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Printing RGB photos
I recently had a costumer wanting a series of RGB photos printed – naturally in photo quality. I own a Roland VersaCamm 540V and use a following media and profile:
SG-TR: Semi-Gloss Removable
Target
RGB->AdobeRGB1998
CMYK->Euroscale Coated
Matching:
Raster: Colorimetric
Vector: Colorimetric
Preserve Primary Colors and Use Embedded ICC Profile are both off.I had the advantage of having the files developed from a photo shop on real photo paper, just to match up colors.
All prints turned out to be too dark, too cyan and with too little contrast. A couple of the prints turned out very muddy as if I exceeded the printers gamut.
Anyone having any suggestions? Files come from PSD.
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9 Replies
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how is your printer profiled? custom by yourself?
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this can be really difficult to do…. as you can blame any bit of the process… you said you got a print from a photo print from photo film shop, how did you scan it?
I guess the bottom line will be if the origination comes from a good calibrated source (which maybe carrying an ICC Profile in the PSD) then you output that onto Vinyl where you know the Semi-Gloss removable Printer Profile was measured with an X-Rite device and worked on for things like ink limit and heat etc., then everything should be fine.
Also if the VersaCamm is a CMYK printer (no extra colours) then your not gaining anything with printing RGB, just turn it into CMYK and output it, if it is still off then blame your printer profile being slightly out.
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Just to clarify: I have to admit, that I first screwed up the job. It was a photo shop that delivered some photos (developed on paper) that I had to adhere to some boards. My partner did this, only a lot of air pockets were underneath the photos. So I had to print the images out myself.
Now – I have the developed photos on paper and the original files on a CD. Now I just need to print the files on vinyl so that the colors resemble the ones in the developed photo.
I thought I knew my way around color profiling, and using the generic profile coming with the media I thought I was relatively set.
The printer is a CMYK printer, but converting the photo to CMYK only results in very dull colors. Printing directly from RGB the colors are more saturated, but way off.
I usually use Corel Photopaint to do these operations as I have calibrated my monitor and gets colors on screen as they do on print. I just haven’t been able to do this using my VersaCamm.
When I convert to CMYK, Corel uses some profile to render. Using generic offset Euroscale results in dull desaturated images… Turning color management off seems not to help at all.
If I print directly from the RGB file and turn off the profile in VersaWorks RIP, just printing as is, colors match more, but too much ink is laid down on the vinyl.
The profile, I use is limited to 240% ink and (i think) 80% in Y and M.
I admit, I am not familiar with color management on RIP level.
Anyone?
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I think you are slightly confused as to how color profiling and management works. You cannot use a profile that was created for a monitor as your print profile. The only way to profile the media for your printer itself is to have someone with the tools do it for you, or buy them yourself (not cheap). Software bundles such as Monaco Profiler and Profile Maker 5 and that doesn’t even include the strip reader to scan the printed materials so it can build an accurate profile.
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1. You should put Your Color Management in order. Decide what profiles You like to work in Photoshop, Corel etc.
I would suggest always save Your files with embedded profile and turn the feature on in Versaworks.
If You don’t have that, make sure that the working profile in Photoshop matches the input profile from VersaWorks. If the input profile does not match the file You wnat to print, Your ICC a profile has no value.
2. For raster images I would go with "perceptual" and for vectors with Relative Colorimetric, Absolute Colorimetric or Tone Curve, depending on the types of jobs You are doing.
3. Another thing that could influence Your colors is for what viewing light the profile was made.
Be careful with changing ink limits, as the profile have pyramidal structure and changing anything at the bottom will affect the top, which is the ICC profile. -
Get the profile for your media of your supplier and use that, there will be instructions on how to install it, then print the RGB images.
I’ve never got CMYK jpg’s to print right yet, the colours always come out muddy, however RGB jpg’s come out fine.
Roland also recommend using the RGB colour space for the Versacamm as it’s supposed to have a bigger gamut, never really understood how it would help in the end though as the printer is CMYK.
Steve
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You can sort this problem out later.
For now, to get the job out the door, print directly from Corel. Serious! Its as easy as that. The colours from RGB photos look like it is printed by a photo studio. From RIP it is muddy / faded.When printing, select "best Quality" and "bi-directional printing" Also ajust the head speed to 500mm per sec (I think it is default anyways), and print after previewing to see if page orientation etc. is OK.
I print on a SP300, but results should be the same.
Let us know if you were satisfied with the result
Good luck!
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Gert-> I have actually tried to print directly from Corel Photopaint, but the result was not satisfying. But there might be a huge number of color management stuff, that interacts with this, so I’ll try again..
So far – I have just accepted the results I got (only 2 images out of 9 were unsatisfactory) so I call this job done… Not happy, but done…
Could I email you a mini version of the photo, so that you could try to print it and see if you are satisfied? What is your mail, then?
Best
Peter -
Sorry for the long wait for my reply! Our internet / microwave earth station or something got struck by lightning.
I dont know if i,m allowed to post my e-mail. For what it is worth, her goes: (mod-edit) Mail the photo, and I’ll have a go at it. Please remember e-mail is fairly archaeic in our neck of the woods. If the file is too big, I will have problems opening.
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