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Archive 2019 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

I'm encountering a problem that feels like one of those where the obvious answer should be staring me in the face... but I just can't see it. Or maybe it really is a mystery?

Maybe someone can point me in the right direction.

I'm using a ColorMunki device. We had formerly used it with the ColorMunki-provided profiling software, but since they stopped updating it I just downloaded and installed the recommended i1Studio software. I have a new P9000 printer that I'm setting up, and I successfully used i1Studio to create a color profile for Epson Ultra Premium Lustre paper. (I use that for low-end printing and for proofing.)

So far, so good.

- - - - -

The i1Studio software also offers an option to create black and white profiles. I started that process and successfully printed and then scanned the single page that is generated for the first profiling test chart. The software then generates the second profiling test chart, which takes two pages. (The second set was only one page for the color profiles.)

Here is where I run into a problem.

The display shows a page of patches to be printed, labeled "Page 1 of 2." I click the print button and this page prints. I load a new sheet of letter-size paper into the printer expecting it to print page 2... but nothing happens.

Thinking that perhaps it doesn't automatically print the second page I go back to the screen and click the small right arrow that displays "Page 2 of 2." I click the print button again, and...

... it prints a second copy of page 1, not page 2.

- - - - -

Trying to outsmart the software I use printer dialog boxes to a) try to print in reverse order and b) print even numbered pages only. However, once again...

... it prints a second copy of page 1, not page 2.

- - - - -

Short story: I can't get it to print the second of the two pages that comprise the second profiling test chart.

Oh, I've tried this on one of our other printers, too... a P800. We have exactly the same problem there.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Dan

To be super clear about this, here's what should happen.

COLOR PROFILING

1. software generates first profiling test chart — one page.
2. user prints first profiling test chart - one page
3. user scans first profiling test chart.
4. software generates second profiling test chart — one page
5. print second profiling test chart — one page
5. scan second profiling test chart

BLACK AND WHITE PROFILING

1. software generates first profiling test chart — one page.
2. user prints first profiling test chart - one page
3. user scans first profiling test chart.
4. software generates second profiling test chart — two pages
5. print second profiling test chart —two pages, but I can only print the first of the two
5. scan second profiling test chart (can't get this far since it requires printing both pages in previous step)

Aug 08, 2019 at 06:10 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

X-Rite is know for their fab customer service, right. When they can't figure it out, call Pat up a Chromix.

Aug 08, 2019 at 06:54 PM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

Thanks, Peter. (I was hoping that you might reply.) WE have a message out to the i1 folks — just hoping that someone might have encountered this before and have a quick answer.

It is a bizarre problem. Next step will be to try with roll paper to see if the software will automatically take advantage of the "unlimited" printing area to generate the second page. (That will be only a partial solution, as not all paper that I use comes in rolls.)

Dan

Aug 08, 2019 at 07:36 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

Dan - Are you sure you can make Grayscale profiles with i1Profiler? I just upgraded the software on one of my computers and ended having to call X-Rite to get through the upgrade process and asked while I was on the phone with them about that and they said no, plus I couldn't see that option anywhere in the software. Now, I'm using i1Publish, which uses Profiler for that function and maybe there's something different on your end, but the CSR didn't mention any other options within their products when given the opportunity.

Aug 09, 2019 at 01:24 PM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

I'm back, partly to respond to Peter's question and partly to make sure that what I've learned becomes part of the data here at FM.

First, Peter, I'm actually using i1Studio (not "i1Profiler"), and yes there is an option (at least on my MacOS version of the i1Studio software) to produce separate color and black & white paper profiles. As near as I can tell, both begin by producing the very same initial one-page profiling test chart. Then, after building new profiles following a scan of that chart, the software generates a new two-page profiling test chart during the black and white process. (It generates a single page second profiling test chart for color, as counter-intuitive as that seems.)

The issue is that the i1Studio seems to be unable to print the second page of the two-page second profiling test chart. I was initially using sheet paper, and no convolutions that I could come up with would get it to print the second page. The first response from X-Rite support was to ask if I was loading two sheets of paper. You can't actually do that with the P9000 — it simply feeds both sheets, one atop the other, as if it were a single sheet. I wrote back and pointed this out.

While waiting I thought I'd try with roll paper, since printing a second page shouldn't require "two sheets" to be loaded. I was optimistic... but I ended up with exactly the same problem — I could only print the first profile test chart page.

