Calibration

[clowns]

Being fairly new to the colour calibration scene and having been dumped in the deep end big time - I was hoping some of you guys could give me some BASIC step by step help.

I have and IRIS 4 PRINT and an EPSON 10000 both of which are run by stand alone GMG RIPs. We calibrate everything from our digitial camera to our monitors/our images are converted to CMYK using our own icc profile. We calibrate our IRIS then match the Epson back to the same tolerances.

All of ths calibration of the IRIS and EPSON was done when they were installed - but we need to obviously maintain them and ensure they don't wander. I know how to recalibrate/linearise them but I'm not sure about the paper pofiles and the basic how what and why things go where they go and what they do when they are there. If there is anybody that can put the process (colour profiles/paper profiles) down into words very basically I would be eternally grateful.

[wally]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
The above is the link to Real World color management.
Trying to figure it out without the book is confusing because terms are often used impropperly and interchangably (sp?).
In a very short and condensed version?
you look at photoshop through your monitor at a working space (rgb or cmyk) that is a profile that has been adjusted by your monitor profile.
The working space is a profile. You can't get away from that. 0-255 in wide gamut is different from 0-255 in srgb. If you choose not to color manage the document, you are still looking at the document in your working space profile. If you choose to apply a different profile, you change the colors. If you choose to convert to profile, you are trying to keep the colors similar to where you converted from.
When printing, if you send rgb from your document space without a profile, you send rgb values that don't describe colors. If you send unprofiled cmyk values, you are sending numbers that may not print optimally unless you are in a closed loop workflow.

Choose your cmyk or rgb profile from document or proof and send it to your Epson or Iris with the Epson or Iris profile respectively.

Paper profiles are just color profiles made by using that paper.

you can proof to swop or tr001 etc.. with Epson semi gloss, etc... by using swop or tr001 as your working space or through your proof colors window and converting to and sending to your epson or iris.

cmyk spaces allow you to go over your total ink limit, while rgb converted will not allow this, so if you edit in rgb you don't have to worry.


I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot, but it gets very confusing quickly. I'm getting confused.

Here are some links to color info
http://www.color.org/
http://www.swop.org/
http://www.josephholmes.com/
http://www.chromix.com/

?Wally

[clowns]

Thanks for that mate - I understand pretty much all you've said. It's good to know I'm not a million miles off! Why it can't be explained in really simple terms i'll never know. Things is - as soon as you think you've got it - something throws a spanner in the works and you've got to learn some more. But hey, that's the industry we're I guess!

[wally]

I agree. I was confused for a long time about the words device dependant and independant because all explanations say rgb is device dependant and cmyk is device independant, but then you have device independant rgb working spaces and device dependant cmyk profiles. It's enough to drive you nuts. It seems like a bottomless hole of information that just becomes even more confusing the more you learn it.
If I am ever wrong with my posting of information here, please correct me because I don't presume to know it all and am sometimes unknowingly wrong.
?Wally