Printer profiles make better prints, but where to get them and what to use

ICC printer profiles help you make better prints, but are the ones from printer manufacturers any good? Should you get custom profiles, or choose paper suppliers who provide profiles...

Keith looks at the different sources of profiles, including the option of making your own.

If the printer manufacturer doesn't provide profiles, then consider paper suppliers who do - there is often little to be gained by using big name paper brands - many of the suppliers Keith has used are every bit as good as the top brand names, and provide free custom profiling.

00:00 Start
00:45 Profiles for printers
01:10 What the profiles do
02:52 Are printer manufacturers' profiles good enough
04:13 Using 3rd party papers
04:30 Why profiles are provided
05:15 What about custom profiles
06:09 Making your own profiles
07:53 Choosing 3rd paprty paper suppliers
09:07 Are custom profiles better
10:25 Marketing at work
11:20 It's the paper, not the name on the box
13:28 Black and white and profiles
14:40 Rendering intents
15:44 Profiles - just use them...

[nospam-hnxm]

This video is a gentle reminder of a theme that has run throughout my entire adult life (well over 50 years). Striving for perfection is only limited by one's bank account. As my mother used to say, "I was blessed with champagne taste but cursed to live on a beer budget." Thanks again, Keith, for a first-rate video. All your hard work is greatly appreciated.

[robertdutruch]

Good morning Keith! After 45 years as an artist, I was able to learn about ICC printer profiles today. Thanks to your video, even a very old dog can learn some really new tricks! My sincerest appreciation! Best regards, Robert

[sandramartins]

my most deeply appreciation for your channel, I've been looking to install icc profiles and until finding your channel I had no idea what to do. Thank you, thank you very much.

[BruceLR]

Thanks, Keith. for so many informative videos. Helped my intro to printing immensely.

[klokit]

I truly appreciate all your videos I'm a blooming printer and these videos have provided me so much understanding, thank you.

[Cliff]

I finally found my stash of HP media I puchased 17 years ago. I tried finding the profiles page in your website, but I can’t seem to find it. I think I’ll have to get a profiler to get good result with the media which I will have to cut to size. Good thing I have 44” paper cutter!
This is what I found in my garage sealed in plastic bags in cardboard boxes.
HP Opaque SCRIM Q1898B 36”x50’
HP Colorfast Adhesive Vinyl C6775A 36”x40’
HP Premium Matte Photo Paper CG460A 36”x100”’
HP Premium Instant Dry Satin Photo Paper Q7996A 42”x100
HP Professional Matte Canvas Q8673A 24”X20’
HP Collector Satin Canvas Q8708A 24”x20’


Wish me luck!

[RVincents]

Thanks!Oh myyy excellent video. Thank you for all this information. I was started buying paper from companies that also have a profile
I have seen and improvement.
I use pantone colors and hex codes in graphic designs and I was getting closer to what I wanted.
The paper profiles definitely make a difference. I will be checking out all your video.
I am so interested in the hardware videos because the small units didn't really work well for me either.
What did work was me manually calibrating my display against my pantones and then tweaking printer settings and profiles to get the closest match. That was an all day ordeal...but it worked better than calibrite and spyder for me.
I am a corrective hair colorist and product formulator...color nuances are blaringly obvious to me...it's a gift and a nuisance.
But I must say having those paper profiles for fine art, matte, lusters and metallics definitely helped me out.
Thank you for all you do.

[Starman]

👍Hi, I have watched a number of your videos and I am impressed with the process you use to explain a particular subject. I feel that it may be worthwhile to produce a video where you show/explain, step-by-step and in detail, how one goes about finding a profile for his monitor, installing it, and then creating the appropriate interface between an editor (like Photoshop, or whatever) and a printer, in order to produce the best possible printed result. In other words, from Alpha to Omega. Many thanks for entertaining my question.

[gerarbara]

Thank you for this very informative video. I have heard it said that many photographers increase the brightness before each print as a matter of course.

