Workflow problem regarding matching an HP Indigo

General Color & Graphics Printer Calibration & Profiling
1

Hey all,

Running into a bit of a brick wall trying to replicate the color behaviour of an HP Indigo on an HP z6100. I have IT8 targets for a particular media printed on the Indigo using the different dot gain curves, and I’ve scanned those in with an Xrite Isis using Colorport then created the profile within Monaco using pretty typical limits and black generation curves.

I then open up the test file within Photoshop CS4 and Convert the color space to the profile that I created from the Indigo data, essentially setting it as the source profile. I print it directly out of Photoshop and tell Photoshop to manage colors (both in the CS4 window and within the printer driver window) and tell it to use a custom output profile I created for the 6100.

No matter what source profile I use, my output hardly varies and will not match the Indigo’s output. Has anyone else attempted something similar? Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

2

It sounds like you might be double- or even triple- profiling while printing. When printing using a printer profile, you want to apply the profile in only one place, at one time in your workflow. From what you described, you applied the profile:

  • 1st when you converted your test file to the profile,
  • 2nd when you printed it out of PS and told PS to manage the colors (it would use a profile in printing if you tell it to manage the colors)
  • 3rd if you told the printer driver to also manage the colors.

Generally the best industry practice recommends that you only use #2 above: Have PS manage the colors / apply the profile - and turn off any color management in the driver.

If there is still no change, this would be a perfect opportunity to use one of our testing profiles mentioned in our newsletter a while back:

http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/Stunt_Profiles