Color profiles for printing

[crimbfighter]

I'm trying to get more into printing, and I'm still swimming around without direction on what I'm doing with picking color profiles for printing. When printing from LR5, should I be choosing the color profile that was created by my monitor calibrator, or should I be picking the color profile of the particular photo paper (supplied by the printer manufacturer) I'm using? When I pick the color profile that my monitor is using, it produces the closest colors, but they're still a bit different than my monitor displays.

Or what about just picking the media type in the printer dialog box and letting the printer manage the color profile?

For those of you who print a lot, and proficiently, what do you do?

 

[julesoille]

Hi there
Don't stick with one colour profile as Printers and Monitors fall out of calibration; it is good that you calibrate them every few weeks to keeps them inline. Look at the Spider 3 as an option to help you with this task
Datacolor Spyder4ELITE - Professional Monitor Calibration - Datacolor Imaging Solutions

The Monitor and Printer should produce images that assume about 5000 Kelvin (the whites are pure and neutral) and they should be about the same. Please note: your monitor is a backlit RGB device; the printer is a CMYK device. Both devices have different colour spectrums so be a little flexible in what you see in the final output. (colours like forest green are a pointed example)

Finally, to further help you with accurate colour, use a grey card. I blog about it here at: How to white balance an image in Photoshop CS5+ for Photography | Jules Design | Photography | Video | Marketing

I hope that helps

 

[KmH]

Are you soft-proofing in LR 5? Soft proofing in Lightroom 5 - Bing
Do you have a wide gamut computer display?
What printer are you using?

Generally, you want to let the printer manage color, not LR.

The print can never exactly match your computer display for a couple of reasons. I'll reiterate what Jules has said in a slightly different way.
1. Your display is back lit while a print is fore lit.
2. Your display uses the additive RGB color model, while a print is made using the subtractive CMYK color model.

If you don't already have them I recommend these books:
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers

 

[crimbfighter]

Thank you both for the replies!

Hi there
Don't stick with one colour profile as Printers and Monitors fall out of calibration; it is good that you calibrate them every few weeks to keeps them inline. Look at the Spider 3 as an option to help you with this task
Datacolor Spyder4ELITE - Professional Monitor Calibration - Datacolor Imaging Solutions

The Monitor and Printer should produce images that assume about 5000 Kelvin (the whites are pure and neutral) and they should be about the same. Please note: your monitor is a backlit RGB device; the printer is a CMYK device. Both devices have different colour spectrums so be a little flexible in what you see in the final output. (colours like forest green are a pointed example)

Finally, to further help you with accurate colour, use a grey card. I blog about it here at: How to white balance an image in Photoshop CS5+ for Photography | Jules Design | Photography | Video | Marketing

I hope that helps

I actually do calibrate my monitor, usually once every 3-4 weeks, and it's target for calibration is 5000K. Thanks for the link to your blog. I haven't had a chance yet to read through it, but it's on my list!

Are you soft-proofing in LR 5? Soft proofing in Lightroom 5 - Bing
Do you have a wide gamut computer display?
What printer are you using?

Generally, you want to let the printer manage color, not LR.

The print can never exactly match your computer display for a couple of reasons. I'll reiterate what Jules has said in a slightly different way.
1. Your display is back lit while a print is fore lit.
2. Your display uses the additive RGB color model, while a print is made using the subtractive CMYK color model.

If you don't already have them I recommend these books:
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers

Thanks for the reply, Keith. I think I'll pick up those books.

To answer your questions, I have a high end Dell wide gamut monitor, which is calibrated. I used to print on an HP all-in-one photo printer, but I recently purchased a Canon PIXMA PRO-100. Which, by the way, produces AMAZING prints! I'm so glad I jumped to a purpose built photo printer. I don't currently soft proof, so perhaps I need to educate myself on it's benefits and start..

Now, you mention letting the printer manage the color is usually the better option, but when I choose the option in the LR to let the printer manage color, the prints come out WAY off. Far more so than if I choose the color profile my monitor is using. Any idea why that might be?

Ok, so lastly, accepting there will be slight differences in color between what's on my monitor and what comes out in print, what should I be using as a gauge to determine if the differences I'm seeing are within normal variations, or something that I should be addressing with color adjustments? I simply have no frame of reference to know what is normal and what is not, with respect to colors...

 

[webestang64]

My monitor is a Lacie 324 with calibration unit. Once I have a color profile set I recalibrate once a month.

I print on a Epson 9900 and use Imageprint 9 Rip.......no matter what paper I use, I set the profile and print through IP-9 and the image looks the same on any paper as well as matching my monitor.

 

[KmH]

Don't use the color profile your display uses.

Use the color profile that is appropriate for the output - sRGB for electronic display, the web, and most prints.
Check to see if your printer can handle the wider color gamut of Adobe RGB.
Some of the online pro labs can also handle Adobe RGB.