12.1.1.3. Use a traditional profile maker such as Monaco EZcolor The two profiling kits I'm specifically recommending here, Monaco EZcolor and ColorVision PrintFIX are both accessibly priced (under $500) and have a reputation for producing decent results. Monaco EZcolor is the best route to take if you need one piece of software that can be adapted to a variety of situations and devices. It can profile cameras, scanners, monitors, and printers. It's been around for a while (the current version is the XR), and you can upgrade from any older version, such as the one that comes bundled with many Epson printers. Write Things Down I typically use the base word processor on my operating system to create a file called "profile notes" that contains all the settings for all my profiles. The method described here shows you how to use EZcolor to create a printer profile. However, it also has the capability of calibrating monitors in a manner similar to ColorVision's Spyder and OptiCAL. To create the printer profile, you first have to create a scanner profile for your flatbed scanner. EZcolor can also profile film scanners, but that requires you to purchase a separate target, and you'll still need to profile a flatbed scanner in order to create a printer profile. Profiling a film scanner is similar to profiling a flatbed, and the program comes with documentation, so we'll only cover profiling a flatbed in this section. Here's how you'd typically go about creating a printer profile using Monaco EZcolor XR: 1. Power on your printer and load the paper you intend to use. Remember, you have to make a different profile for each printer/paper/ink combination. Be sure to make note of the combination. 2. Open Monaco EZcolor, select Create Printer Profile, and click the Next button. Cho ose RGB as the printer type you plan to output to and click Next. Now, click Print. The Print dialog will appear, as shown in Figure 12-10. Figure 12-10. The EZcolor Print dialog. 3. From the drop-down menus, choose the following: the paper you will be printing on; the resolution you will be printing at; Auto Color Correction options off (see your printer manual if necessary); and 100% as the size to print the target. Be sure to write down all these settings so you can refer to them later. In the "Print a Target" dialog, click the Next button. Now save the printer target file as a TIFF file. 4. Attach the IT8 target that was supplied with EZcolor to the target you just printed. If you have other targets, don't use themthey won't work. Let the printed target dry in the dark for an hour or so, then place the attached targets on your scanner and click the Next button. The Monaco EZcolor dialog for preparing to scan will appear (see Figure 12-11). Figure 12-11. The Monaco EZcolor "Prepare to Scan" dialog. 5. Choose the TWAIN or Mac driver for your scanner. (Note that a few scanners are incompatible with EZcolor, but the program gives you a workaround if that is the case.) 6. Set the scanner resolution at 200 dpi. Turn off all color correction and management options in the scanner driver's dialog. Take note off all the scanner settings that stay in effect so that you can make sure they are consistent from one profile to the next. 7. Prescan (preview) the targets and then crop them to exclude all whitespace. 8. Click the Scan button and scan the targets. EZcolor will display a thumbnail of the scanned targets. Make sure the scan is straight and properly cropped. If it's not, reposition, recrop and rescan. When you've got it right, click Next. The Select Reference File dialog will appear (see Figure 12-12). Figure 12-12. The Select Reference File dialog. 9. Locate the proper reference settings in the Select Reference File dialog; you'll have to refer to the EZcolor manual for directions for locating these files on your particular OS version. EZcolor then asks you to confirm a variety of settings for cropping, straightening, scan resolution, etc. Once you've done that, you can name and save the profile that EZcolor will automatically generate during the printer profiling process. You can name the profile whatever you want, but you'll probably want to use something that describes the printer, model, paper type, printing resolution, and date in some kind of understandable shorthand. EZcolor also gives you the option to save the scanner profile that was automatically created by this process. 12.1.1.4. Use ColorVision PrintFIX The problem with most printer calibrators is that you also need to have a calibrated scanner. If the scanner is reset, you risk getting unreliable results. What sets PrintFIX apart is that it comes with its own scanner that is dedicated to doing nothing but reading a test chart printed on a given printer with a given ink and paper set, and automatically creating a printer profile that will honor the soft proof on your calibrated monitor. Since that's the scanner's only job, it becomes an easy, quick process. Another thing that differentiates PrintFIX is that it runs right inside Photoshop as an Import plug-in. Here's how it works: 1. Open Photoshop and choose File Import PrintFIX. From the PrintFIX dialog, choose the ColorVision color chart for your specific printer (see Figure 12-13). This is a very specific color chart that is sized and resolved for the small scanner that comes with PrintFIX (see Figure 12-14). Figure 12-14. The PrintFIX Patch Reader scanner. Figure 12-13. The PrintFIX color chart. 2. Choose File Print with Preview and go through the routine you normally use to choose your printer, print size, paper type, and other settings (some printer-and model-specific settings are recommended in the PrintFIX documentation). 3. When the chart is printed, remove it from the printer and trim it precisely to the dotted lines indicated in the print. 4. Follow the short routine recommended for cleaning and calibrating the Patch Reader scanner. 5. Insert the print in the holder made for the Patch Reader and place it in the scanner slot. 6. Choose File Automate PrintFIX to bring up the dialog shown in Figure 12-15. Don't change any of the default settings in the dialog. Figure 12-15. The PrintFIX dialog. 7. Click the Read Patch Reader button. The scanner will read the calibration chart and display the result in Photoshop. Crop the result so that only a narrow white margin is visible around the color chart. 