Adobe® Color Printer Utility to print your targets without color management

[J453]

We've released a new utility called the Adobe® Color Printer Utility to print your targets without color management applied. Details here:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/834/cpsid_83497.html

[Sam4X5]

360 dpi, Windows 7 64 bit.

[Sam4X5]

That is what I suspect too. The utility has been on my computer for quite awhile now, and I have encountered no computer problems. I think it must be safe.

[Sam4X5]

I understand your problem. I am getting great results now with the Epson 3880 thru Photoshop CS5. So I have no need to use the utility now. There is an old saying. If it aint broke don't fix it. That applies to my personal printing which is all I do.

[Was DYP]

I understand your problem.  I am getting great results now with the Epson 3880 thru Photoshop CS5.  So I have no need to use the utility now.  There is an old saying.  If it aint broke don't fix it.  That applies to my personal printing which is all I do.

Are using the null transformation method to print profile targets since printing umanaged targets is not possible with PSCS5 being that the "No Color Management" option in no longer available in PSCS5?

[PaulHolman]

"I understand your problem."

From your contributions to this discussion so far I doubt you have any real understanding of the concept of printing untagged profiling targets, so might I respectfully suggest that you refrain from making any further contributions to this discussion.

There are issues with this utility that need addressing and the defining of those issues is not helped by the interuptions of people that don't understand what the utility was designed to address.

[Was DYP]

Paul

I am wonder if the selected page sizes has anything to do this resizing problem, espically the standard page sizes or custom sizes with margins set higher than zero. When I tested the APCU I always used a custom page size with margins set to zero.

[shawnplouffe.com]

No... I fully understand the issues, I am the director of digital imaging specializing in the photo industry. Large format printing mgt. medium format digital capture and workflow, We set up consult all over the east coast on the matter. We are in fact in the process of talking with india with their engineering team but are at a stand still on the matter. At first was a great resource but since last week I have not had an update. most of the targets we print are through a photo rip "colorburstrip" which is fine when our clients are using the rip but for people that do not have a rip and they are fully CS5 and do not want to use the work around for printing non tagged targets the utility was and is when it gets stable a great thing

As far as your statement of this utility needs addressing I can not agree more. lets hope us the ginny pigs get fed the answers we need. 

)

Shawn Plouffe

[MadManChan2000]

To the best of my knowledge, the resizing happens on Windows only.

On the Mac, resizing does not happen. It is true that the target may not be centered properly, but should be its original size. Depending on the size of the target and the size of the sheet it is being printed on, the current ACPU behavior may cause part of the target to be cut off. For example, this can happen for the iSis targets which cause the diamond indicators to be partially cut off, which in turn leads to issues regarding auto-scanning. Adding a bit of canvas to the left side of the target is a workaround for now.

[KKramer49]

I have tried to use ACPU with two printers over the last 8 months (Epson 1400 and Epson P800) regardless of the printer, I get the same result:  The color grid prints about 4% smaller than they should AND they're off center.  The company I am engaging to make my profiles for two papers tell they have only very rarely seen this.  And they don't have a remedy.  Size and centering are mentioned a few times in this thread, but I don't see a solution.  I tried to rez up the target color grids, but that seems to have caused problems when analyzing the output.  Why, oh why, would the grids not print properly with this Utility on my computer?  And how do I correct it?

[TheDigitalDog]

KKramer49 wrote:

I have tried to use ACPU with two printers over the last 8 months (Epson 1400 and Epson P800) regardless of the printer, I get the same result:  The color grid prints about 4% smaller than they should AND they're off center.  The company I am engaging to make my profiles for two papers tell they have only very rarely seen this.  And they don't have a remedy.  Size and centering are mentioned a few times in this thread, but I don't see a solution.  I tried to rez up the target color grids, but that seems to have caused problems when analyzing the output.  Why, oh why, would the grids not print properly with this Utility on my computer?  And how do I correct it?

I've seen it since day one but it's not been an issue for me, with my auto Spectrophotometer based on how I build my targets. The company you refer to might be using a minimal size for patches and/or a different auto Spectrophotometer and thus, they can't read the targets.

[Neweycoop]

This is also driving me nuts! I am trying to profile an Epson R2000 on a Windows 10 system using an A3+ .tiff

I've Googled the issue and found that it could be a PC only problem.

Has anyone any idea of a work around ADOBE where are you???

[diveandfly]

Hi,

I have download and installed the utility on my Imac (im am fairly new to Mac's), when I try to print Permajet targets on my Epson Pro 4000 i get the following:

On startup I get a warning that the software was downloaded from the net, it happens every time so I have switched the warning off. (not sure if it should do this)

After selecting FILE - PRINT and choosing the printer I get "SETTING COLOR MATCHING MODE -30873" error message

If I click OK it carries on to the printer setup. The printer setting, color management, paper and roll settings are all struck thru and cannot be altered. When you select print the above error message appears again. You can continue through the error message and print the targets. They look ok but are resized to approx 3/4 of the A4 size they should be. Permajet requests the targets to be full size for profiling.

When I close the utility I then have to eject it (as though it were a disk) from the right hand side of the screen.

I removed and reinstalled the program but it made no difference, exactly the same thing happens. I am running Snow leopard and CS4, both of which are fully updated.

My questions are:

1) How do I get rid of the error message?

2) How do I get the targets to print at the correct size?

3) Does the eject issue show a problem with the installation or is this the norm?

Thanks,

Steve.

[gg1904]

Hi

I hve received your email in error; and I think you have come to the wrong guy and I think you should be posting this on the forum. I'm afiaid I am completely clueless when it comes to lightroom.

