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December 1, 2010
Question

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

  • December 1, 2010
  • 13 replies
  • 74103 views

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

    13 replies

    M
    M xx
    Participant
    October 10, 2025

    I have recently upgraded to Tahoe 26.0 on my mac mini and now cannot open the adobe color print utiliy in order to create custom profiles for printing. Could you please advise if there is a way around this. I need it for my work as a photographer.

    M
    Marnix35001056qh80
    Participant
    January 6, 2025

    Unfortunately this "application" applies anti-aliasing to the print.

    Why would anyone think that that is a good idea.  The application should allow you to print without anti-aliasing so as not to influence the colors of the image.

     

    D
    david k
    Inspiring
    November 15, 2018

    It seems there are quite a few issues with this program - including not being able to set margins and issues with scaling - which have never been addressed or fixed.

    It seems one reason might be that adobe feels, 'well, this utility is just for printing color targets so we don't need to fix the bugs - people can live with them,' or some similar sentiment.

    One problem with this is some of us use it for more than printing targets. For example, some of us want to print 'digital negatives' (transparencies) with no color management, and not being able to set the margins or having the utility randomly re-scale an image are big issues.

    Therefore some bug fixes would be very helpful.

    T
    Ted Brown
    Participant
    June 19, 2020

    Come on Adobe, complaints about this app for years, I can't even open the app with mac os Mojave, are you going to do anything about this. An app made in 2010 is no good what so ever with todays systems

    A
    adann
    Inspiring
    September 12, 2011

    Will this work with Lightroom and if not, do you have a similar utility for LR3?

    R
    ricksz
    Participant
    September 7, 2011

    My  issue w/the ACPU is that it does not seem to print accurate colors when comparing test charts printed from i1 Match and the ACPU. The ACPU prints are noticably lighter and less saturated looking.

    D
    diveandfly
    Participant
    September 7, 2011

    I am out of the office until the 8th of September and will respond to emails then.

    P
    Phil_Reed
    Participant
    August 22, 2011

    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
    ssprengel
    Inspiring
    August 22, 2011

    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.

    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    August 22, 2011

    Andrew,

    Argyll can print out in user defined resolution. All my targets are 100ppi and I've confirmed this in Photoshop. I'm not sure rescaling will help on this.

    Alan


    Alan, the point is ACPU’s bug is somehow related to output resolution as far as I can see. I’ve output targets of differing sizes and resolution and thus far, the size (40pixels per cm) hasn’t caused any scaling issues. 41 or 39 (or something else?) can’t say. It would certainly be useful to test in terms of reporting to Adobe.

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    A
    Alan Goldhammer
    Participating Frequently
    August 19, 2011

    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
    ssprengel
    Inspiring
    August 20, 2011

    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?

    A
    Alan Goldhammer
    Participating Frequently
    August 20, 2011

    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.

    S
    SW Rick
    Inspiring
    March 18, 2011

    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
    Was DYP
    Inspiring
    March 18, 2011

    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?

    S
    SW Rick
    Inspiring
    March 18, 2011

    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

    D
    diveandfly
    Participant
    February 24, 2011

    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.

    G
    gg1904
    Inspiring
    February 24, 2011

    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

    J
    Jasonized
    Participating Frequently
    February 25, 2011

    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!

    P
    PaulHolman
    Participating Frequently
    December 22, 2010

    Will the rseizing bug ever be fixed ? or do Adobe think this isn't important ?

    Sam4X5
    Sam4X5
    Participating Frequently
    December 23, 2010

    I think they will get around to fixing it because resizing errors could indicate a corrupt file or a virus. This could cause many computer knowledgeable people to have concern. Sam

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