Digital BW, The Print

> 
> Can someone please explain to me what I need an ICC for?
> 
> If I am working in Photoshop Elements and do all of my print workflows
> through there, what is the ICC for? ...

ICCs were developed for color systems so that they would be more uniform in
how they treat color images.  For example, they greatly improved the chances
that what you'd see on the monitor would match what the printer made.

In B&W I'm starting to incorporate ICCs into my workflows.  I use Roy
Harrington's "Create ICC" program to do this.  The ICCs are, I believe, the
easiest way to get a good match between the monitor and the print.  

Because anyone can make these with Roy's program, it allows people to make
custom ICCs for their systems.  A custom ICC that fine tunes your particular
system is generally going to be better than a "canned" one that is made on a
different printer.  You do need a spectrophotometer or at least a flatbed
scanner for this.  I'm now using the ColorVision Print Fix Pro (about $500).
The version I use outputs a text file that can be used by Roy's program and
also can be opened in Excel, which then makes a graph of the output.  That
graph is a very nice way to see what your system is doing.  I'll post a few
examples of this shortly.

I'm also using the ICCs to control the variable tone inksets.  Previously I
used Photoshop curves directly for this.  Now I make the curves and then
embed them into the ICC.  This allows printing from a grayscale file with no
more need to convert to RGB and then apply a curve.  It's an easier
workflow.

This ICC workflow also allows those with Photoshop Elements to use
"profiles" (and the MIS variable tone inksets, for example) even though
Elements does not allow the direct use of curves.  

So, from my perspective, the ICC approach appears to be the easiest way to
get top notch control of inksets.  On the other hand, I still design the
inksets to be useable with no ICCs, additional software, or equipment.  The
UT-3D inkset I'm working on, for example, allows the highest degree of
control of any B&W inkset I've used.  However, I expect most with R220
printers should stay with the simple UT-R2 inkset that does rather well
right out of the box. There is a lot to be said for simplicity.  However,
for perfectionists, the additional control is very nice to have.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com