On-screen proofing with WHCC ICC profiles

Question

Level 1

9 points

On-screen proofing with WHCC ICC profiles

I have downloaded all eight ICC profiles for each of the papers/products offered by White House Custom Colour (WHCC http://www.whcc.com/) for use in soft/on-screen proofing in Aperture (version 3.1.1). The files have been copied to /Library/ColorSync/Profiles after downloading. Then I noticed the following:

1. The profiles did not show up as options in the View->Proofing Profile list in Aperture.
2. The profiles did show up as options in Pixelmator's Color Management window.
3. Running the Profile First Aid in /Applications/Utilities/ColorSync Utility.app did find errors in the WHCC provided ICC profiles and easily fixed them.
4. The profiles still did not show up as an option in the View->Proofing Profile list in Aperture.
5. The profile shows up as before as an option in Pixelmator's Color Management window.

I tried deleting the WHCC provided ICC profiles from /Library/ColorSync/Profiles and copied fresh versions over to ~/Library/ColorSync/Profiles. Repeating the above 5 steps produced identical results. The ColorSync utility is able to see all of the profiles just fine, repair them as necessary and view their properties.

Does anyone have any ideas?

MBP 17" - Early 2009, 2.66GHz, 8GB, Aperture 3.1.1, Mac OS X (10.6.6), iMac G3, 500MHz, 1GB

Posted on Feb 4, 2011 7:26 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Feb 5, 2011 12:03 PM in response to nycradik

I will be interested to see if anyone responds. I too have this same problem. I can see them in ColorSync but not in the Aperture menu. They did need repair. They do show up in Photoshop CS5.

Another frustrating issue with ICCProfiles on the Mac is that the file name is not necessarily the name that appears in the menus. And some profiles do not have very helpful names. So if you have a large list it might be hard to ID the correct one. I assumed that I could rename a profile in using the ColorSync Util but even though it looked like it can be done it cannot.

Have you contacted WHCC?

Cheers... John

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 5, 2011 12:07 PM in response to John Mather

Just checked. They do show up in iPhoto print dialog. ***?

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 5, 2011 12:21 PM in response to nycradik

Have you tried a search of the forum? I seem to recall a discussion thread on this some time back which had some helpful troubleshooting tips. Just a thought.

Matt

Reply

Answer 4

nycradik Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 5, 2011 4:40 PM in response to John Mather

The profiles are available in any print dialog I've yet tried, from TextEdit to the Terminal to Pixelmator. Changing the name string that displays in the print dialog boxes (or any other selection lists for that matter) is rather easy with the ColorSync Utility.

1. In the Profiles tab, select the profile you're interested in.
2. Click the Open button to the upper right.
3. In the new window, select the 'desc' tag (for ICC v2 profiles) to show the ASCII Name, UniCode Name and Mac Script Name for the profile.
3. Edit these to suit, usually setting them identically to each other.
4. Press CMD-S to save.

Note that sometimes ColorSync Utility will say that it cannot save a profile. Try editing the names and pressing CMD-Q and it will usually ask if you would like to save your work. That usually works, though ColorSync Utility does have a few apparent bugs to work out. Also, you may need Administrator privileges to save some profiles depending on where they're stored on the hard drive.

Reply

Answer 5

nycradik Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 5, 2011 4:46 PM in response to Matt Leader

I have spent some time looking but nothing covered this exactly, with all the details being the same. What I have noticed is that the ICC profiles used for on-screen (soft) proofing in Aperture that are displayed in the Proofing Profile selection list all use the XYC Profile Connection Space (PCS) as noted by the ColorSync Utility. Those that instead use the Lab PCS (the WHCC and Hasselblad profiles for example) do not show up in Aperture's Proofing Profile selection list.

All of the profiles on my system (whether they use the Lab or XYZ PCS) are available for soft proofing in other applications, such as Photoshop and Pixelmator. The problem I have is that most of my adjustments are carried out completely within Aperture and I would prefer to soft proof there.

Reply

Answer 6

Feb 6, 2011 11:14 AM in response to nycradik

Thanks. I know I had tried that with some profiles awhile back & it didn't work. But the dialogs seem different now so maybe it was a different version of ColorSync Util. In the meantime I've dumped quite a few from other services I was not using.

I sent an email to WHCC referring to this discussion. Their support has been great for me so I expect to hear something in a day or two. I had a crazy permission problem with Java & their ROES app & they really worked with me to solve it.

