Profile Editing Photoshop Plug

[jhodges58]

Hi:

I support a photo retouching department at a NY ad agency and the head retoucher is rolling out some new newspaper profiles for a new hp T790 printer we purchased to replace our aging hp 1050c.

He remembers using Kodak's Custom Color Tools back four or five years ago and really liked the Photoshop plug-in where you could make tweaks to a profile using PS tools. He wanted me to pick up a copy, but although Kodak still sells it for $600, it is only compatible up to PS CS2, which means, not only would I need to dig up an old copy of PS, I'd actually have to rack a machine with Leopard (we've migrated to Snow Leopard and Lion which no longer supports Rosetta to run older programs).

My question is if there's any other profile editing package out there that works as a PS plug-in. If not, any recommendations on profile editing software that's fairly easy to get in and out of without a huge learning curve (my guy is really good at color, but doesn't want to spend a long time learning a new software package).

Thanks.

--jon

 

[Al Ferrari]

If you create the profiles for the specific Device and Paper combination, will you eventually proof your adds by printing to the newly profiled device out of the same photoshop version or out of some other application?

I ask this because I just received confirmation from some very knowledgeable people that printer profiles are not only specific to a given printer/paper combination, but are also specific to the output application. This variation occurs not only say from one Adobe application to another within a CS level, but also from one CS level to another. Is your color guy aware of this?

Comments about this from others are welcomed and encouraged.

Al

 

[jhodges58]

Al:

We're using a Blackmagic setup to drive the hp T790 which is a little funkier to deal with than our CGS ORIS which handles our SWOP and GRACoL proofs.

Blackmagic requires and input and an output profile and we're pretty happy with what we've got for WSJ/NYT, but he wants to tweak the output profile a little bit 'cause there's a couple of areas that are printing a little heavy.

Blackmagic does have some tweaking ability within the program itself, but my guy keeps going on about how great that Kodak plug was. I was hoping that maybe some company either bought it back from Kodak and continued to develop it for newer versions of PS or someone has come across something similar.

--jon

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Generally, if the profile is made correctly - there should be very little need to edit the profile. Did the original chart have enough patches? If neutrals or shadows are important, were there enough of these patches in the profile chart? Was there a bad measurement? Were multiple readings averaged?

There are of course exceptions.

One can edit the display/preview portion of the profile - or the output portion of the profile. If you have an i1 spectro, you could use i1 Match to do this, however the edits are more broad than fine tuned with this approach. Have you looked into i1 Profiler Publish? Do you use Workflow software, such as Kodak Prinergy? Prinergy has ColorFlow and with the Pro Workflow option you can create and edit device ICC profiles, ICC DeviceLink profiles (and press curves). The editing tools in ColorFlow Pro Workflow (including the old Imation CFM) are much more refined than those in i1 Match.

Finally, a company such as the one I work for could edit the profile as a service.


Stephen Marsh

 

[TerryWyse]

Generally, if the profile is made correctly - there should be very little need to edit the profile. Did the original chart have enough patches? If neutrals or shadows are important, were there enough of these patches in the profile chart? Was there a bad measurement? Were multiple readings averaged?

I concur with Stephen's comment. A correctly made profile from a well-behaved device rarely needs editing.

I would first invest in a profile analysis tool like CHROMiX ColorThink Pro to probe into what's wrong with the profile in the first place. Being able to view the gray balance curves, neutral chroma error, total ink limit and the tonality/linearity of the primary and secondary inks will usually point you in the correct direction, provided you know how to interpret these markers.

Second, look into possibly a different profiling package. i1Profiler is one that offers features such as profile smoothing and profile optimization. If the device you're profiling is "non-linear", i1Profiler's pre-profile linearization and post-profile optimization could save the day for you and virtually eliminate profile editing.

Terry

 

[Eric van der Kop]

Al:

We're using a Blackmagic setup to drive the hp T790 which is a little funkier to deal with than our CGS ORIS which handles our SWOP and GRACoL proofs.

Blackmagic requires and input and an output profile and we're pretty happy with what we've got for WSJ/NYT, but he wants to tweak the output profile a little bit 'cause there's a couple of areas that are printing a little heavy.

Blackmagic does have some tweaking ability within the program itself, but my guy keeps going on about how great that Kodak plug was. I was hoping that maybe some company either bought it back from Kodak and continued to develop it for newer versions of PS or someone has come across something similar.

--jon

ORIS is coming with a new version of there software. In this version the maximum toner coverage is not handeld correct. The new version has an extra option to e.g. set maximum coverage to 300%. Profiles made on that whay will have more details in dark area's. Also a Device Link can be made. Also I belief that editing a profile is not the way to go.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

http://spyder.datacolor.com/downloads/manuals/drpro_uguide.pdf

AMS - Printer Color Profile Editor, Adobe Photoshop Plug-Ins

Colorvision software, Optical, ProfilerPRO, DoctorPRO


Stephen Marsh

 

[jhodges58]

Thanks for the help. I'll go over everything with my retouching guy later today.

--jon