Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "ldina" <lbdina@c...> wrote:
> 
> Roy,
> 
> I have built "proofing profiles" using your 21 step grayscale for 
> QTR.  They seem to do a very good job of simulating what I will get 
> off my printer.  And, so do you new LAB spaces.  Thanks for your 
> great work.
> 
> What is the difference between the two?  

Well I discovered that except for the proofing color any of the soft proofs
seemed to work equally well for my editing.   It makes sense since all the
QTR profiles are linearized to the same Lab scale.

The icc profiles I made with the Eye-One work well but they are kind of time
consuming and particularly space comsuming.   The few soft proofs I have
for downloading are bigger that the total size of everything else put together.
Each profile is about 500K whereas these new generic ones are less than
500 bytes each (yes, 1/1000 the size).   There's also a matter of licensing
I can't distribute profiles made with i1Match software so I just have been 
distributing soft-proofs.

So the new lab space and lab printing profiles are my own and they are
simple, grayscale only, mathematically straight rather than measurements.
Since I can distribute the icc profiles themselves rather than just soft-proofs
they can be used for printing and take advantage of the color management
in Photoshop.

> 
> I'm guessing that your LAB Matte and LAB Photo Paper profiles are 
> generic profiles which eliminate the need to create proofing profiles 
> with a specto and profiling software for those that don't have these 
> tools or don't want to fool with them.  When I use either technique 
> for proofing (checking the Preserve Color Numbers box) the results 

There's basically two approaches for soft-proofing and printing.
The old way without using CMM (color management) is to print without
profiles -- i.e.  Same as Source -- and use the soft proofing to show what
is going to come out.  Here we make the profile but soft-proof with
Preserve Color Numbers.  This says "show me what happens if I don't
use CMM".  You are simulating the print space.

The new way is to use CMM for printing and let the CMM convert your editing
space into the print space on the fly.  You really have no need to soft-proof
anymore (as long as you don't need the color).   If you unclick the Preserve
Color Numbers there's no change in the display.  The regular view is as
good as the soft-proof without any extra work.   Also since you are using the
CMM you can actually deal with any working space not just the gray lab space.

Roy


> are nearly identical.  Both seem to give me great results.  The 21 
> step proofing profile, of course, lets me see the actual color toning 
> of the actual profile.
> 
> Just trying to better understand.
> 
> Thanks, Lou