Monitor Profiling

If you are serious about digital colour it is important to remove natural light from the work area. It is a bit depressing to work in a sunless room, but it is necessary for accurate colour matching. Traditional pre-press houses were generally windowless and painted ‘battleship grey’ for good reason.

If it is impossible to do this then the effects must be minimised as much as possible. Put up curtains, block the window with cardboard or move into a corner so the screen has as little light falling directly on it as possible. A good idea is to construct a simple hood for the monitor out of cardboard and paint it grey.

The next consideration is the electric lighting in the room. Ideally you want colour balanced lights.

The next step is to create a monitor profile. This is a very important part of an ICC workflow, because if you can’t trust what is on-screen then it’s impossible to work effectively.

A monitor profile is created by installing profiling software on the computer and then attaching a monitor optimiser to the screen. The optimiser looks rather like a mouse and reads a series of colours that are flashed onto the screen by the profiling software, which then creates a monitor profile.

Both CRT and LCD screens can be profiled, but not laptop screens. CRT screens need re-profiling about every 3-6 months, and LCD screens about every 6-12 months - more often for highly colour-critical work. Also the older or more heavily used a monitor is, the more often it needs re-profiling. Please note that a monitor profile is for that particular computer/monitor combination therefore any movement of either device will require a re-profile.

Channel Photo-Media uses the GretagMacbeth Eye-One monitor optimiser, running iMatch software.

Scanner (input) Profiling

ICC colour management can’t fix a bad transparency – it can only give you an accurate reproduction of that transparency. Colour management is about predictably reproducing copies. If there is a problem image you still need to retouch it. However, if you notice that every scan coming off your scanner is too warm, too cold, too light or too flat, then an input profile should be able to help. You shouldn’t have to keep retouching images to correct for a scanner bias or fault. A profile should get the image to a good starting point so you can spend your time correcting the images that really need it!

A scanner profile is made by acquiring a raw scan of a colour chart and loading it into the profile creation software. Depending on the individual workflow, the profile may be applied in the scanner software, or a function key assigned in Photoshop to automatically apply the profile.

We suggest you enlist the services of a professional to profile this type of equipment.

Digital Camera Input Profiles

As long as the user has a profiled monitor and a good RAW converter, we believe there is no reason to create a profile of a digital camera for all but the most controlled studio work. Again, it must be acknowledged that a profile won’t correct bad images, so there is still retouching input required by the user.

Output Profiling – Inkjets

The most common inkjet models are usually improved by creating a profile for that particular machine, ink and paper combination(s). Using the supplied profile can result in a greenish tinge and inconsistency between matte and gloss papers.

A proofer profile is made by printing out a file made up of colour patches with any existing colour management turned off. The print is left to dry, preferably overnight, and then read into the profiling software using a spectrophotometer – basically a densitometer which reads reflective colour. The calculation is made and the profile created.

The profile is then selected within the print window, along with the media type settings which were used to create the profiling sheet. It is very important that the exact same workflow is used, as changes to the media type; brand of paper, or even country of ink manufacture can affect the colour accuracy.