Printing images and color profiles

[Chris Saper]

I've copied Holly's post here (from http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...8663#post38663) so that it will be easier to find for those interested.

Color Spaces


When every digital image file is viewed, there's a color space that your software package (Photoshop, PaintShop Pro, etc.) uses to display the information in a file as colors. There's a second color space that defines how the information in the digital file will be translated to any particular ink/paper combination for printing. So how an image is displayed in software is not how it will print.

How your image is displayed will depend on what you have your color space set to in your Nikon (some other digital cameras have color space settings also). The RGB color space setting attaches a color space profile (.icc file) to the digital image file, which will be read and applied in Photoshop and Nikon Capture, but very possibly not Nikon View. I haven't tried either of the Nikon software packages, but Nikon View may just be a simple application, and not set up for dealing with the complexity of color spaces. Or, if you're using a different color space setting on the camera, which doesn't attach a profile, try changing the default working space in Photoshop. I don't have the full Photoshop, only Elements, which only has three choices for color space in the Edit menu under Color Settings. I'm sure there's a similar setting in Nikon Capture.

For printing, either you can use the settings in your print driver, i.e. choosing the type of paper, etc. This will use the color space defined by the manufacturer for your particular printer/ink/paper, and is how the majority of people print, as it usually produces adequate results. Or, if you have had your printer/paper combination calibrated with a hardware/software package, in Photoshop Elements you can use color management in the Print Preview dialogue and attach the color space (.icc file) that the calibration produced. I'm sure it's similar for the full version of Photoshop. If you're getting excellent printed results, I would guess that you're using a specific calibrated icc profile for your printer/paper, unless perhaps you're lucky enough that the default color space defined by the manufacturer for your printer driver is excellent. A side note: if you're attaching a color space profile for printing in Photoshop, you have to turn off the color adjustment settings in your printer driver (exactly how depends on the driver) so that you're not double-profiling. Double-profiling, essentially telling the printer to use two different color spaces, can produce pretty funky results!

Anyway, that may be more than you wanted to know, and maybe this isn't appropriate to post this in your thread, but I hope it's helpful.

Holly
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Holly Snyder-Samson
www.artsci.us