[johnwatson]

Thanks for your insight into this topic, it's very much appreciated. 
You've convinced me I need a printer profile and now for the $64, 000 question: if I get an ICC profile, which I assume is a piece of software, how and where do I put in onto my computer (s) and how do I then select it when it comes to printing photos as opposed to text.
I'm only a hobbyist photographer using a Fujifilm XPro2 and would occassionally like to print some of my photos either directly from the files on the computers or via Affininty Photo 2 if I've enhanced them.
My current quipment is
Mac mini M2 running Sonoma 14.0
Macbook Pro mid 2014 running Big Sur 11.7.10
Dell Destop XPS8300 running Windows 10
Epson ET8350
Epson Premium Semi Gloss papers in A4 and 10cm x 15cm

[blackcoalboy]

Good evening Kieth, I have a question for you, I’ve been watching your videos for some time now and I think they are all very educational as far as providing information about printing etc, But why don’t you show more of the actual printing process and the various settings one would use to achieve good quality prints i for one would get a lot more insight of the process of actually printing a photo etc.
Thank you.

[elegant_edits]

Thank you for explaining everything with such depth and clarity. Would you happen to know if the i1iSis 2 scanner would be able to scan film (for Direct to Film printing)? I'm worried about if the film will feed through the scanner, and I would be primarily using it for preparing ICC profiles for DTF printers. Any help would be appreciated!

[captainkeyboard]

I believe that the concept of printing photographs should also apply to printing documents and files like word processing documents, spreadsheets, database files, presentations with light and business graphics, and layout pages done in desktop publishing programs like Microsoft Publisher. Your concepts make idea sense.

[ryanmurtha]

Canon vs Epson? You would have a big audience for that analysis.

[douglasmoneer]

Hi, Keith, Love your videos . I am looking for cardstock profiles for the Epson et-2850.. Could you help me out?

[robertnystrom]

Any clue about a colorchecker / colorMunki / etc performance over time? I have some sitting in a drawer, probably 5+ years old. I assume the built-in cal target changes over time, and maybe the electronics drift as well. Ever tried an 'old' one and a 'new' one side by side? I don't imagine Colorchecker (or equivalent) offers any kind of calibration service? I go back to the manual colorimeter days with 718? 728? patches that one targets, clicks and scans ONE at a time, circa 2005. Took forever. And I did it each time I changed inks; I was younger then, and so were inks and print heads. I burned out and now go for the manufacturer profile exclusively. Unquestionably the profile helps the paper sale!

[borderlinesh]

Hi Keith, I recently discovered your channel and have found your videos very helpful. I'm interested in buying a monitor calibrator and noticed there's a few different types of models. In your experience, is it worth spending the extra money on a tool like the ColorChecker Studio that can create custom print profiles? Are the values that different from what you would get using the profiles from the paper / printer manufacturers?

[themonacoartguy]

Thanks for all your fascinating videos. Very helpful to the novice! I've just got a Canon Pro 200. I added the ICC profile for some Canson Rag to my iMac and it has appeared on the Canon IPP software but do I also need to add it to the printer itself? I'd previously been using Canon Platinum Pro paper and that is on the selector menu on the printer itself but not sure how to add a profile if its needed and if not what paper do I select on the printer when I've selected the Canson on my desktop?

[helmutsassenfeld]

Thanks, This video is timely for me. I just bought a sample pack from Red River (Tx, US) who provide icc profiles for their papers with my printer (Epson SC P900). However only two of the 14 or so papers looked liked my color calibrated monitor (CC1 studio with mac studio display), the rest have slight magenta cast, especially noticeable on skin tones in the test image I was using (from your website thank you again!). All the papers had subtle differences in shadow detail, saturation, contrast etc but this color cast makes me suspect the icc profile they provided. I will try making my own custom profile with the CC studio color checker for one of their papers that I thought was fantastic. Any other suggestions or insights to share? Thanks for educating us all.

[danjensen]

Hi, Looking into all this printing my astrophotography I’m finding lots to know that the printer can’t help me with and as usual YouTube in my best friend. I use pixinsight to process my galaxies and nebulae. Pixinsight has a icc profile to save image in . I use Bay photo here in California to print my photos. I’m going get my monitor calibrated . Do I let them use their color profile or use my color profile. They offer color correction and I use it . Tell them what’s wrong and they try to fix it. Thank you for all your efforts to help us get good prints.