PDA

View Full Version : Icc & rip



JMugs
29-07-2013, 09:26 PM
So I am looking at wide format sublimation, I know I would need an ICC profile for my printer, I have established it needs to be for each medium (ie glass, slate etc). If I am wrong here then point me in the right direction please.
RIP hmmm now what is this and is it needed? This has thrown me.
As I am not the only one looking at going wide format, I guess this will be helpful to others.
All pointers as to what to read is welcome.
Yours well and truely bogged down.
Janners.

Andrea
29-07-2013, 09:57 PM
A Rip is a more powerful Print driver, We use a Rip called Mirage, Here is there web site and you can also download a trial. http://mirage.dinax.de/
here is there page that explains how it works, http://mirage.dinax.de/index.php/learn-more-44.html
Andrea & Ian

pisquee
30-07-2013, 11:25 AM
A RIP is not something you need, especially with a large format Epson, the printer drivers are good, and you can just use Photoshop and the print driver and have no problems. A RIP will give you more control and options, but it is not an essential.
In terms of ICC, ideally, you'd want a few ICCs for different substrates - as a minium, I would say one which is for shiney gloss white things, like iphone covers, mugs, and then a different one for more matt/fabric work like t-shirts, mouse matts. Although you may find using the one you have made for shiny white things works adequately for fabric things too.
As far as I know though (and I'll happily be corrected), most RIPs work as CMYK, and require CMYK ICCs, whereas most people producing custom ICCs only make RGB ones (Which is what the native Epson driver wants)

JMugs
30-07-2013, 11:31 AM
Thanks Pisquee, so I would need to know how to set up and use a profile.
Getting there.
Janners.

pisquee
30-07-2013, 02:44 PM
ICC profile, if used with Photoshop and standard Epson driver, is selected in the print dialog in photoshop when set for photoshop manages colours, and you turn off any colour management and/or enhancements in the print driver itself. Paul includes clear instructions on how to set up/use the profiles he creates.
If you're going down the RIP route, then I don't know!

JMugs
30-07-2013, 07:49 PM
Ok so now to do some reading on colour profiles.

JMugs
30-07-2013, 08:17 PM
On holiday at present so it's reading time. But I gather first thing to do is calibrate my monitor.

pisquee
30-07-2013, 08:28 PM
Essentially colour profiles tell your computer how each piece of equipment deals with colour - so your computer knows the capabilities of your camera, scanner, screen and printer, how to interpret them and how to compensate for them. A printer profile tells the computer how to mix the 4, 6, 8(etc) different coloured inks in the best way to represent what you are seeing on screen as much as possible, as your printer can't produce the same amount of colours as your screen. As the colour of the paper (or whatever else you are printing onto) affects the colour of the final print result, then this needs to also be taken into consideration. If you are using an Epson printer, then under normal circumstances, when you select the print settings and type of paper you are printing onto then the printer driver includes all of the ICCs for this (assuming you're using Epson papers and inks for that printer) with sublimation, you've obviously put a non-Epson ink in the printer, and are not printing onto Epson papers, so the ICCs won't make sense.

To create an ICC, the printer is used to print off a chart of different coloured swatches (usually around 1000 depending on system used) these are then scanned into the computer using a colourometer (or other colour measurement device) In the case of sublimation they are only scanned in once the prints have been transferred onto the final substrate. As the original colours of the swatches are a known quantity then the ICC creation software can judge how the printer has printed these colours, and creates an ICC profile to tweak and compensate for the idiosyncrasies of the printer, so try and pull the colours back to what they should be.

Some 3rd party ink companies have done this process for some printers available on the market, but as a process this takes time, and with so many printers on the market it isn't possible to do it for everyone. This is especially true in the pro/industrial ink world, as you now have not only a load more printers available from a number of different manufacturers, but also RIPs, and an increasing amount of substrates. Some companies therefore may have some reference ICCs, but on the whole it is expected at the high end, that the end user will have a system for colour management of their own.

The other reason for this is that each individual printer will print differently to a certain degree, we don't live in an ideal world, and every Epson 9880 (for example) coming out the factory is not going t print exactly the same as the next one. So, this is where the idea of having an ICC available from the manufacturer falls over a bit - especially if you're wanting the very best from the printer and inks that you have, or even more so, if you have a set of printers, and want to use them all for producing one big order. Due to this, each printer you have will need its own ICCs creating.

I did the maths for paying someone to create ICCs for our sublimation and pigment ink printers for the different substrates they all print on, and it was apparent that buying our own kit for ICC creation would work out a lot cheaper, and give us the control in-house, without having to post off charts for someone else to scan. So, now if we get another printer, or start using a new substrate, or maybe one day switch inks, we can create the new profiles straight away.

I think that sums it up as an explanation. Paul is more experienced that me, so mat chip in and correct or explain things better.

JMugs
30-07-2013, 08:36 PM
Pisquee, brilliant.
I was just starting to scribble a summary and you post up a beauty.
I am getting there.
Thanks
Janners.

Tite003
09-11-2013, 04:34 PM
Pisque´s explanation is simply brilliant. I´ve read lots of post about ICC profiles and never read something as clear and simple as that.

pisquee
09-11-2013, 11:24 PM
Thanks ... one day I'll write a book! :-)