How to use ICC profiles and soft proofing profiles?

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Level 1

17 points

How to use ICC profiles and soft proofing profiles?

Hi,

I got an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 and Epson Hot Press paper which, upon investigation, received great profeesional reviews and, having never printed digitally before, I don't know how to use profiles for soft proofing or printing.

I don't know where to go in Aperture or what to do. My driver is up to date and I downloaded the paper profile - not sure where it ended up. What's next?

So far as I know, soft proofing is about calibrating the monitor to the paper - am I correct?

Thanks guys,

Raphael

Aperture 3, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Apr 10, 2014 9:09 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kirby Krieger

Level 6

12,592 points

Apr 11, 2014 2:10 AM in response to rshammaa

Raphael,

A good reply is going to require a full-size keyboard, which I don't have access to just now. Here are some starter pages:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.htm

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.shtml (a bit grumpy and out-dated)

Fwiw, I print to Epson Hot Press using a 3880. Imho, it's a _great_ printer, and that combination of printer and paper produced state-of-the-art results. (Not suitable in all cases, but if that is a look you like, the only thing that I've seen that surpasses it is the Epson 9900, and without looking at prints side by side you can not tell them apart.)

Your profile ended up wherever you have told your browser to save downloaded files. The Epson site should provide instructions on where to move the file. Once it is in the right Finder folder, when you next Aperture it should show in your list of profiles.

Keep in mind, though, that soft-proofing is useless without a well (read: hardware-calibrated) calibrated display.

HTH,

--Kirby.

(Sent from my magic glass.)

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Answer 2

Apr 11, 2014 2:15 AM in response to rshammaa

Left one out:

http://documentation.apple.com/en/aperture/usermanual/index.html#chapter=A%26sec tion=1%26tasks=true

The "theoretical" introduction may not be of much help. The following three sections answer your questions.

(Sent from my magic glass, which, as it turns out, does not allow me to edit my replies here where the orchard should be most carefully pruned.)

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Answer 3

rshammaa Author

Level 1

17 points

Apr 20, 2014 6:04 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Thank you so much Kirby! Sorry it took so long to answer.

The interesting thing is that the Photoshop print dialog box has so many more boxes to check and so many more options from so many more drop down menus to pick from - or so it seems from a demonstration I attende

An interesting pointer I picked up, for the Pro 3880, was that a 240 dpi will yield a far sharper print than a 300 dpi settingAlso, that the printer should never ever be turned off. because it is a closer multiplier in the dpi algorithm. Check it out.

Regarding my initial question, per the Aperture article you forwarded, the answer is:

/Users/username/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/ And of course, it works.

Thanks again Kirby.

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