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Editing an ICC profile
December 6, 2007
I have a Xerox/Tektronix laser printer in my home office, a printer touted for its clever color capabilities. I’ve been the owner of two previous models of Tektronix printers, and each of them has performed acceptably.
I occasionally build an ICC profile for the printer/paper that I use, a profile I apply when I print from InDesign and Illustrator. Despite the quality of the profile, though, I often find that the results are “too dark” compared to the view I have on my computer displays. The colors are accurate, but the overall impact of the page is that it’s slightly too dark. This is an entirely emotional response to the output of the printer.
This is the view of my sample image in the Profile Editor. The highlighed area at the top-left shows the original image, while the balance of the photo is shown as-modified.
The solution to this “too dark” problem is to edit the ICC profile, an easy task using X-Rite’s
ProfileMaker Pro software. I use this software often, and I am always impressed. The process is quite easy. I load a color image as a reference – I chose this image of hot-air balloons because it has most of the colors present in vibrant values. Subtle changes are quite obvious in this image.
Using the Gradations control, I can adjust the behavior of my ICC profile by reducing the value of the mid-tones. This is a simple modification to the profile that does not affect hues, but which makes the values uniformly lighter.component of the ProfileMaker software allows global color correction, specific tonal adjustment, and gradations controls. It is this gradation control I use to make changes to my profiles for the laser printer. The control is parabolic, allowing me to make a subtle non-linear adjustment to the overall value of colors generated by the profile, and the results are perfect. After I generate the changes, I save a new version of the profile, apply it, and my printed pages look much better. The colors are still accurate, but the pages are, overall, lighter. I am, overall, happier.
Posted by Brian Lawler on December 6, 2007 | Comments (0)
