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NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
NB, colourmanagementCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 2, 2017
Answered

editing icc output profiles

  • February 2, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 6671 views

Hi guys,

This is probably one for you Andrew ';~}

Is anyone still editing icc profiles? I'm fully aware that the received wisdom is "garbage in garbage out" so that editing is generally only needed in the case of poor characterisation data.

But there is a place perhaps where a clever edit tool might really help. When printer profiles (especially for OBA paper) are in for Photoshop's view / softproof / custom / paper white simulation option.

As an example the profile "coated GRACoL 2006 (ISO 12647-2:2004)" [part of the photoshop installation] and the newer CGATS21_CRPC6 V2.icc both give quite a bluish preview when Photoshop's simulate paper white is invoked. It's not a great match for the paper itself.

So we could edit the A2B intent which would not affect the RGBx.icc  > CMYKx.icc conversion (that needs to be left alone), just CMYKx.icc > RGBdisplay.icc, basically. Could be useful for places where a really good match is needed. Just for softproofing though, since that A2B table in the printer profile is also used within printed proofing, care is needed not to use a softproof adapted profile with a tweaked white point there

I saw this useful piece from Andrew, the digitaldog, but it's referencing old software unfortunately http://digitaldog.net/files/11FineTuningICCprofiles.pdf .

From what I can see Kodak's old Photoshop plug-in [Kodak ColorFlow Custom Color Tools v3.1] which I did rather like using, is gone now. There seems to perhaps be something similar in the new Kodak "Colorflow" but that seems a rather heavy duty toolkit for this small job.

Gretag's Profilemaker could have done it too, but it went with OSX 10.7 I believe. As could Monaco's profiler (but only with Monaco profiles).

So all the apps seem to be gone ';~} and for softproofing tune-ups, a capable editor would be really useful.

Or maybe Adobe could put a slider there in Photoshop's view / softproof / custom section for varying degrees of white point simulation.

IccProfLib: Main Page one option I guess?

thanks for reading

neilB

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer TheDigitalDog

I no longer edit profiles and when I have to (for example, to fix the bug/scum dot issue with older MonacoPROFILER CMYK profiles) I use a very very old MacBook running Kodak's software.

2 replies

S
SasquatchPatch
Participating Frequently
February 3, 2017

Of course, the best tool for this job is and has been the Edit module in Gretag's ProfileMaker Professional. You can easily edit whatever portion of the profile you want with tools that actually make sense and not the tools in Ps, which are designed for image editing, not profile editing. The only caveat is that you'll need a Snow Leopard boot in order to run ProfileMaker and, not sure if it's worth it to buy a dongle to make this work. While I rarely need to do this, when I do, this tool is super easy and very intuitive to use. Editing any white point value is going to be a trial and error approach as the smallest changes make big visible difference - quite the opposite of the shadow end of the spectrum.

NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
NB, colourmanagementCommunity ExpertAuthor
Community Expert
February 4, 2017

Hi SasquatchPatch,

Yes, the gretag profilemaker pro 5 edit module is an option, but as you mention, it was discontinued a long long time ago.

Personally I do have a macbook with 10.6.8 to run PM5 and Monaco profiler (yeah, I have the dongles) but that's not an option in the "modern" OSX world.

thanks, though.

TheDigitalDog
TheDigitalDog
Inspiring
February 4, 2017

FWIW an old MacBook just to run old software is dirt cheap on eBay! I got one a few years ago for $150. I suspect even less today.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 2, 2017

An alternative approach is to handle this with different calibration targets, to match different papers and press conditions.

In other words - monitor white point is set to visually match paper white, and monitor black point is set to visually match max ink density. This means document white should just map directly to monitor RGB 255/255/255. The softproofing stage just deals with out-of-gamut and nothing else.

You'll have to be able to handle multiple targets/profiles in the calibration software, but this is very simple in NEC Spectraview, Eizo ColorNavigator and probably also in BasICColor.

Here's how it looks in ColorNavigator. Note the different white and black points:

I even have one "make it look like sh*t"-target - this is used for a certain uncoated paper stock with PSO Uncoated ISO12647 (eci), and gives a surprisingly good visual match.

    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDogCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    February 2, 2017

    I no longer edit profiles and when I have to (for example, to fix the bug/scum dot issue with older MonacoPROFILER CMYK profiles) I use a very very old MacBook running Kodak's software.

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    NB, colourmanagement
    Community Expert
    NB, colourmanagementCommunity ExpertAuthor
    Community Expert
    February 2, 2017

    Andrew,

    yeah, thanks

    I found my copy of Kodak's Custom Color Software - VERY old Mac stuff for sure.

    Wasn't software lovely back then, requires 8MB RAM ';~}

    have a good week

    n

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