Dilemma - making a printer profile

[Claes]

Hi all,

I fear that I have found a Catch 22 when trying to create a good printer profile (using Argyll, Ubuntu Studio, Epson XP-960).

I am following the steps outlined in LUDD - Homepage closed, and it seems to work all right (except for the fact that Argyll cannot handle a 6-ink printer yet) – until I start thinking about Step 4: Print the test target page.

How on earth do I print a proper target when I (under Linux) am unable to “disable any color management”? That must mean that my test print is “contaminated” already from start? Or?

Please, what have I overlooked?

Sincerely,
Claes in Lund, Sweden

[Morgan_Hardwood]

Hey @Claes
To get help, you need to include the name and version of the printer drivers which you’re using.
I would then contact the people who maintain those drivers and ask them how to “disable color management”.

[dafrasaga (Gabriele)]

Hi Claes,
Yesterday I got a print with good color and no color casts.
I use Slackware 64 current as OS, and Rawtherapee as raw developer and GIMP.
When I have to print the patches target I open the TIFF from Argyll into GIMP. It assigns the sRGB built in profile because the TIFF has noone but it (GIMP) do not alters pixel values.
Hence I send those values to the printer which are the same of the original TIFF.

I hope this help

Gabriele

[Claes]

The dilemma has become more complicated!

During the last few days I have learnt that when printer profiling, Argyll can not handle a 6-color printer Sigh.

Also, there seems to be no way in Linux to send a file to a printer with colour management turned off (which is a must when profiling a printer). Sigh.

Profilingly Yours,
Claes in Lund, Sweden

[paperdigits (Mica)]

Which driver are you using for your printer?

[Morgan_Hardwood]

@Claes

Argyll can not handle a 6-color printer

Are you sure? How do you know?
Unless he wrote that himself, I would email Graeme Gill about this, see “contact me” at the bottom of the page: https://www.argyllcms.com/

[Claes]

@Morgan_Hardwood
http://www.argyllcms.com/doc/colprof.html

[Claes]

Epson ESC/P-R, but i am not a fanatic, should you have a better solution for me, I am all ears!

Have fun,
Claes in Lund, Sweden

[Morgan_Hardwood]

@Claes yes, that’s one of several pages I ctrl+f’d through but found nothing, could you quote the relevant part?

Note that currently, Monochrome and N-Color profiles are not supported.

Is is that? These descriptions of “N-Color” don’t make it clear to me whether they apply only to X-Rite’s industrial technology or whether they also apply to commercial 6 color printers:

@http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/N-color

N-color was the term given to the multi-color ICC profile module of the ProfileMaker profiling engine. Short for “aNy-Color,” this module allows any collection of colors to be profiled, whether that be the traditional Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (black) - or any collection of spot colors up to a maximum of ten. Usually this kind of printing is used in the packaging sector of printing, where specific colors need to be printed and spot colors are used extensively to that end.

ProfileMaker has been discontinued by X-Rite, and has replaced it with i1Profiler.

@https://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=757&Action=support&SupportID=3570

In ProfileMaker, there are several price points each offering different program features and calculation options. At the high end, the “Packaging” version, is the ability to calculate “N-color” profiles. “N-color” might be better stated as “Any-color”. Briefly, the lesser priced packages can deal with C-M-Y-K, C-M-Y-K plus Orange & Green, and C-M-Y-K plus Red, Green, & Blue. These are not considered “N-color”. Leaving the domains of process colors, hexachrome, and/or hi-fi, you enter the world where any shade of ink may be used to print: the world of packaging.

“N-color” profiling allows for profiles to be created with any color set. Wrigley’s might need special colors for their various packages of gum. Keebler different colors to properly sell their cookies, and Hershey’s still different shades for their candies. “N-color” enables this functionality.

In addition to “N-color” capability, ProfileMaker includes a utility that allows the user to “swap” one color for another within a profile without the need to redo all the tedious up-front printing and measurement tasks. Instead there is a simple test involving only a few measurements that can predict how the gamut and profile will change if an ink is substituted. This capability is of enormous value in the packaging industry.

[dafrasaga (Gabriele)]

Hi Claes,
I do not know if I’m wrong… are you on Linux OS, aren’t you (at the top you write Ubuntu Studio)??
I am on it !

I use Gutenprint as printer driver which can drive my EPSON Stylus Pro 3800 (8 colors P-MK LK LLK C LC M LM Y). What is your printer? Is it supported by Gutenprint?

I know the printer is a CMYK device but I let Gutenprint make proper setting to the CMYK color space and I use RGB color space.
Therefore I think as I have a RGB printer.

I use ArgyllCMS and I make RGB ICC profiles as follow:

CALIBRATION

1. I make a targen target with -s switch to make a Single channel steps chart.
2. I create a printtarg image with -T300 dpi
3. I print the target
4. I read the chart with chartread
5. I create calibration curves with printcal

PROFILATION
6) I create a profile target with targen
7) I create a printtarg image with -T300 dpi
8) I print the target
9) I read the chart with chartread
10) I create a profile with colprof
11) I apply the calibration curve to the profile with applycal

With these steps I was able to get a good image with almost neutral tint.
It seems I didn’t lost nothing…

PS. I am a novice into color management and ICC profile; I’m still studying…

Cheers
Gabriele

[dafrasaga (Gabriele)]

On Gutenprint there is the Epson XP-820…
the one your could be the new version …
It’s better you mail on the maillist

Cheers

[Claes]

Yes, Morgan, you found the culprit

If one follows the book (LUDD - Homepage closed) properly, one of the very first steps is to generate a target, using targen.

It is true that targen has a bunch of options, for instance 15 different colorant combinations. -d6 CMYK + Light CM would fit the needs of my Epson XP-960 – but in a further step, colprof is needed and it “currently” only accepts RGB, CMY and CMYK colorants.

I am presently experimenting more using the dual OS method…
Cumbersome, yes, but so far, it looks promising.

Have fun!
Colourfully Yours,
Claes in Lund, Sweden

[Claes]

Ciao, Gabriele,

@dafrasaga

I am a novice into color management and ICC profile; I’m still studying…

Calma, calma! So am I
Still I consider it worthwhile, interesting and mentally rewarding (ahem).

Thank you for describing your steps – your Epson is more skilled than mine [ ] . I have a 6-color XP-960.

Since you have 8 colors, the targen/colprof problem will apply to you, too (see my reply to Morgan, above).

Thank you for the idea of using targen’s -s step. I must try it!

Have fun!
Cordiali saluti,
Claes a Lund, Svezia

[dafrasaga (Gabriele)]

@Claes

Since you have 8 colors, the targen/colprof problem will apply to you, too (see my reply to Morgan, above).

Claes,
I think, I can’t make a CMYK or CcMcYK profile because I can’t print CMYK ( Gimp, which I want to use, is in RGB only). When I’ll convert from RGB color space of GIMP to CMYK printer colorspace GIMP will say it couldn’t.
Therefore I let Gutenprint make RGB->CMYK conversion because Robert on Gutenprint I think he is making a good job.

Cheers
Gabriele