ICC and colour issues

[PamC]

Hi all, pretty new to this so I am sure you have all had these beginner issues and I am looking for some assistance/advice.

Bought a starter kit including paper/press and printer. straight away we carried out the process of purchasing an ICC profile, it was a disaster with no greens being printed at all and lots of other colours being wrong. we purchased a second ICC from the same company and to be honest we get slightly better results when we dont use it.

so my question is, where can I get an ICC that will guarantee me the right pressed colours. without the ICC the colours are incorrect but certainly darker, with the ICC the colours are closer but only after using saturation or burn in PS, and the colours are much faded.

We are using an epson printer, photo shop and pre cut mug paper. Any advice would be much appreciated. We now have our first order in and I cant even manage to get a correct red which I though would be simple as its a primary colour but it just turns out orange.

TIA

[pw66]

Are you using the profile correctly. Sounds like you are using profiles in both the printer and Photoshop.
Not 100 % sure about Photoshop because I don't use it , but there should be something along the lines of 'let the printer handle colours' for you to check. This turns of the PS profile.

[PamC]

Are you using the profile correctly. Sounds like you are using profiles in both the printer and Photoshop.
Not 100 % sure about Photoshop because I don't use it , but there should be something along the lines of 'let the printer handle colours' for you to check. This turns of the PS profile.

hi thanks for the reply. at first we just used the ICC and 'let the printer handle colours'. we just dont get the right colours. at that stage we tried adjusting the settings in ps and got some improvement. Its photoshop that handles the ICC the printer has no colour management.
thanks

[webtrekker]

More importantly, what brand of inks are you usinv, and who did you buy your system from? Most ink suppliers provide FREE ICC profiles.

[InkExperts]

More importantly, what brand of inks are you usinv, and who did you buy your system from? Most ink suppliers provide FREE ICC profiles.

Whoever is making the ICC needs to sublimate / heat press the printed colour swatch sheets you supplied to them before they scan it to generate the profile. Also you must print said swatch sheets using a program that will disable all colour management as PS no longer allows this. We use Adobe ACPU to print the colour swatch sheets for ICC profiling.

If the above have been done correctly the profile should be generated correctly. Following that its down to the setup of the software / printer settings.

If you are using PS you need to select Photoshop Manages Color, then select the specific ICC from the drop menu below. Set your printer to the settings you use to print the swatch sheets (usually Epson Matte / High Quality), lastly ensure you turn off the printers ICM color management. If this is not done you end up with the ICC and the printer fighting to decide what colours to use.

Alex

[PamC]

we are using an old version of PS CS2 which allows us to disable all colour management. We followed the instruction to produce the swatch sheets to the letter. The ICC company supplied adobe software for us to generate them so PS had no influence and we had disabled all printer management.

[InkExperts]

we are using an old version of PS CS2 which allows us to disable all colour management. We followed the instruction to produce the swatch sheets to the letter. The ICC company supplied adobe software for us to generate them so PS had no influence and we had disabled all printer management.

That side of things should all be fine then, I would assume the ICC supplier heat pressed your images when they received them. We heat press onto white ally sheets then scan to generate the ICC. If you didn't mirror image your swatch prints then I would say they have not been scanned post heat pressing.

Alex

[pw66]

If you are using PS you need to select Photoshop Manages Color, then select the specific ICC from the drop menu below. Set your printer to the settings you use to print the swatch sheets (usually Epson Matte / High Quality), lastly ensure you turn off the printers ICM color management. If this is not done you end up with the ICC and the printer fighting to decide what colours to use.

Alex

I must have a bad profile because I get terrible, dull results doing it that way. For some reason the results are good when I select the printers ICM and set the software to 'printer handles colour'.

[InkExperts]

I must have a bad profile because I get terrible, dull results doing it that way. For some reason the results are good when I select the printers ICM and set the software to 'printer handles colour'.

That tends to occur when the swatch pattern has been created without turning the ICM off (I've done that a few times to Alex's dismay).

It then creates a profile that requires your ICM to be turned on in order to print correctly.

The joys of creating and using ICC's never ends, nor do my headaches lol.

[pw66]

That tends to occur when the swatch pattern has been created without turning the ICM off (I've done that a few times to Alex's dismay).

It then creates a profile that requires your ICM to be turned on in order to print correctly.

The joys of creating and using ICC's never ends, nor do my headaches lol.

That sounds very probable. Although I get good results I will look into that...