Help with digital printing

gizmoluva

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Hi all...so I'm new to this photo forum stuff but here goes.
I just purchases Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Paper 308gsm for Inkjet to print my digital photos. My question is, do i need to change what type of profile i assign so that the print matches the screen in adobe photoshop cs?? we don't want to waste any of the paper and so i was hoping someone could help me.
Thanks so much
Gizmoluva
 
try a test on cheap paper, if ok then use the good stuff, as long as your printer can handle the HW paper it should be ok.
 
The paper might have it's own color profile, but then, the printer probably does to, as well as your monitor, and your camera. As suggested, you should probably do some tests on plain paper to see what profile is going to work best. Often times converting the color space to the printer profile works best, but then again, a profile like sRGB might work.
 
The monitor and camera profiles should be dealt with separately from the printer. Your monitor profile is there to make all monitors show the same image the same way. A known good neutral image should look a certain way on your monitor. A camera profile can help you get your image to that neutral state, or if you have a good eye and a calibrated monitor, you can do the adjustments yourself. The printer profile comes in when you print. You assign the ICC to proofing; I wouldn't use it for the color space. This lets you see how this neutral image will print. If the image is off, you tweak it so that it will look good when it prints. You can save it as a print-only image, but you want to keep the original in case you want to display it on the web or print it on a different paper or printer. In that case, you go back to the original and then tweak it to the other profile.

Many of the Hahnemuhle papers are warm, so they will have a bit of a yellowish cast. An ICC profile for that paper will help you see how it will turn out. You may want to dial back some yellow before printing.

You don't mention what printer you are using, but here are some profiles for stock inks from the Hahnemuhle site. Photo Rag is a great paper, but it won't be as vibrant as some papers that have brighteners and such in them. It will outlast them though.
 
Here's the difference paper choice can make in an image.

Neutral image for web:
WhyBW.jpg


Same image, no changes, as printed on Legion Photo Matte using Piezotone Warm/Neutral Quadtone inks on Epson 1280.
WhyLegion10f.jpg


Same image again, printed exactly the same way, except on Hahnemuhle William Turner instead of the Legion paper.
WhyHahn12h.jpg


When I assign the printer/ink/paper combo profile to proofing, I can hit CTRL-Y in Photoshop to switch between viewing the true neutral image and the proofed output image. In this case I didn't need to adjust the image, but it does let me see how the print will look.
 

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