Printing in Photoshop

[Gerrys]

Need some help.

The craggy subject of printing in photoshop using Photoshop to manage colours.

Can somebody give me the schoolboy process to allow me to proceed to get best colour matching.

.Using a Hahnemulhe textured paper (I have the ICC profile).

From opening the image to hitting the print button what steps do I need to take to make certain I get best possible match to the original RAW processed image. 

For tech purposes using 2019 iMac 5K Retina screen colour Munki calibrated. Using PS 21.0.2 version.

I want to understand (again: time laspses in between printing and a foggy memory) if I have to alter colour profiles from sRGB to the ICC profile or just print in the sRGB space and di I need Adobe Color printer utility which Photoshop keeps prompting me to load (now downloaded and added to applications).

Any help on this would be sincerely grateful.

Thanks in advance Gerard. 

[PECourtejoie]

Hello, quickly, did you check https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/printing-color-management-photoshop1.html and  computer-darkroom.com 's recommended settings?

If you are printing from raw, it is sad to restrict colors to sRGB, too... a wider profile, in 16 bits might get you closer to your printable colors.

[davescm · Accepted solution]

In colour settings make sure you have these checked

That will make sure that Photoshop uses the colour profile embeded in your document

When printing use File > Print and select "Photoshop manages Colours" and the correct Profile for your printer and paper combination

In your printer - make sure colour management is off and that the paper settings are as advised by your paper manufacturer

That is it. Nothing to convert - colour management is simple if you let it do it's job. You only need the Adobe Colour Print Utility if you make your own profiles.

If you want to read a bit more , try this:

Colour Management simple explanation

Digital images are made up of numbers. In RGB mode, each pixel has a number representing Red, a number representing Green and a Number representing Blue. The problem comes in that different devices can be sent those same numbers but will show different colours. To see a demonstration of this, walk into your local T.V. shop and look at the different coloured pictures – all from the same material.

To ensure the output device is showing the correct colours then a colour management system needs to know two things.

1. What colours do the numbers in the document represent? 
This is the job of the document profile which describes the exact colour to be shown when Red=255 and what colour of white is meant when Red=255, Green = 255 and Blue =255. It also describes how the intermediate values move from 0 through to 255 – known as the tone response curve (or sometimes “gamma”).
Examples of colour spaces are (Adobe RGB1998, sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
With the information from the document profile, the colour management system knows what colour is actually represented by the pixel values in the document.

2. What colour will be displayed on the printer/monitor if it is sent certain pixel values?
   This is the job of the monitor/printer&paper profile. It should describe exactly what colours the device is capable of showing and, how the device will respond when sent certain values.
   So with a monitor profile that is built to represent the specific monitor (or a printer profile built to represent the specific printer, ink and paper combination) then the colour management system can predict exactly what colours will be shown if it sends specific pixel values to that device.
   
   So armed with those two profiles, the colour management system will convert the numbers in the document to the numbers that must be sent to the device in order that the correct colours are displayed.
   
   

So what can go wrong :

1. The colours look different in Photoshop, which is colour managed, to the colours in a different application which is not colour managed.
   This is not actually fault, but it is a commonly raised issue. It is the colour managed version which is correct – the none colour managed application is just sending the document RGB numbers to the output device regardless without any conversion regardless of what they represent in the document and the way they will be displayed on the output device.
   
   
2. The colour settings are changed in Photoshop without understanding what they are for.
   This results in the wrong profiles being used and therefore the wrong conversions and the wrong colours.
   If Photoshop is set to Preserve embedded profiles – it will use the colour profile within the document.
   
   
3. The profile for the output device is incorrect.
   The profile should represent the behaviour of the device exactly. If the wrong profile is used it will not. Equally if the settings on the device are changed in comparison to those settings when the profile was made, then the profile can no longer describe the behaviour of the device. Two examples would be using a printer profile designed for one paper, with a different paper. A second example would be using a monitor profile but changing the colour/contrast etc settings on the monitor.
   The monitor profile is set in the operating system (in Windows 10 that is under Settings>System>Display >Advanced) which leads to a potential further issue. Operating system updates can sometimes load a different monitor profile, or a broken profile, which no longer represents the actual monitor.

Colour management is simple to use provided the document profile is correct, always save or export with an embedded profile, and the monitor/printer profile is correct. All the math is done in the background.

I hope that helps

Dave

[PECourtejoie]

Also: what is the color printer utility you mentioned? and which printer is it?

[davescm]

It sounds like this utility https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/no-color-management-option-missing.html and is only needed to print targets without any colour management when making your own profiles. It is not needed if using a paper manufacturers profile.

Dave

[D Fosse]

Yes, exactly. Not to be used for normal printing.

Nice post up there, Dave. That should set the record straight 🙂

[davescm]

Thank you Dag 🙂

[gener7]

Same here, I need to print it out and frame it. 🙂 (PDF does nicely)

Gene

[PECourtejoie]

Wow, that's one from the archives of the XFiles... 😉

[Gerrys]

Thank you Dave. Problem solved! Have a nice day.