How do I incorporate printer profiles?

[joe mama]

I am having difficulty getting online pics printed with the correct colors from MPIX. They sent me some profiles but I have no idea how to use them. My monitoris not calibrated. However, my other people's pics look "right" on my monitor, so I assume it's close. Furthermore, when I had pics printed at a local printer, I had color problems as well, but my pics looked right on their monitor. So, I told them to just make my prints look like it did on their monitor, and all was good. These two reasons lead me to believe that my monitor is, at the very least, close to calibrated.

So my question is how I can get the online prints to match what my monitor shows, or at least a lot closer than what I'm getting, and I'm thinking the profiles they sent may help, but I don't know how to incorporate them into PL32.

Thanks!

[lutz]

Hello Joe,
how is your camera set up ? Are your pictures using sRGB or Adobe RGB? are they coming from a RAW converter?
Are you on windows or Mac?

[joe mama]

Hello Joe,
how is your camera set up ? Are your pictures using sRGB or Adobe RGB? are they coming from a RAW converter?
Are you on windows or Mac?

I shoot in RAW and convert using BreezeBrowser Pro using aRGB on a Windows Vista machine.

[Hoogo]

I had no deep contact to color-management yet. But it seems to me that you are new with color-management, too, so maybe I could help at least a little.

Now you have got a profile for some kind of printing machine... Install it (there should be an install-option in its context-menu).
"Edit > Options > Color Management". Activate it. You should find the installed profile in the "Proof"-dropdown, choose it. If a profile was shipped with your monitor or if you downloaded it you can install it, too.
The rendering intend is usually perceptual.
After activating color-management your display should change a little bit, at least it doese here by me.
In the "view"-menu you will find a "Proof Mode"-check-menuitem. When checked you should see something like a preview of how your picture looks on that kind of printing machine.

I understand profiles as translators between RGB and Lab, and Lab is the one and only, the perfect, the magnificent color-space Or at least in Lab every color is well defined. RGB 255/0/0 is no reference to a specific red, because any device will show a different color. But Lab 54/81/77 is always the same color, but no device can directly display Lab, but with the correct profile a Lab-picture can be converted into the correct RGB-Values for that device. When you use color-management you should always keep in mind that rgb-values are only trustworthy if they have a profile with then. There is a working color-space (at least there should be one), and when you save as Jpg, beside the pixel-data the profile is saved into the file. Otherwise sRGB or something else is assumed. You can see it in the attributes-dialog if a profile is present when you open a file.

When you open a picture from your raw-converter you should find something about aRGB there, you mentioned aRGB above. When you finished and liked the proof, you save as jpg, and aRGB is included into the file. I think the only thing that should go wrong now is that MPIX ignores that profile and always uses sRGB. This is not impossible, but as they can deliver a profile it is not likely that this happens. Or they may use a different rendering intend.

But I can't tell from practice, I just bring my photos to my local printer, and they look good, no need for color-management yet Hope I didn't tell bullshit.

EDIT: And usualy you will be on the save side if you use sRGB instead of aRGB.

[lutz]

I agree with Hoogo's tips. MPIX will honor the aRGB tag or profile, but almost certainly your neighborhood drugstore print shop will not (for these prints you will need to convert your images to regular sRGB; also before distributing the files them to relatives etc.).

[joe mama]

I had no deep contact to color-management yet. But it seems to me that you are new with color-management, too, so maybe I could help at least a little.

Now you have got a profile for some kind of printing machine... Install it (there should be an install-option in its context-menu).
"Edit > Options > Color Management". Activate it. You should find the installed profile in the "Proof"-dropdown, choose it. If a profile was shipped with your monitor or if you downloaded it you can install it, too.

First of all, thanks for the help! Rather than address all your suggestions at once, please allow me to begin with the step above. I don't know how to install the downloaded profiles so that I can choose them in the "Proof" drop-down. I have no printer hooked up to my machine at the moment (I have the printer, but it's still in the box -- new computer). Do I need to install the printer to be able to install the profiles?

Thanks!

[Hoogo]

The profile should be a file with the ending .icc. Right click on it, and something like "install profile" should appear. At least that's the way to install a profile on Win98.
You do not need to install the printer first, profiles are no drivers, only tables. You may find profiles for other purposes, there may be profiles shipped with your camera or raw-converter.
By the way: Are we talking about a printer or a printing service?

[joe mama]

The profile should be a file with the ending .icc. Right click on it, and something like "install profile" should appear. At least that's the way to install a profile on Win98.
You do not need to install the printer first, profiles are no drivers, only tables. You may find profiles for other purposes, there may be profiles shipped with your camera or raw-converter.
By the way: Are we talking about a printer or a printing service?

Thanks! I see the "Install Profile" option. Installing it won't change anything on my display, right? Remember -- I've no idea what I'm doing. : ) The profiles are for specific papers for an online printing service.

[Hoogo]

Yes, a profile doesn't change anything on the screen. Installing a profile is similar to installing a font - making the file available to some programs.

[joe mama]

Yes, a profile doesn't change anything on the screen. Installing a profile is similar to installing a font - making the file available to some programs.

OK -- I installed the profiles, activated color management, selected one of the profiles in "Proof", checked "Proof" in the View menu, and see no difference on the screen. Have I missed something?

[Hoogo]

Sounds good to me. When I choose some profile and turn on proof, blue skies turn a bit into the cyan direction, but the rest is more or less unchanged.

[joe mama]

Sounds good to me. When I choose some profile and turn on proof, blue skies turn a bit into the cyan direction, but the rest is more or less unchanged.

Except that the color of my prints from MPix is different than what I see onscreen.

[Hoogo]

In wich way different?
Does it have a special kind of color-cast?
Is it brighter or darker?
Or is it just desaturated?
Do you have a link to MPix, where I could find the profiles?

[joe mama]

In wich way different?
Does it have a special kind of color-cast?
Is it brighter or darker?
Or is it just desaturated?
Do you have a link to MPix, where I could find the profiles?

There's a strong color cast. The saturation, brightness, and contrast are all on. I don't have a link to the color profiles -- the emailed them to me. Maybe they're on their site somewhere, though.

As a side, the color cast is the same as when I printed my images at the local Longs Drugs. When I told the Longs tech to just make my pics have the same color as they did on their computer screen, they did a great job and all was well. In other words, both MPix and Longs have the same color shift, but the color on the Longs monitor and my monitor match.

[Hoogo]

Sorry, I've got no idea at the moment...