I was about to write back and report this to them when I got another email. The support person suggested that I print the .tif files produced by clicking the "Save Session" button, using Photoshop to print the pages separately. So, I was able to open the files for the two pages independently and print them — letting the printer manage colors so as to not impose any Photoshop profiles on the process.

Soooo... for now it seems that the answer is to go through the process in i1Studio, but not to print the two second profiling pages in the black and white profiling process from inside the software... but to instead open the generated .tif files for the two pages and print them out of Photoshop with the printer manage the colors.

Dan

Aug 09, 2019 at 03:58 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

Ok Dan. I think you would not want to print it the way you did. There's no way to avoid color conversions in the driver at all anymore and the Let Printer Manage Color will convert to whatever Epson paper profile is currently spec'd in the driver. Better to the the Adobe Color Printer Utility to print both tiff files, which was where I what I was going to suggest next.

Aug 09, 2019 at 04:42 PM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

Peter Figen wrote:
Ok Dan. I think you would not want to print it the way you did. There's no way to avoid color conversions in the driver at all anymore and the Let Printer Manage Color will convert to whatever Epson paper profile is currently spec'd in the driver. Better to the the Adobe Color Printer Utility to print both tiff files, which was where I what I was going to suggest next.

I understand that... since the print dialog in PS requires on not select a paper type.

However, once I create a custom profile and use it, that profile only appears in the first, large Adobe "Photoshop Print Settings" dialog, not the secondary "Print" dialogs activated by clicking the "Print Settings..." button in Photoshop. In that second "Print" dialog one still selects an Epson paper type. (For example, when using Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk, Ilford says to choose the "Premium Semigloss Photo Paper 250" paper type in the "Print" dialog's "Printer Settings" screen.

So, as I understand it, after generating a custom profile (I'll call it "Custom Profile" in this example) the process would be something like this:

1. Choose the Print command in Photoshop.
2. In the "Photoshop Print Settings" dialog choose to have Photoshop manage colors and then select the custom "Custom Profile" profile.
3. Still in the "Photoshop Pint Settings" dialog, click the "Print Settings..." button.
4. On the "Print" dialog that appears, select "Printer Settings" from the popup menu.
5. From the Media Type popup, select that same paper option that was used when making the profile.

Make sense? Or do you have an alternative way of getting there?

Thanks,

Dan

Aug 09, 2019 at 05:26 PM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

In any case, I'll check what I come up with here... and then perhaps experiment with the Adobe Color Printer Utility and see if it changes anything.

Aug 09, 2019 at 05:36 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

Dan - That's the correct method of printing with a custom profile, but it's going to be tainted if you printed it out through Photoshop. It needs to be printed with ACPU or the profiling app, which it apparently refuses to do. Or, you could go back and print it out of CS3 and choose No Color Management. That would work too, but nothing after CS3. You'd think they'd have this shit down by now and instead, it's more complicated than ever. Good luck there.

Aug 10, 2019 at 02:16 PM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

Thanks, again, Peter.

I did download the ACPU. I created the profiles in i1Studio and saved them as .tiff files. I tried two methods. One was to print them out in Photoshop, but letting the printer manage colors. This should be the same as what happened with ACPU since it doesn't apply any color management to the process.

However, to be safe, this morning I repeated the process from the start and printed using ACPU.

In any case, I now believe that I have the workflow sorted out and have created good BW profiles for two of my papers.

I still can't believe that the i1Studio app seems to be unable to print the second page of the two-page profile chart the program generates. Thats' just bizarre, and the tech support folks didn't' offer any solutions.

Dan

Aug 10, 2019 at 07:59 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

I think that X-Rite left out the compare tool from the Gretag suite of apps, but that's what I'd use to compare both data files, which would tell you exactly how the two methods of printing the targets are different. There's a reason Adobe created that weird little app. It had to do with Apple changing the print data path at some point (when CS4 was introduced) in order to give us a way to print these targets when the apps themselves couldn't - like if you're sending the target files to someone else to print like I do for a few friends.

Aug 10, 2019 at 09:34 PM

jharter
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Problem creating B&W profile with i1Profile + ColorMunki + MacOS

I am just getting my new imac up and running and I encountered the identical problem! Thanks for posting your findings.

I too opened the tiff file but it opened in Preview and just printed from there. It worked!

Dec 17, 2019 at 06:36 PM


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