Profile Assessment

[RogerB]

Come to think of it, on that print the illuminant was your scanner!

I was talking about the coloured targets that you said were shot on a Canon DSLR.

 

[Emulator]

You were talking about the Argyll discolouration, that was through your scanner. There are no images converted through the SLR as yet.

 

[RogerB]

You were talking about the Argyll discolouration, that was through your scanner. There are no images converted through the SLR as yet.

Now I'm really confused. I was talking about the coloured images that you added to post #65 on Friday. I've never scanned any B&W+colour targets, nor for that matter anything generated by Argyll (have I?)

 

[Emulator]

Now I'm with you, I was concentrating on the next comparison of the effect of the printer paper types. You refer to the extra image I added later in an edit in #65. Yes, that was natural daylight, very variable, but all images on one sheet, in the same illuminant, so I would expect similar effects on all.

 

[Emulator]

These test images illustrate the differences in effect of three of the Canon paper profiles. From left to right they are Paper Platinum Pro, Paper Pro II and Paper Plus Glossy II N. They were all printed on a single sheet of Sihl Glossy 280g/sm paper using multiple passes through the printer.

The upper row of three were printed using the ColorMunki primary profile (see earlier posts).
The lower row of three were printed using the Argyll Sihl Glossy profile.

An important point to note is that the profiling target charts for the CM profiles were printed using the Canon Paper Platinum Pro profile. The Argyll target chart was printed using the Canon Paper Pro II profile. All the charts were printed on Sihl 280gsm paper. This is a historic and undesirable difference, which clearly affects any comparison of the results.


Producing an image to upload, which accurately represents the detail of the printed image, is not easy and the result is not entirely satisfactory (you can see more on the print). However it does illustrate that there are significant and subtle differences between the paper profiles, for example the darker ring in the yellow of the top left image disappears in the top centre (previously blamed on the optimised profiles). The red-ish tinge in the Argyll black-white lower left image dissappears in the lower centre image. The upper black to white transitions are not as smooth in the centre and righthand images.

There are no doubt other differences which careful study will discover.

 

[RogerB]

These test images illustrate the differences in effect of three of the Canon paper profiles. From left to right they are Paper Platinum Pro, Paper Pro II and Paper Plus Glossy II N. They were all printed on a single sheet of Sihl Glossy 280g/sm paper using multiple passes through the printer.

When you say "Canon paper profiles" I assume you mean media settings. I know that the Canon drivers had (have?) a tab that they call "Profiles" which I always found misleading, since they have nothing (directly) to do with ICC profiles. However, what you have here clearly demonstrated that there are some significant things going on for different media types. It's obviously not just ink loading that changes because that would not account for the very localised changes in colour rendering such as in the yellow region for the CM profile.

Whatever the explanation, it tells us how important it is to keep our printing conditions consistent if we want the best results.

 

[Emulator]

Interesting, Roger, but this is what Gamutvision makes of firstly the Canon Pro9000 II Photo Paper Pro Platinum CNB9TNA0.ICM paper profile and secondly the CM primary profile.

 

[RogerB]

Interesting, Roger, but this is what Gamutvision makes of firstly the Canon Pro9000 II Photo Paper Pro Platinum CNB9TNA0.ICM paper profile and secondly the CM primary profile.

If the printer is managing colours then selecting a particular media type will automatically invoke the related .icm profile. But, I assume that you are printing with no colour management in the Canon driver, in which case the Canon .icm profiles are not used. Sure, the media setting will affect the ink load, dithering and so on, but the profile is your custom profile. Or am I missing something?

 

[Emulator]

Yes the color is set to manual and then "none".

The RIP in the printer while adjusting the predetermined ink levels in accordance with the paper type, must moderate the way the custom profile data is interpreted. So the yellow band must be connected with the needs of the Platinum Pro paper.

 

[Emulator]

In trying to visually examine the differences between printer profiles, paper settings and rendering intents, I have used a PS Elements generated spectrum colour ramp (top strip in image) to print colour strips with various profiles and settings. The resulting prints were then scanned to produce the image below.