Datacolor User to User Support Group.

Hi!

I have a Canon Inkjet and a Minolta Color Laser. In both printer
drivers, I can not choose a custom ICM profile, but Windows XP has a
"Color Management" tab in the device options for all printers (and
actually all input or output devices). With this, I can set a custom
profile and this is how it works for monitors. So I thought this was
the obvious way to use the ICM profiles.

It seems as if some people are actually using the profiles this way
and it seems to work! So I guess I will just wait until the PrintFix
Pro Suite arrives and then simply test all possible ways to assign
profiles. A comparison of the print results should bring some light
into this mystery ;-)

Regards,

Martin Hoefler
> 
> At one time drivers allowed the use of third party profiles, but
these days 
> they do not, so you have no choice but to assign custom profiles
elsewhere. If 
> you asked the printer manufacturers why, they would come up with
reasons like 
> it being to confusing to the end user to have to choose among
profiles, or 
> that they could not be responsible for corruption and errors caused
by third 
> party profiles. But one could point out that it also gives the
manufacturers the 
> upper hand in getting users to use their own media and inks, since
those are 
> automatically supported. 
> 
> Either way, this is a choice made by the manufacturers, and
complaints are 
> unlikely to change it, so you'll have to live with it. One related
complaint is 
> that it means that you can't print via profiles from non-color
managed apps, 
> but you really can't do that very effectively anyways, as such apps
don't 
> assign source profiles, and one ends up with a default guess as to
what conversion 
> to perform, since there is no "from" to use with the "to" of the
printer 
> profile. Rendering intent ends up being a default as well.
> 
> C. David Tobie
> Product Technology Manager
> ColorVision Business Unit
> Datacolor Inc.
> CDTobie@...
> www.colorvision.com
>