ICC Profiles - Engraving Etc. Forum

From:	logojohn	11 Mar 2006
To:	ALL	1 of 3

3152.1
from another thread- moved to sublimation folder quote: ICC (International Color Consortium) profiles are developed for a specific ink, printer, transfer paper, substrate combination. Some companies offer multiple ICC profiles, but most, including TOG, only offer one. The reliability of the "What you see, is what you get" aspect, depends on all your peripherals, i.e. scanner and monitor being calibrated. Bill Leek, owner of JBL Graphics, has established himself as the "Color Guru" and produces the TOG ICC profiles. Being new to sublimation when I saw the references to the ICC profile, I just assumed it was some settings you changed on your own. Now I realize it is like software or a driver you install in your printer. I did some searching and most places wanted to charge around $35 for a profile. I found a free one and installed it. I have a proof sheet of various color shades. It vastly improved some but made others much worse. I would have been disappointed if I had paid for it. Are the ones you pay for any better or are you just playing roulette with the companies $35. Is there a guarantee they will work? Will it be worthless with variances of ink from the supplier? Can they be tweaked or are you just stuck with what you get? Currently using Artanium ink in a c86. .

From:	Stunt Engraver (DGL)	11 Mar 2006
To:	logojohn	2 of 3

3152.2 In reply to 3152.1
John, Do you have an ICC profile, as supplied by your ArTainium distributor? If not, they'll be able to provide one. They're usually provided to their customers at no charge. If you really want to "dial in" an ICC profile for your specific set up, someone, such as Bill Leek, will usually provide a color "target" image, which you print and send in. From there, they use specialized equipment to "read" the colors and create the ICC profile(s). With that said, I've never seen a completely "perfect" color correction solution. Sooner or later, it's up to the sublimator to learn basic color theory, for times when "tweaking" will be necessary. David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri DGL Engraving Port Hueneme, CA

From:	Harvey only (HARVEY-ONLY)	12 Mar 2006
To:	Stunt Engraver (DGL)	3 of 3

3152.3 In reply to 3152.2

I'll throw in my own .02.

I did the original profiles for The Color Factory and Corel Draw. (I have spoken to Bill Leak and he has gone far beyond me since that time.)

There are a few problems with today's state of color inkjet printing, much improved from years ago.

You cannot get the full gamut of printing colors just because you do not have the variance in dot size of the ink squirt that is necessary to blend four colors to get an exact result.

Another problem is that there is no magenta sub ink that truly matches oem ink jet magenta, major color shift problem to be overcome.

Again each printer model gives different color results, and each printer in that specific model is faintly different

I did find that there was very little variance in the way hard goods reproduced the color in comparison. Soft goods vary slightly from hard goods.

All in all that produces an art for very accurate color rendition.

In addition each profile contains multiple methods of adjustment. Some recreate the colors to the closest exacting color for spot colors. Other parts fade a color and cause a shift in order to make a photograph look more natural.

I am glad that Bill is out there so I was able to bow out of that end of the business.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Tips Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.