I need a printer profile (not by coralgraph) and that they are 'available' from here.

EDIT: I've just been told what a print profile is so if some kind soul could please tell me where I get it from and how much it would cost it would be a great help?

(I know I could probably PM the person who told me - you know who you are J - but it doesn't seem fair to keep harrassing the poor chap)

Anyway, any assistance greatfully received! Many thanks x

[Paul]

Basicly profile is small file that tell your printer what amount of ink to put on the paper to create acurate colour

It would cost you about £15 - £30 to create custom one. But i would contact justin (forum admim) and he may have one made as i remember he had a play with p50 in the past.

[JSR]

In simple terms, think of a profile in this way -

When you look at a photo you want to print, it'll use millions of colours. Your printer has 4 colours (or 6). The profile is a "colour correction" profile which determines how much of each of those 4 (or 6) inks needs to be laid down in order to achieve the closest colours they can to those that are in your photo.

If you use a profile from a different printer, or a different inkset, or even the same printer if it was made to different tolerances, then the profile isn't going to be accurate. Your colour-aware software will tell the printer how much of which inks to lay down based on the profile, but it won't achieve the most accurate results because your printer/inkset is different to the printer/inkset that was used to create the colour-correction profile.

Best results are always achieved by having a custom profile made - one that matches your printer, your inkset, and your substrate. Profiles supplied by others who used the same printer and same inkset may get you "close enough" to what you're trying to print, but it may not.

It's worth remembering that, when you print through your printer, you are *always* using a profile - even if you don't know it. When you install your Epson printer driver, you're also installing at least half a dozen profiles - each one suited to a particular paper and quality setting. When you pick a paper/quality setting in the printer driver, you're effectively selecting a profile. These profiles will not be accurate when you put someone else's ink in the printer, and that's why you need a custom made profile.

In a properly colour-managed setup, you'll also want to profile your monitor (bearing in mind that many cheaper monitors aren't actually capable of showing enough colours to be accurate anyway).

[pitkin2020]

Nice info JSR i have learnt something tonight. I take in reality setting the correct profile for a printer would be a but fruitless if your monitor isn't calibrated aswell as the colours from screen to print are going to vary?

[JSR]

Nice info JSR i have learnt something tonight. I take in reality setting the correct profile for a printer would be a but fruitless if your monitor isn't calibrated aswell as the colours from screen to print are going to vary?

Well, not "fruitless" exactly because, without a correction profile, you could end up printing anything. At least the printer profile will ensure that what you print is reasonably accurate - even if it doesn't match your uncalibrated monitor.

You need a good monitor to profile it well enough to use. I'm still using an old Philips 19" LCD panel which, although I've created a profile for it, it's unable to be really accurate with what it's displaying. As soon as I have the funds, I'll be replacing it with an IPS model (more expensive but apparently capable of producing more colours).

Having someone else provide you with a profile (which is what happens with the "authorised" printer/ink in the dye-sub industry, or if you use someone else's custom profile) is like having to accept that "close enough is good enough". I used to use the profiles provided with the approved/authorised ink for the printers I was using (Epson 1400), but I rarely got anything accurate. In the days of the Epson 1290S, I had to desaturate the print a lot to get close. With the Epson 1400, the v1 profile worked on my older printer but was hideous with the newer one while the newer v2.5 profile was okay with the new printer but hideous with the older one. Despite having two of the same "supported" printer using the same "authorised" ink, I had to use two different profiles - that shows you how inaccurate profiles provided by others can be.

I used the provided profile for a "supported" Epson B40W with "authorised" ink but the result was a hideous green cast - this was clearly a fault with the printer but, because the profile had been produced on some other version of the B40W, it was useless for my purposes. As soon as I created a custom profile, the green cast was gone and it printed fine.

Just recently I had cause to print numerous greyscale images (they had spot colours in them so I had to use all the colour inks - I couldn't just use the black). Even with a custom profile, the greys had a slight colour cast to them. It wasn't much, and it was still much more neutral than the provided profiles with "authorised" systems that I'd used in the past, but it wasn't good enough for my increasingly high standards. Fortunately, I had my colour-profiling device (ColorMunki Photo). With that you're able to read off the RGB/CMYK values of a specific colour in your printed image so that you can correct it. Using this, I achieved a neutral greyscale for the first time in years - I'd always believed that it was an impossibility to get a good grey from dye-sub inks, but it turns out that it's all about the profile provided by the ink manufacturer just not being accurate enough.