Sorry I can't help

REgards

[Jasonized-nfnCsn]

qq1904,

  The way the forum works is if you post on a topic, it automatcially includes new posts being sent to your email address.  So the previous posters were not sending you email, they were actual posts on the forum.

You can turn that off if you go into your preferences.

Cheers!

[gg1904]

Jason

Thanks I will do that.

Regards

[shawnplouffe.com]

Adobe is working on this app but they still have no updates at this time.

)

Shawn Plouffe

617.510.9094

[SW Rick]

I am using Max OS 10.6.6 with an Epson 3880, trying to print a profile target.  After installing the ACPU, I open the target, set parameters, hit the Print button, the Epson window opens showing the ink levels in the cartridges, and then nothing happens at the printer.  There is no evidence of a job having been sent to the printer when looking at the 3880 log.  The computer-printer connection is fine, as I printed a page from the Adobe website while agonizing over this.

It would appear there is a some kind of bug in the ACPU.  So there seems to be no way to create the profile target print for use in Photoshop.

[Was DYP]

rnfee wrote:

I am using Max OS 10.6.6 with an Epson 3880, trying to print a profile target.  After installing the ACPU, I open the target, set parameters, hit the Print button, the Epson window opens showing the ink levels in the cartridges, and then nothing happens at the printer.  There is no evidence of a job having been sent to the printer when looking at the 3880 log.  The computer-printer connection is fine, as I printed a page from the Adobe website while agonizing over this.

It would appear there is a some kind of bug in the ACPU.  So there seems to be no way to create the profile target print for use in Photoshop.

Can you answer the questions I posted in #13?

Plus, What version of PS are you running?

Do have the lastest 3880 driver load by doing a clean install of the driver?

[SW Rick]

I cannot find how/where to access CUPS etc., despite searching via google.  I am running CS5, but ACPU is a standalone workaround for CS5 as I understand it.  I just want to print the target with no color management, and am not a programmer.  Seems like it ought not to be this complex, considering CS5 is supposedly designed for photograph printing (as well as other uses).  Printing with No Color Management used to be an option- many photographic printers use custom profiles; this is supposedly a professional program (@ $600 or whatever)- why is it like pulling teeth?

In system prefs, I opened the Print Queue, and sometimes you see the job show up on the queue (1 of 1), other times it never makes it there.  Nothing ever gets beyond that point, whether or not it shows up.

I have the latest driver, which I just installed on this new 3880.  I had spoken with Epson first, and they said all is fine as far as they can tell, given I can print anything else I want.  They suggest if one program out of many won't print, the likely source of the issue is that one program.

So I sent the test pattern file for the profile to my laser printer, and what "printed" was a blank page, just as what you get with using the Preview (print) button.

If someone can give me more info on where to look, I'd be happy to do so.

Thanks

[Alan Goldhammer]

There are still users of this utility that are having problems because the utility does not print targets with absolute fidelity.  Under Win7, 64 bit, I have some ArgyllCMS targets designed for an i1 Pro and the targets are reduced in size by 2.7%.  It appears to me that the utility attempts to center the target whether or not it is centered on the original page.  If I print the target from Photoshop it is the original size but I can only print targets using CS4 because CS5 won't print without color management.  This bug did not affect the ability of the i1 Pro to read the patches but another Argyll user cannot print a patch set DTP20 that is readable.  Does Adobe plan to address this bug in an update?

[ssprengel]

If you haven't done so, already, you might post this over on the Feedback site: http://feedback.photoshop.com/ to see what Adobe says, and if it is any different than what they said last November, which is that they didn't think the resize-bug was a big issue.

What do you mean by the last statement about how another user cannot print a DTP20 patch set that is readable?

[Alan Goldhammer]

Thanks for the suggestion, I will post this at that site as well. The problem with the ACPU is that it reduces the ArgyllCMS patch sets by just under 3%. I don't have any problems with patch sets printed out using ACPU for an i1 Pro since the shrinkage is negligible for purposes of this spectro and I get good reads and resulting profiles. The user with the DTP20 cannot read a row of patches without encountering an error. The thread describing the issue is here: http://www.freelists.org/post/argyllcms/DTP20-Pulse-patch-size-error It may be that the patch size tolerance is so tight that a 3% shrinkage results in unreadable patches. I've printed out patch sets using PS CS5 and you can see the size difference visually. Of course you cannot use CS5 to print out patches for profiling because of the color management issue (I do have CS4 but have not compared readings between patch sets printed out there vs the ACPU; it may be that there is no difference at all).

I hope this explains things a little better.

[shawnplouffe.com]

Adobe does need to address this problem, we at eplevine have brought up thus issue over and over to adobe but it seems adobe is not listening.

)

Shawn Plouffe

617.510.9094

[Phil_Reed]

Hi,

I'm the the Argyll user that Alan refers to with the DTP20.  He very clearly outlines the frustration I've had with Adobe's Color Printer Utility.  Graeme Gill, the author of ArgyllCMS had explained the problem using the DTP20 "Pulse":

"The i1pro & ColorMunki recognize patches from the readings it takes, which is why it needs a distinct contrast between each patch, or a contrasting patch spacer. As a result these instruments won't notice any slight change in scale.

The DTP20 on the other hand has a reference scale on it's ruler so that it knows exact distances. It therefore doesn't need any contrast between the patches, but is likely to be much more sensitive to the exact patch length.'

This seems to be the case.  Additionally it seems more tolerant of wider patches than narrow patches.

Phil

[ssprengel]

As with Alan, I would also suggest you post your concerns on the Adobe feedback site:  http://feedback.adobe.com/ referring to your specific instrument being sensitive to the scalling bug of the Adobe utility.  Hopefully, CS6 will be able to print with no-color-management, again, and we won't have to rely on marginally supported software.