Who makes profiles for secific ink and paper

[nche11]

It's true of course that every ink set has limitations in its gamut, but using the wrong profile, as the OP is doing, often fails to achieve the maximum gamut of the ink set. Using the wrong profile will definitely alter the rendering of in-gamut colours, whicih is the real problem here.

I am not sure the OP's problem is caused by using a wrong profile. It would not be just the color of the shade that would be wrong. The skin tone would likely be way off too if a wrong profile is used. The OP is using a 3rd party ink. This could be the reason of minor color issue.

The problem with this approach is that you will have to "adjust" virtually every image depending on the image content.

I think everyone is likely to always make some adjustment to every image to be printed. There may be a desire to crop the image a little for example. There may be a desire to adjust the contrast, or adjust the overall density or very often color balance. The camera's auto color balance never really do the job right. The OP's problem could be just an easy step in an image editor to adjust.

The colour balance of third-party inks differs in subtle ways from that of OEM inks for which the generic profiles were made. Non-linearity is almost impossible to adjust out using trial and error. Most people in this situation find that profiling solves the problem more cheaply than constant adjusting. You don't say where you are located, but in the UK for example you can get a good custom profile for 14. Is that too expensive when you consider the frustration you are suffering now? It's a one-off cost that you offset against the savings that you are making on ink.

14 a profile may be not too bad. But I have 8 - 10 different paper I use. That would be 8 - 10 profiles to purchase. If you are really serious about rendering accurate colors I agree that you may want to purchase a profile tool (big money). Still you will encounter the issue of gamut limitation of the ink/paper. I would not take this expensive and difficult route to address minor color balance problem caused by the camera.

We really don't know what the OP's real problem is. Since he is going to try some profiles. Maybe we will hear the result from him soon.

 

[esp]

Basically all of the prints that come from the local CVS Pharmacy look great with perfect shading. My wife really doesn't want to or even know how to alter shading/color saturation and all that. We only use one kind of printer paper that is all. I don't want perfection either just a finished print that looks like the Pharmacies.

 

[RMM]

Basically all of the prints that come from the local CVS Pharmacy look great with perfect shading. My wife really doesn't want to or even know how to alter shading/color saturation and all that. We only use one kind of printer paper that is all. I don't want perfection either just a finished print that looks like the Pharmacies.

It is definitely worth it to get a profile for your paper but ESPECIALLY your ink. It will make a big difference if done properly.

As was stated earlier in the thread, mikling offers profiles for his inkset (Precision Colors/Image Specialists) for your printer. I would start there. The profiles are free and he has a good guide to show you how to use them.

There are a number of "mail order" profiling services. A lot of them have better equipment than those of us with the hobbyist based machines, although I'm not sure how much better they actually are.

The third option is to purchase your own profiling equipment. This is what I did, but I own several different printers and plan on owning more so it will pay for itself in the long run. I purchased the Profile Prism software from DDI Software. The caveat is that you really need a nice scanner for this to work well. Vuescan further helps with the ability to do multi pass scanning and RAW output. You need to follow ALL of the instructions perfectly if you want good results.

Here was my cost:
Profile Prism w/ Target $79.00
Secondhand Canon LIDE 600F $35.00
Vuescan Pro Software $79.00

Total Cost: $193.00

I also purchased QImage Pro for $49.95. It is a nice software to print with once you get over the learning curve. Of course, color management is part of the software.

There are other more advanced options such as the Colormunki system, but they cost around $450. I am satisfied with the results that I am getting from Profile Prism. They may not be perfect, but to the average person like myself the results are satisfactory.

So far I have profiled the following printers:
iP4700
MX860
MP980
Pro9000
Epson Stylus 2200

The results with aftermarket ink and Kirkland paper have all been slightly better than the OEM ink with OEM profiles and paper.