[argyllcms] RGB Printer Profiling / Issues with Blacks and Shadows

Hello there.

On my quest to find a affordable solution which lets me use my 1ipro-Instrument 
also with OS X Lion, i've stumbled upon ArgyllCms.
Which will hopefully also be supported on OS X Lion some time in the future; 
something Xrite obviously isn't willing/able to do for my existing software 
Eye-One Match 3. At least not for an reasonable amount of money.

Ironically, I'm facing the same problems which I already had to deal with when 
I started working with Eye-One Match 3 some years back.
Luckily, i found this article
 http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/i1GamutMapping/index.html
which unveiled a hidden feature within the software allowing me to get the 
results I intended.


First some details about my working environment:

OS: Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8)
Instrument: Gretag/Xrite eye-one-Pro, Rev. D
Printer: Epson Stylus Pro 3800
Paper/Media type: Epson Enhanced Matte Paper
Color Matching Settings in printer driver while printing test charts: Epson 
Color controls
Color Settings in Epson printer driver while printing test charts: Off (No 
Color Adjustment)
ArgyllCMS: latest version, 1.3.3

For all my testing I use the A4 printer evaluation image from Uwe Steinmüllers 
site.
It can be downloaded here (scroll down to the bottom of the page):
 http://www.outbackprint.com/printinginsights/pi048/essay.html
My version is converted to my working color space, which is ProPhotoRGB, but 
besides that, i didn't change anything in the file. I'm doing all the soft 
proofing and printing from Apple Aperture, using the profiles generated with 
Eye-One Match and ArgyllCms. Aperture offers the render intents Perceptual and 
Relative Colorimetric, with and without Black Point Compensation.


For creating my very first ArgyllCms profiles, I used the steps described in 
this post:
 
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=53408.msg436392#msg436392
Except that I went with the ProPhotoRGB source profile instead of AdobeRGB.
Since the author of this post created a profile for the Hahnemuehle Bamboo 
paper, which I also use from time to time, I figured this would be a good 
starting point.
Except that I'm using Epson Enhanced Matte paper at the moment. Mainly for 
going easy on the budget while tampering with a new software and cranking out 
tons of test prints. ;)


And finally the problem:

When I print the evaluation image mentioned above, I don't get the blacks and 
shadow details I'm looking for on this matte paper. The problem already shows 
up in the softproof view of Aperture and remains when the (matte black) ink 
hits the paper.
In the attached image, I've tried to visualize the problem. It contains a crop 
from the bottom left corner of the evaluation image with different profiles and 
render intent settings.


Image explanations and comments from top to bottom:

1) Profile created with Eye-One Match 3, set to "NewGamutMapping L0.3" using 
the trick in the article I've mentioned at the beginning.
The render intent was set to "Perceptual" which always seemed to give me the 
results I've wanted in the past years using profiles created this way.

Blacks: With this profile/setting combination the maximum possible Dmax with 
the used ink/paper combination can be reached.
A crucial criteria, as everyone printing on matte Fine Art Papers probably 
figured out.

Shadow separation: pretty good; on a printed sample, I'am able to distinguish 
between patch no. 10 from the surrounding black with ease. 


2)  Profile created with ArgyllCMS. Render intent: Perceptual.

Blacks: lousy, as one can see in the image, the black is more of a very dark 
grey, than really black.
I didn't bother measuring the Dmax since this is obviously pretty far away from 
what this print/ink/paper combination is able to deliver.

Shadow separation: slightly better than with 1) but with black being dark grey 
not really a surprise.


3)  Profile created with ArgyllCMS. Render intent: Relative Colorimetric, Black 
Point Compensation ON

Blacks: as lousy as with 2), on paper even worse
I didn't bother measuring the Dmax since this is obviously pretty far away from 
what this print/ink/paper combination is usually able to deliver.

Shadow separation: slightly worse than with 2)


4) Profile created with ArgyllCMS. Render intent: Relative Colorimetric, Black 
Point Compensation OFF

Blacks: great, that's the way I like it. But only on paper, in the soft proof 
view, I see little difference while turning BPC on and off.

Shadow separation: not really existent, on paper, even patch no. 24 isn't 
really separated from the surrounding black!


Besides those findings, I have to mention, that everything else is as expected.
Good color match to (eye-One Match calibrated) screens, nice saturation etc.
For my eyes, the color looks best with Relative Colorimetric and BPC turned off.
But this has also to do with the darker blacks and therefore more contrast in 
the print.

A little side note: When I use Apples Color Sync Utility to compare the two 
profiles mentioned here, the ArgyllCMS profile never reaches the bottom of the 
given space, as the eye-One profile does. Seems there is a connection between 
what i'm struggling with and what ColorSync shows. Or ist this just 
coincidence? Am I confusing two different things here?

Whatever.
At the moment i'm _really_ looking for deep, really dark blacks the way I get 
them with sample 4) but with the shadow details on a level close (or even 
better) to the ones in 1).
I've played around for hours with different settings, searching the internet, 
performing all kinds of CMS voodoo rituals I'm aware of; but non luck.
Still stuck to "not-really-black" blacks and lousy shadow separation.

Any help out there?
Someone else must have seen this before or am I going mad?
Thanks for _any_ help in advance!

Cheers
Andreas Hebeisen



P.S. For those who want to analyze my issue, you can download the ti3-File and 
the created ICC-Profile from this URL:
  http://home.ggaweb.ch/files/mail/2011/2011-08-01_profiles.zip
I've also included the mentioned ICC-Profile I created with Eye-One Match 3 for 
the same printer/paper/ink combination.

The attached images are also downloadable from there in the original resolution:
  
http://home.ggaweb.ch/files/mail/2011/Profile-Comparisons-by-Print+Softproof-Preview-in-Aperture.jpg
  http://home.ggaweb.ch/files/mail/2011/ColorSync_Profile_Comparison.jpg

image/jpg

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