Reply

Answer 7

Feb 11, 2011 12:26 PM in response to John Mather

Here is the reply from WHCC:

################################
Hi John,

I checked into this for you and I do understand what you and others are saying about setting up profiles for Aperture. However, we base our workflow here around Photoshop and that is why our profiles are only set up for that program. Most clients that we work with are using Photoshop for their file editing and it is the program that we are familiar with. At this time we are not able to produce profiles for other editing software such as Aperture and I apologize for any inconvenience that causes you. If that is something that should become available in the future, we will certainly let you know. Please let us know if you have any questions. Have a great day!

Thanks!

Christyn McGuff
White House Custom Colour
Customer Service Rep.
christyn.mcguff@whcc.com

1 800 252 5234
customerservice@whcc.com
##################################

I have been happy with WHCC before this. Given what little I can tell from the situation it the solution isn't very likely too hard. So I'm disappointed. I know that Scott Bourne "uses" them & he's an Aperture user. I've been happy with using Adobe RGB but I haven't printed on any of the more unusual papers where onscreen proofing might really help. Maybe an email to Scott...

Cheers... John

Reply

Answer 8

Feb 15, 2011 8:12 PM in response to John Mather

Ok so I got this reply from WHCC:
*****************
I was able to get a little more information on the profiles for you. The .icc format is the universal type of file for a soft proofing profile. This is the file type that almost all companies create to soft proof with their paper and printers. Since the profiles can be used in iPhoto which is an Apple program, I think it is quite possible that there should be a way to use this kind of profile with the Aperture program as well. That being said, since we are not very familiar with Aperture I cannot say how that would be done. This might be something that needs to be posed to Apple or Aperture and perhaps they can tell you how this is possible. It might just be a matter of inputting the .icc file in the correct location, or even changing a setting in the program. I apologize once again that I do not have more information for you on this.
*****************

It would be great if someone could help straighten them out. Clearly not all .icc are created equal & as is often the case the assumption is operator error or some quirk in the software. While the latter could be true in that Aperture has some issue that prevents it from using these particular profiles, it sure isn't my fault. I've moved them to every dang place I could.

Anyone know what the problem is? Are the WHCC profiles different than the others? I can't find any obvious problems. They are made with an X-Rite system so maybe they'd have an answer.

Reply

Answer 9

Feb 17, 2011 5:25 PM in response to John Mather

Final update.

From X-Rite:
The profiles are obviously valid because WHCC uses them to print with and you can use them in Adobe products as well as iPhoto. This could be a profile version issue. Some applications (i.e., CS5, Lightroom3) support both Version 2 and Version 4 profiles. If WHCC created a Version 4 profile and Aperture 3.1.1 only supports Version 2 (you will need to check with Apple on this version of Aperture), then you will have your answer. Perhaps Aperture doesn’t support custom ICC printer profiles??? WHCC is correct…this is an Apple issue that you will need to address with them.

From WHCC:
I don’t believe that how the ICC profile is created or by which program it comes from has any bearing on how other programs can use it. Take JPG files for example… you can make JPG’s in a variety of editing programs. As long as a JPG is a JPG, it is a universal file type that will be able to be opened and used in any program that recognizes and supports JPG files. ICC’s should be the same. If the program you are using can recognize and utilize the file type, they should work universally. There is nothing Photoshop specific about them. If other applications on your computer can see them (ex, iPhoto, Photoshop), then they should be installed correctly and the reason Aperture can’t identify and use them would be an Aperture support question that you would need to talk to Apple about. I apologize but that is all the information I have on this at this time.

Conclusion:
After doing a "Save as..." for a WHCC profile & placing it in all three ColorSync/Profiles folders & getting nothing, the problem is either in our set up/system. Or an Aperture bug. I tend to think the latter but then I can't believe WHCC hasn't heard about this before.

I also tried to tell what version they are and they indicate 2, 3, and 4 in ColorSync Util.

So I'll try to forward all this on to Apple support & see if any update happens in the future. I'm not crazy enough to think they'd actually respond with an answer

I did also direct Tweet Scott Bourne who like Apple rarely responds. But given his professed love for them as a sponsor & his personal connection, I'm a bit suspicious that he uses them as much as he says if this is a general bug. It would make it awfully hard to get prints correct as his pickiness would want. This is another reason I don't have much hope that it's a general problem.

Reply