Datacolor User to User Support Group.

******** Using Custom Printer Profiles ********

- Using the profile in Photoshop: Use View:Proof Setup:Custom
to softproof through the profile, prior to printing. Select
your profile, check Preview, use the Saturation intent; do NOT
check "Preserve Color Numbers" (doing this shows you what the
image would look like if printed without color management, the
same way that you'd printed your target; this is useful as an
expert test, to see the darkness, saturation, and color cast
of the uncalibrated printer, but it won't show you what the
image will look like when printed).

- In CS2, use "Print with Preview" to Print. In CS3, use "Print".
Show the Color Management controls in that dialog, select
"Photoshop Manages Colors", select the printer profile beneath
that, and then the other controls to match how you'd set them
for softproofing (above).

- In Elements and Lightroom, there is NO ability to softproof.
This will somewhat limit your ability to get exact
screen-to-print matching, since softproofing shows you any
slight changes in color (from out-of-gamut colors) and
brightness (sometimes none, sometimes slight) that may occur
when you're actually printing through the profile. This isn't
a flaw in our profiles; it's a limitation of how those two
programs work. Lightroom is a professional tool and hopefully,
softproofing will show up there in a future version. In
Elements,use the color management controls in the Print dialog
to apply the profile, similar to the description for CS2 and
CS3 above, and then set up the printer driver properly, as
described below. In Lightroom, there are similar controls in
the Print module; it's a little less obvious; you have to
manually add custom printer profiles, including those you've
created yourself, to the Profile list. All the way at the
bottom of the Print module (scroll down, on the right side of
the window), open the Color Management section, click on
Profile, select Other..., and then select the profile. This
will add it to the list that shows up in the Profile control.
THEN, choose THAT profile, instead of "Managed by Printer",
and choose the Saturation intent beneath that. Then (again,
as below), make sure that color management is turned off in
the driver when you print.

- When you continue to print, you HAVE to MAKE SURE that the
printer driver settings are configured exactly as they were when
you printed the target. These driver settings usually do NOT STICK
between prints, or Photoshop sessions, and you should check them
before doing each and every print. In Windows,  you'll need to
select your printer, click on the button to see it's
preferences/properties, and then go through the dialog/tabs etc
to make sure they're correct (if not, change them). In OSX,
you'd do the same thing with the Print Settings and Color
Management panes in the OSX printer dialog. For both operating
systems, there should be controls that  you can use to save all
of your printer driver settings into a named "preset" in the
driver, so that a single command will let you switch them all
back into effect again.




David Miller
Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
Colorvision