[argyllcms] printer profiling best practice
- From: Anders Torger <torger@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: argyllcms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 11:04:30 +0100
Hello,
I just got myself a Canon Pixma Pro-1 printer (12 pigment inks) and
like to start experimenting with printer profiles. I've done quite a
lot of reading on forums etc, and understand that what you do with this
type of printer is that you calibrate the printer+paper+driver as a
whole and see it as an RGB device. Concerning the remaining workflows
there are many vastly different opinions though.
My application is "fine art printing" of my own photos, so absolute
color accuracy is not *that* important, it's more important that
gradients are smooth, contrast predictable etc. Hue accuracy needs to
be good enough so I don't run into surprises when I print, ie it's
feasible to fine-tune colors on my Argyll-calibrated monitor, print and
get a good match.
Argyll is extremely flexible and you can make your workflow as
complex as you'd like. On the forums there are very different views on
how complex you should make them. Some print like 3000 patches, after
preconditioning, and then add some extra patches manually etc. Some
think it's better to use fewer patches.
As far as I understand these modern pigment ink jets are much more
linear than printers used to be, so you should be able to get away
with fewer patches.
I'm thinking about a workflow with 500 - 700 patches, single-pass (ie
no preconditioning). My rationale is that as the printers are more
linear today and I don't need the highest end in terms of hue accuracy
it should be enough, and I'm also thinking that with fewer patches it's
more likely that the resulting profile will render gradients smoothly.
What would you recommend?
/Anders
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