On Oct 11, 2011, at 10:57 AM, rhavyn113 wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
> I recently acquired Spyder3Studio SR and am trying to create a printer profile for Canson Infinity Baryta Photographique for my Epson 3800 printer. The problem is there is a magenta/brownish color cast in the resulting profile. I created the profile with both the 2 page EZ targets as well as the 4 page EZ targets with grays. Both seem to be effected by the problem (I only printed the 4 pages though, I'm reusing the 2 color pages for both the 2 page and 4 page profile). The color cast is noticeable both in the proof part of Spyder3Print as well as in Photoshop CS4's soft proof. In CS4, however, the cast is noticeably better if I turn off "Simulate Paper White," but there is definitely still a tint to the image. The nice thing is the prints come out exactly the way they look on screen, the problem is they shouldn't have a magenta color cast. Besides the color cast, however, the profiles look better than the ones Canson provides with both the shadows and highlights having more punch without needing to add a curve like I normally do.
>
> The paper white measures L = 98.45, a = 1.85, b = 0.44 if I just measure a blank piece. In the profile Advanced Editing screen of Spyder3Print lists the Soft Proof white as L = 98, a = 2, b = -0 and black as L = 5, a = 0, b = 1. I'm using Spyder3Print 4.2.1 on Mac OS X 10.7.1. If there is any additional information, screenshots, etc. I can provide I'd be happy to do so.
>
> Thanks,
> --Chris
>
Hi Chris:
The most likely mistake you're making is printing the targets incorrectly. If you print them
wrong (color managed), you get a calibrated target print; which in turn gives you calibrated
measurements (wrong); which in turn result in your building a "do nothing" profile. When
you later try to print through this, with the driver set up properly in uncalibrated mode
(Photoshop pushes all the right buttons for this under the hood), you'll get an uncalibrated
print, which will be: too dark, color cast, etc.
This is what you need to do when you print targets:
- Do it from inside Spyder3Print. Technically, CS4 still allows you to print targets (CS5
has totally removed this as a feature), but I'd still recommend against using CS4 to do that.
Just launch Spyder3Print, select and print your targets that way. The critical steps come
up next, in the OSX print dialog:
- Choose "Epson Color Controls" (not ColorSync!) in the Color Matching pane.
- Choose "Off - No Color Management" in the Epson-specific section
- You need to do BOTH of these things to get a properly printed target, with no color management.
(A common mistake is not to do the first one; ColorSync is the default in all printer drivers;
not switching that setting over to "Epson Color Controls" will produce an incorrectly printed
target that won't build a profile that works correctly.
Reprint your target that way. As soon as the first page comes out, visually compare it to your
existing target print - the new one should be darker and more saturated (which proves that
your first target print is wrong). Let the rest of the pages print; measure again; build
a new profile; it should work correctly now.
Your paper white measurements are fine; don't worry about those. You should just be able to
build a profile that will give you great results without going through the Advanced Editing
process.
If you'd like: you can send me your measurement file from the existing target to look at,
and I could confirm for you by the measurements that it was printed incorrectly, before you
go through the process of reprinting the sheets. To do this:
- Use the File:Open Data command in Spyder3Print to open the folder that contains your measurement
files. They're all small text files with .xml extensions.
- Find the one you've created; select it in the Finder; right-click on it, then Compress, to make
a .zip file out of it; and then email it to me as an attachment, to dmiller@...
David Miller
Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
Datacolor