Epson 2200 w the standard epson ultrachrome inkset (matte bl)
Inkpress Rag Cooltone 200 paper
PS CS4
I downloaded and installed the appropriate profile for the above setup from the Inkpresspaper.com website.
When I either soft proof, and/or do a print , there is a cold cyan/blue/turquoise color over the entire image and over any 'white' canvas/paper area outside/around the image area.
It's very strong and isn't just a col bias that one might expect from different media.
I have checked all my other settings and everything is as It's supposed to be.
I downloaded that profile. Jeez, what a piece of crap, at least the preview portion. You're right. It previews cyan where it should be (and measures) white. This is another example of paper manufacturers not knowing what they're doing - using substandard profiling software - ColorVision in this case - and making crap available. You can try a print and see what it looks like, but I'd make or have a good custom profile made if you want to use that paper.
Thanks for checking it out.
I'm convinced it's either corrupt, or as you say just a poor job. Or maybe its old and doesnt work with CS4 and OS X 10.5. Or maybe my 2200 printer is so old that the paper manufacturers dont support icc profiles for it any longer ?
Anyway I tried the paper with an Epson Enhanced Matte profile and it's not a bad match actually
The reason I asked you to make a print with the profile anyway, even though it looked funky on screen, is that icc profile contain several sets of lookup tables - lookup tables that provide the actual conversion information for the different rendering intents, and lookup tables that render the converted image back to the screen. It's probably that second table that's screwy because, after you make the conversion, the whites that look cyan, are still reading 255,255,255, which we all know is white white white.
The same icc profiles have been supported in Ps since version 3 or 4 via the advanced color settings and since v5 when Adobe revamped the entire color management support in earnest. As long as the printer/ink/paper combination is still the same as when the profile was made, and nothing has changed with how the printer lays down the ink on that paper, then the profile should still work in whatever version of Ps you have. It's not connected to how old your printer or paper is, only if your printer is printing the same as it did when it was initially profiled.
I've actually never seen a profile do this exactly before, and it appears that only absolute whites are affected by the cyan preview. If the white drops down to near white, say 250,250,250 or so, the preview starts looking normal again. Colorvision, which made the profiling software that they used to make that profile, was never considered anywhere near the best software for making profiles, but was considerably less expensive than Monaco or Gretag, is almost certainly where the problem lies.
The paper manufacturers have had very mixed results when supplying their own paper profiles. You'd THINK that they might get it right, but the record doesn't bear it out. If you happen to get a good profile canned, you're lucky.
I've a friend who was using Inkpress papers on his 4800 and tried their canned profiles. From what I have seen, read and heard, theirs have a fairly low success record. I ended up making him a custom profile.
How can it be that it prints with cyan highlights? When you convert to profile with that profile, the preview is indeed cyan, but the numbers in the whites are still 255,255,255. If you printer is printing a 255 white as cyan, then you've got bigger problems. Think about this for a bit...
In addition, if you ASSIGN any other profile to a file converted to this Inkpress profile, the cyan preview goes away, a further indication that the cyan problem is only in the preview portion of the profile.
Part of troubleshooting is looking at everything the clues tell you, and there are plenty here with something to say. Upon further study, the ONLY way to get this profile to print cyan highlights is to use Absolute Colorimetric rendering intent. Then the RGB values change to 255R, 236G, 234B, which is decidedly cyanish in anybody's book.
Bottom line is that this is one of the worst profiles I've ever seen. I can't imagine how it got to where it is with no one ever noticing at Inkpress. Kind of makes you wonder about their general level of competence and expertise...
Peter,
You undoubtedly have a better grip on this entire issue than I have so I don't really know what to say, and don't want to contradict, but it does print with this cyan on the white paper/canvas area around the image too. I have no such problem printing any other paper profile, so I dont think I have the problem. At least I hope not!
I finally got a response from their support and after sending me a new profile last night which for some very odd reason when placed in the profiles folder (HD>Library>ColorSync>Profiles) it could not be found/seen by PS and didnt show up in the softproof choice list or in the print dialog box under the profile choices. I told them this and they offered to build a new one. I'm waiting to hear from them again.
As a side issue what does Assign do as compared to Convert (to profile under the Edit menu) ?