In short, a profile that's provided for your brand/model of printer/ink/substrate will get you "close enough" for most prints (particularly if you're printing bright/high-colour photos). A custom-profile for your precise printer/ink/substrate combination will get you much closer. And having your own profiling device allows you to get spot-on. It all comes down to where you want to spend your money.

I used to spend £300 on what I thought was the best printer (Epson 1400 because it's A3 and has 6 inks) that was "supported" by the "authorised" dye-sub ink manufacturer. For years I've been putting up with "close enough is good enough" and always hating it when I couldn't get neutral greyscales or accurate colours. Today, I've stopped spending £300 on printers. Instead, I spent the last £300 on the profiling device and now I use £60/£100 printers with just 4 inks - because, with the ability to profile/tweak/spot-scan, four inks is more than enough.

I've come to the conclusion that spending lots of money on a printer just because it's "supported" with a profile is like the tail wagging the dog. The correct way to work is to be able to create your own profiles first, and then you pick which printer best suits your particular application. This way, you're using the best printer for the job - you're not forced into using an unsuitable printer just because there happens to be a profile for it provided by the ink manufacturer.

Sorry for waffling so much, but being able to produce my own profiles has simplified my workflow, decreased stress, and made me a much happier bunny. (And it's all thanks to forum member Paul who first introduced me to his ColorMunki!)

[fridayschild]

Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to reply. It is very kind of you. I think I understand a bit better now and, hopefully, I'm on the trail of a profile for the P50

[Front Bedroom]

So far using a variety of Epson printers and even if changing the sublimation ink from one brand to another I've never loaded or used colour profile. Despite this the colours of the printed articles have been a fairly accurate representation of the originals. The only caveat is that when selecting the higher print qualities (Photo or Best Photo) and including the use of photo or similar papers you should uncheck the PhotoEnhance box as it adds a strong green cast to all the colours. I wasted a lot of ink and paper before I realised this was the cause!

As an aside: I've now come to the conclusion that Epson A3 printers (at least all the ones I've bought) are just too much trouble. The heads block if there's a Wednesday in the month or if the wind changes during a print run and then you can waste twice as much ink as you actually use for printing in getting them unblocked again. For some unknown reason the heads in the A4 printers are far less inclined to block and a hell of a lot easier to clean out if they do. Although it's a bit more work in the first place I can still sublimate canvases up to 36" x 18" by printing the image split over several sheets of paper and taping them up with overlaps to give a seamless print.

[JSR]

So far using a variety of Epson printers and even if changing the sublimation ink from one brand to another I've never loaded or used colour profile. Despite this the colours of the printed articles have been a fairly accurate representation of the originals.

You must be very lucky!

As an aside: I've now come to the conclusion that Epson A3 printers (at least all the ones I've bought) are just too much trouble. ... For some unknown reason the heads in the A4 printers are far less inclined to block and a hell of a lot easier to clean out if they do.

The problem with putting third-party ink in any printer is the potential for problems, and different problems occur for different people. I have three Epson A3 printers here, and one Epson A4. Which of them has a terminal blockage problem? The A4. Which has never had a problem that couldn't be sorted with a simple headclean? The A3s.

You pays your money, you takes your choice, but one rule doesn't apply to everyone - if it did, the choice of which printer to use would be an easy one!

[fridayschild]

Thanks 'front bedroom' (I'm not going to ask how you came up with that moniker!)

Your comment about when the heads choose to block made me laugh, I know exactly the type of thing you mean :biggrin:

Thanks also to you JSR, it all seems to be a bit hit and miss, one man's trash etc....

[Lorcan]

My new B1100 prints fine onto paper, but when you press a shirt I get the green cast JSR mentions. Installing the Artainium profile just makes it worse! Looks like I'll be following JSR's advice (for once!) and investing in a Colormunki!