8. Choose File Automate PrintFIX. This time, when the PrintFIX dialog appears, choose Build Profile from the drop-down menu. Leave all the sliders at their defaults and click OK. When the Save As dialog appears, name your profile with a name specifying the printer, paper, and ink combo, and perhaps a six-digit date or a version number to distinguish it from profiles made at other times. 9. Close Photoshop and reload it so that the profile you just saved will appear when you need it in the next step. 10. You'll now make a test print. Load the PDI Test Image, which is an excellent image to use for making your first print because if you can match all of its content, then virtually any image should match. 11. Choose File Print with Preview, and be sure that Show More Options is checked in the resulting dialog. From the Show More Options drop-down menu, choose Color Management. Choose the Document radio button and then select the profile you just created from the Profile menu. From the Intent menu, choose Saturation. 12. Click the Page Preview button. When the first Page Setup dialog appears, click the Printer button. When the second Page Setup dialog appears, click the Properties button. In the printer's setup dialog (see Figure 12- 16), choose any matte paper available on the Media menu, and choose the Best and Color radio buttons. (You may also want to adjust some of the Advanced settings.) Figure 12-16. The setup dialog for the Epson 1270. 13. Click as many OK buttons as it takes to get you back to the main Print with Preview dialog. Click the Print button; the second Print dialog will appear. Click the Print button. 14. When the chart is printed, let it dry for at least five minutesideally, a few hours. Printer dye inks take a bit of time to really stabilize. Then take it over to the monitor and compare it to the original. 15. Fine-tune your adjustments if necessary. 12.1.1.5. Use a software profile maker such as ColorVision's DoctorPRO Trying to match color charts by entering numbers in a traditional profile making application can seem pretty counterintuitive, especially to those of us used to making all of our adjustments on the fly using traditional darkroom techniques or the Photoshop commands that emulate them. Happily, there is a tool from ColorVision that records your adjustments and then has Photoshop apply them to a profile so that any image you print subsequently can use the same adjustments. It's not the most precise method for creating a profile that works well on every image, but it sure is a godsend when you want to cut the number of needed test prints for those images tha t just seem to work better when you tweak them manually. It's also a lifesaver if you just don't have the discipline required for using a traditional printer profiler. You can use DoctorPRO to tweak a profile you've already created (for instance, with ColorVision's PrintFIX) or any of the existing profiles in your system. NOTE When using PrintFIX, always choose a matte paper in the printer's setup dialog, regardless of the paper you are actually going to print on. The surface differences of other papers are automatically taken into account as a result of the scan. Here's how to use DoctorPRO: 1. Install the software and restart Photoshop. 2. DoctorPRO requires lots of RAM, so you should be using a system with at least 512 MB. In Photoshop, choose Edit Preferences Memory & Image Cache and enter at least 75 percent as the maximum amount of RAM used by Photoshop (see Figure 12-17). You should also make sure that all applications other than Photoshop are closed. Figure 12-17. The Photoshop Memory & Image Cache dialog. 3. Open the image that you want to create a new profile for, open the Actions palette, and create a new action. Name it something like "DoctorPRO Profile Tweak" where Profile is the name of the monitor calibrator or printer profile that created the image you are going to alter and Tweak is an abbreviated description of how you made the adjustments. You can use any Photoshop imageadjustment command in this action. When you've finished making the adjustments, stop recording the action. 4. Making sure that the name of the action is selected in the Actions palette, choose File Automate DoctorPRO to bring up the dialog in Figure 12-18. Figure 12-18. The DoctorPRO dialog. 5. Select the DoctorPRO radio button and choose the name of the profile you want to modify (this could be your printer's native profile or one you created). Choose the printer's color printing mode (RGB for most inkjets) and click OK. A DoctorPRO image of a horse will appear (don't ask why it's a horseI have no idea) as well as a Save As dialog that opens the folder where your OS keeps its color management profiles. Create a new profile name that incorporates the name of the profile you are modifying and its intent. Finally, click the Save button. 6. Close Photoshop, reopen it, and open the image you want to print with the new profile. Choose File Page Setup. When the Page Setup dialog appears, choose the printer and the advanced printer settings that you normally use for this paper and ink combination. 7. Choose File Print with Preview. Make sure the Show More Options box is checked, set your Source Space as Document, and choose the profile you saved from DoctorPRO from the Print Space Profile menu. 8. Verify that your other printer settings are set for the correct paper size, media, number of copies, and so forth. To print the now correctly profiled image, click OK. NOTE As you've probably figured out by now, you have to quit Photoshop and restart it whenever you create a new profile. Otherwise, it won't show up in the Profiles menu when you try to apply it. Be sure to recalibrate each particular ink and paper combination whenever you get an unexpected result. Large manufacturers sometimes buy their supplies from more than one source or improve the formulation as they gain experience with it. Also, the materials themselves may interact in different ways because of the influence of atmospheric chemicals, storage temperature, and the plain fact that nothing really stays static over time. . you'll have to refer to the EZcolor manual for directions for locating these files on your particular OS version. EZcolor then asks you to confirm a variety of settings for cropping, straightening,. calibrated scanner. If the scanner is reset, you risk getting unreliable results. What sets PrintFIX apart is that it comes with its own scanner that is dedicated to doing nothing but reading a test. won't show up in the Profiles menu when you try to apply it. Be sure to recalibrate each particular ink and paper combination whenever you get an unexpected result. Large manufacturers