Costco Printer Profile

I'm preparing in PhotoShop a bunch of images to be printed at

Costco, for a subject I photographed recently. Her decision to

print at Costco, not mine.

 

I've actually seen images from Costco, and they were surprisingly

good.

 

I don't have a membership to Costco (I don't need a 55 gallon drum

of peanut butter), so I can't obtain the ICC profiles available from

Costco.

 

Is anyone willing to share these profiles with me? Can you email

them to me?

 

What profile is Costco's printer' closest to? Adobe RGB? Or sRGB?

 

Or should I just submit these files using an Adobe RGB profile?

 

Thanks!

Try Dry Creek's profile database at: http://drycreekphoto.com/Frontier/. If all else fails, it'll probably be pretty close using sRGB.

I wouldn't worry about their profiles. You will do fine w/o them, just prepare all your pictures in highest quality sRGB jpeg 300dpi, not AdobeRGB. And no embedded profile please.

Thanks.

 

Seems like most printers are now sRGB, when they used to be Adobe RGB.

 

If you set your color preferences in PS to sRGB color space, open the file, and save it, is that NOT attaching an ICC profile?

 

Or do you have to actually ASSIGN the color profile using PS?

 

Thanks again.

All you need to do is to use sRGB as the working space of PS. When you save the jpeg, you have the option of not saving the profile.

If your file is currently in AdobeRGB, then CONVERT to sRGB profile.

 

Or, if you have your color settings set to automatically convert to working profile on opening (and it's set to sRGB), then yes, open and save.

Having a printer profile will only help if they maintain all the settings on the machine and turn off all auto adjustments. For most peoples prints they are better with auto turned on ! Ask them to turn auto off and use sRGB

 

Ian

 

http://profiles.colourperfect.co.uk

I've had great results from my local costco using the process described here: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Frontier/using_printer_profiles.htm

 

Submissions via costco's online site make it very easy to turn off autocorrection for the prints. Also, since costco has a very different employment model than Walmart/Sam's club, I find their photo center employee's are more knowledgeable and accommodating than other discount photo labs.

Thanks, everyone.

 

Color Management isn't new to me, but most high end digital printers here in Seattle are Adobe RGB, and most of my stuff goes online, anyway, so I'm used to working in an sRGB color space.

 

Thanks again.

For what it's worth, the advice to change one's working space to sRGB isn't necessary. My advice (not that anyone cares who I am) is to work in a larger space (Adobe (98) or even larger) and then Convert to sRGB to go to print when using a printer like this. When going to other printers, you may want those extra colors and not want to have to edit the file again.

I can't believe I'm hearing advice to ignore profiles. I guess it depends on how demanding you are. Or maybe you can get lucky with a particular printer. The Dry Creek profile for the Costco I use makes an obvious difference on screen, so it certainly will in the print as well. Naturally, I assume auto-correction will be turned off, so you have control. I've been quite happy with my Costco prints, but only when using the profile. By the way, I do have to show membership when having prints made.

Dry Creek Photo provides these profiles for free (see link below).

 

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/Profiles/NewJersey_profiles.htm#NJ

 

I have a different issue. When soft proofing with these profiles, the soft proof image is darker and less vibrant than the original. Is there an easy (or automated) way to determine what curves or other color correction to apply so that I can adjust the softproof version to look like the original screen version? I could then batch (automate) the changes for all images to get them right for printing.

 

I tried taking an image and converting it to printer profile then doing a stare and compare against the original. Not very efficient nore accurate.

 

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/Profiles/NewJersey_profiles.htm#NJ