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Color Management for Photographers #007

The Art and Science of Printer Profiling

Part I

note by Giorgio Trucco (1/14/2005)

 

 
 

I have completed the first of two articles focused on printer profiling.

This first article covers some of the theoretical and practical aspects of profiling RGB printers, while the second article will describe how to edit and possibly improve printer profiles.
The articles are written with the avid and demanding reader in mind and they dig deep into a topic that remains a mistery for many users.
All the fundamental concepts behind the most common options of the best profiling softwares available are analized and explained in an easy to understand language.

Below are presented two previews of what’s inside the first technical article.



The Testchart, an untagged RGB file, is sent to the printer through the printer driver. Once printed, the Testchart is measured with a color measurement instrument (either a colorimeter or, better, a spectrometer) to measure the resulting CIELab colors. The set of RGB-CIELab color pairs is then used to build the profile.


Don’t miss the opportunity to finally get familiar with the most intricate concepts of Color Management priciples applied to the Art and Science of Printer Profiling.



Locations of the 64 color patches within the RGB cube. The cube is evenly divided into 27 smaller cubes with each of the vertices representing a sample color of the testcharts.

 

Due to its length (14 pages), the full article is available for download only, in PDF format. You can find the full article here (PDF) or at Giorgio’s website.

About Giorgio Trucco

Giorgio Trucco is a GretagMacbeth ProfileMaker Beta Tester.
Giorgio is also a photographer based in California, where he relocated from Italy to pursue his interests in Wildlife and Landscape Photography.
A free-lance photographer and a Color Management Consultant and Trainer, Giorgio is available for any questions regarding this article and all other aspects of Color Management.
His website can be found at http://www.gt-photography.com
His email is: giorgio@gt-photography.com

 
 
   

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