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How to use colorimeter with turboprint

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:34 pm
by te36
Before trying and buying turboprint, i am trying to understand if, and how i would be able to use a colormeter to profile printer/ink/paper. The profile service would be too cumbersome because i would like to play around with different options and sending printouts half way around the world.

Unfortunately, i have not been able to bring together how to do this from the turboprint user manual, nor did i find any good page explaining it. So i am trying to find the answers here:

a) I guess i need to get some colormeter. Seems like ColorMunki Photo is recommended. suggestions welcome.

b) I would need to use the software that comes with the colormeter, usuall windows or mac. And that will want to do some printout.

c) It seems i need to make sure those printouts go via turboprint. And i guess i need to make sure that that printout itself does not go through any ICC profile adjustment but is printed raw. So i wonder how to best achieve this.
- An way with the colormeter just to get a TIFF/JPEG file that i can then print out from my turboprint linux ?
- How again would i make sure the print does happen raw without applying an ICC profile ?
- If not a file i guess i'd just need to make sure i can get my turboprint printer accessible i guess via CUPS as a network printer from the Mac/Windows system running the colormeter software. How again do i then make sure no ICC profile is used ?

d) Ultimately i guess i will get an ICC profile file from the colormeter software. Are there different ICC file formats ? What exactly does turboprint require ? There seems to be at least v2 or v4 file formats ? Anything known to be actually compatible ?

e) Then i guess i an continue following the turboprint manual, i hope... although it seems with the turboprint profiling service the file format may be turboprint proprietary and not standard ICC ?

f) Oh - and any specific version of turboprint i'd need to make this work ?

Thanks a lot!

Re: How to use colorimeter with turboprint

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 10:36 am
by zedonet
Hello,

the spectrophotometers ColorMunki or EyeOne can be recommended. You can print the color targets either with TurboPrint under Linux or you can use our Windows software "PrintFab" that is very similar to TurboPrint/Linux and uses the same printer drivers and color profiles.

The EyeOne profiling software contains color targets in TIFF format, with ColorMunki you the color target image is usually printed directly from the profiling software, however it is also possible to export TIFF files instead.

I include a description of the profiling process below.
Please note that the TurboPrint version "TurboPrint Studio" is required for color profiling. To print color targets under Windows, the you can use "PrintFab Pro".

=========================================================================

Creating ICC profiles for TurboPrint/Linux or PrintFab/Windows

To create an ICC profile e.g. with EyeOne, ColorMunki or Spyder, you should create a new profile entry in TurboPrint Control / PrintFab Control Center, button "Profiles". You will have to select the type of media (e.g. coated inkjet paper or glossy photo paper), the print quality and the maximum ink amount (e.g. 250%).

The new profile will be visible as an additional paper type in the print dialog. Use this paper entry to print the profile chart - color management will be automatically turned off (until you execute "import profile data").

Printing the profile color chart

The next step is to print a profile color chart that is supplied with your profiling software (there is either a TIFF file or an option to export a profile chart). You can use a photo editing software like GIMP (Linux) or PhotoShop (Windows) to print the color chart.

Linux- GIMP print dialog settings:

use the TurboPrint print dialog (file menu entry "TurboPrint...") and select "Paper"=<the profile entry that you just added>.
Color management is disabled as long as no color profile has been imported for this paper.
If a color profile has been imported and you want to print a new color target:
Button "TurboPrint Config...", tab "Color" and set "Intent"="No correction", "Mode"="RGB" or "CMYK" depending on the ICC profile type

Windows - PhotoShop print dialog settings:

Make sure that color management is turned off by setting the image color space to "not color managed".
You can also use "Adobe Color Print Utility" which can print with color management disabled.

Windows - PrintFab driver settings:

tab "Main": "Paper"=<the media entry that you just added>
tab "Color": "Intent"="No correction", "Mode"="RGB" or "CMYK" depending on the ICC profile type

The resulting ICC profile can be used either in TurboPrint / PrintFab (recommended) or in Photoshop:

1) color management in TurboPrint / PrintFab

- import the ICC profile in the "Profiles" dialog of TurboPrint Control / PrintFab Control Center

- in the print dialog, select "Paper"=<the profile entry that you added>
- print dialog, tab "Color": "Intent"="Perception" or "Perception Photo"

2) color management in PhotoShop (Windows only)

- add the ICC profile to the Windows color profiles folder

- in the Photoshop print dialog, select "PhotoShop manages colors" and "Printer profile"=<the icc profile you created>

- in the PrintFab driver settings, use the same settings as when printing
the ICC profile chart:
tab "Main": "Paper"=<the media entry you used to print the ICC profile chart>
tab "Color": "Intent"="No correction", "Mode"="RGB" or "CMYK" depending on the ICC profile type

Some PrintFab settings like the "ink save mode" can be chosen only when color management is done in PrintFab.

Re: How to use colorimeter with turboprint

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 10:48 am
by zedonet
I forgot to answer some of your questions

a) ColorMunki can be recommended, EyeOne Pro 2 or the older EyeOne version 1 (second hand only) are quicker if you want to create accurate profiles from targets with many color patches.

b) it makes sense to use the profiling software that is included with the spectrophotometer. There is also the software "Argyll" for Linux but the included software is easier to use.

c) you can use either TurboPrint/Linux or our driver software PrintFab which is available for Mac and Windows as described in my last post

d) TurboPrint and PrintFab can import ICC v2 and ICC v4 files

e) instructions for creating standard ICC profiles are included in my last post

f) you need the version "TurboPrint Studio"

Please post if you have further questions.

Re: How to use colorimeter with turboprint

Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 2:09 am
by te36
Thanks a lot. Will take me a bit to the point of walking through the instruction.
I'll be back ;-)

Re: How to use colorimeter with turboprint

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:15 am
by EdoNork
Printing the target from GIMP, what color space must be selected in the GIMP dialog?

Re: How to use colorimeter with turboprint

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 11:42 am
by zedonet
Hello,

when printing the color profile, the color space doesn't matter as long as you select your new profile entry in the "Media Type" selector and no ICC profile has been imported in TurboPrint Control.

If an ICC profile has already been imported, please open "TurboPrint Config" from the GIMP print dialog and select "Intent = No Correction" in tab "Color". Also in this case the color space is not relevant.

Re: How to use colorimeter with turboprint

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:27 am
by Gentner
Seems like you need to tweak a lot of setting when printing the color profile. What happens when you leave everything on default?

Re: How to use colorimeter with turboprint

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:11 am
by zedonet
Hello,

when you add the new profile, you have to make four settings:

- Type of paper (plain paper, matte coated inkjet paper, glossy paper) - this selection is required

- Print quality (the highest quality is the default) - optional, can be left at default setting
- Ink limit (default is 250% or 300% depending on the printer) - optional, can be left at default setting

when printing the profile chart, you have to make two settings:

- Paper/Media name - select your new profile - required
- Color mode RGB or CMYK (the default is RGB) - optional, can be left at default setting