How much to gain by ICC

[melvin_bramley]

After some self induced problems with printing I am now pretty damned

close with my print to what my monitor image looks like. How much is

to be gained by using a ICC profile? EG will,with profiling,the image

look better on the monitor & the print?

[Ed_Ingold]

Your prints may not look better, but will be more consistent.

 

If your monitor has not been calibrated, what have you gained by "adjusting" images? With a new monitor or new printer, you will have to start all over again. If you were using a profile for your printer, published by the paper manufacturer, there is a slim chance that you have not wasted your time. The print becomes a back-door way to "calibrate" your monitor, or at least your adjustments to the image file.

[daniel_neo]

Some people said that a proper printer profile actually provides a better gamut for a given paper than tweaking a "canned" generic profile that came with the printer. I personally have not seen it, though.

[patricklavoie]

I calibrate my screen with a Monaco devise. Print with the good and accurate canned

profile that come with my printer, the result? what i see its what i get. So i think it is very

important to use ICC

[erik scanhancer]

"Some people said that a proper printer profile actually provides a better gamut for a given

paper than tweaking a "canned" generic profile that came with the printer. I personally

have not seen it, though."

 

Now you can see it! The picture herunder shows a lab plot (the solid shape) of the generic

paper profile that comes with an Epson 4000 scanner for the Epson Enhanced Matte paper.

The wire frame surrounding it shows the color gamut of my custom profile for the same

printer/paper combo. I think it is obvious that translating the working space to my custom

profile will leave a lot more shades intact than when working with the factory profile.

Especially saturation will be better.

[daniel_neo]

Eric,

 

Thanks for the illustration. I believe you. But what I meant when I said I have not seen, is that I have not had the opportunity to to see real world prints, using differenct profiles, placed side by side, to illustrate the improvement. I am not saying the difference is not there, just that I have not had the privilege to see it.

[richard_ross1]

Well, I just saw it tonight in a vivid demonstration. I have lately been using my Epson 1280 with the Epson supplied (via the PIM package) icc profiles. My prints on Matte Heavyweight have always seemed a bit washed out so I downloaded the single $25 profile from Inkjetmall. The gamut and contrast are significantly improved. Truly night and day in direct comparison. It is also much better than some scanner based profiles that I was trying to make a year or so ago (and have since given up on).

 

I also witnessed this with a 9600 printer last year that I was working with. The Epson supplied generic profiles vs some custom ones. There the difference was not as dramatic but still noticeable.