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28 Grange Crescent West, Prestonpans EH329LU Scotland +44(0)7850 324 811 - [email protected]
Soft Proofing & Print Profiles
What is describe in this page should help you anticipate how your image will look once printed by Tom Migot Fine Art.
Monitor Calibration
Colour Management is the process of balancing the colour information across the production line. From the camera, the display, all the way to the printer. To ensure the accuracy of what you see on your computer monitor, it is critical your display has been properly calibrated. If this is not something you are familiar with, it is a process where an external device is placed onto the display, mesures and sets how the display can and should render colours, contrast and luminosity. To put it simply, it makes sure that the reds are properly red, the blues properly blue and the greens…
Soft Proofing
Given the nature differences between a monitor and a print, it is impossible to guarantee a perfect match between the two, in terms of how the colours, contrast and luminosity are rendered. However, all is not lost and there are some tools (like Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop) that can help you assess any important mismatch and ensure you are fully satisfied with your resulting Fine Art print.
Soft Proofing as opposed to hard proofing which consists of comparing a printed image to the same displayed on a monitor, is the process that enable us to simulate the print rendition of an image given the paper & the printer specificities. Those specificities are stored in a print profile.
Print Profiles
Here are the 5 print profiles used by Tom Migot Fine Art. These profiles are custom made based on the Fine Art papers and the printer used by Tom Migot Fine Art:
- Canson_Rag_Photographique_310gsm.zip
- Canson_Edition_Etching_Rag_310gsm.zip
- Canson_Aquarelle_Rag_240gsm.zip
- Canson_Platine_Fibre_Rag_310gsm.zip
- Canson_Baryta_Photographique_310gsm.zip
Installation
Once you have downloaded and extracted the print profile you need, you need to copy it in the following location:
Windows PC – C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\Color\
Mac – Mac – Your User > Library > ColorSync > Profiles
Soft Proofing in Adobe Lightroom
If you have just installed the print profile, make sure to restart Lightroom before proceeding further or it will not find your new profile.
To soft proof using Adobe Lightroom, you need to be in the develop module and tick the “Soft Proofing” checkbox in the bottom tool bar.
Once the Soft Proofing feature is enabled, you will see the Soft Proofing dialog in the top right corner of Lightroom. Click on the profile dropdown to find and select the appropriate print profile. If it is not in the list, you need to select “Other” to find and select the print profile you have installed in the popup window.
Once the print profile is loaded, you should activate “Show destination gamut warning” in the top right corner. A red mask will appear on your image wherever the colours fall out of gamut (cannot be fully reproduced by the paper and printer).
Then you can click on the “Create Proof Copy” which will create a special virtual copy which will act as your proof. Then you need to tick the checkbox “Simulate paper & Ink”. At this stage, you may find your image can appear duller if you have selected a print profile for a matte paper such as the Canson Rag or Edition Etching. This is normal.
You now need to compare your fully edited image against the proof (the print simulation). To do that you need to select the Y option at the bottom left of the tool bar and make sure the Before option is set to Master.
Now you can choose the rendering Intent in the Soft Proofing panel (top right corner). Choose whichever rendering intent looks good as compared to your original image. Make note of it as it will be required when placing the order. If you find the proof duller than the original, you can edit it (contrast etc.) to make it looks closer to the original. Once you are satisfied with the proof image, export it.
File Format & Colour Space
It is essential to ensure your images are in the appropriate format before placing a Fine Art printing order. All images should be high-quality 8-bit JPEGs or Tiffs (8 or 16-bit) in either the sRGB, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB colour spaces.
Recommended Settings:
- Image Format: JPEG or TIFF files only
- Colour Space: sRGB / Adobe RGB / Pro Photo RGB . Do not select the print profile you downloaded from Tom Migot Fine Art or elsewhere!
- Quality: ‘100’ to preserve full image quality
- Resize to Fit: Ensure this is unchecked to preserve maximum quality
- Don’t Enlarge: Ensure this is unchecked to preserve maximum quality
- Sharpen For: Matte or Gloss depending on the paper you wish to print on
Soft Proofing in Adobe Photoshop
A good technique to Soft Proof within Photoshop, is to take your chosen fully edited image and duplicate it inside Photoshop. This duplicated image will act as your proof and can then be tweaked if need be. Changing the window arrangement can help comparing your original to your proof.
- Image > Duplicate
- Window > Arrange > 2-up Vertical or 2-up Horizontal
Once your environment is set (the 2 files open side by side inside Photoshop) you can se the proof condition.
In the Proof Condition popup window, you need to select the print profile that correspond to the paper your wish to print on. If you have just installed the profile, you need to restart Adobe Photoshop or it will not find it.
Make sure the “Simulation Paper Color” and “Black Point Compensation” and “Preview” options are all checked but not “Preserve RGB Numbers”. Now as you choose a rendering intent, you should see your proof image change. Choose whichever rendering intent looks good as compared to your original image. Make note of it as it will be required when placing the order. If you find the proof duller than the original, you can edit it (contrast, sharpness etc.) to make it looks closer to the original. Once you are satisfied with the proof image, it is important to make sure it has a resolution of 300PPI. This can be set in the image size window.
After that you are ready to export your image.
File Format & Colour Space
It is essential to ensure your images are in the appropriate format before placing a Fine Art printing order. All images should be high-quality 8-bit JPEGs or Tiffs (8 or 16-bit) in either the sRGB, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB colour spaces.
Recommended Settings:
- Image Format: JPEG or TIFF files only
- Colour Space: sRGB / Adobe RGB / Pro Photo RGB . Do not select the print profile you downloaded from Tom Migot Fine Art or elsewhere!
- Quality: ‘100’ to preserve full image quality
- Scale: 100% without changing any of the size fields.
