Scanning, Color Space & Printer Profiles

BU
Posted By
BOB_UPDEGROVE
Apr 8, 2004
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209
Replies
4
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Closed
I am very confused about the workflow of color spaces and profiles. I am using a Mac (OS X) with a 20" Apple Display, a Nikon Coolscan 4000 with Vuescan software, & Photoshop CS. Vuescan has settings for scanner color space (I currently have it set at "built-in"), printer color space (set at ICC profile), and printer ICC profile (set at ICC profile I downloaded for minilab I use); as well as output color space (set at Adobe RGB) and monitor color space (set at Adobe RGB). Are these correct, or what should I set these at? And once in Photoshop to do some additonal color and level corrections, at what point do I convert or assign the printer profile (ICC) for the Minilab that I use (it doesn’t seem to be embedded with Vuescan)? This stuff really confuses me, so any layman directions would be a huge help. Thanks.
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Peter_Figen
Apr 9, 2004
Each device, be it scanner, printer or monitor has its own characteristics and needs it’s own unique profile to describe it to Photoshop and any other application that is able to use them. Following that thought, you need to use a monitor profile for your monitor and not Adobe RGB. For the best monitor profile you’ll need to invest in a Colorvision Spyder or equivalent and use the resulting profile in Photoshop.

If you have a scanner profile but your scanner software won’t embed it, then you can open the file in Photoshop and Assign that profile. After that, you then Convert to your RGB working space, which in your case is Adobe RGB. When you’re ready to print it after working one the image in Adobe RGB, then you save a copy and use the Image>Mode>Convert to Profile command to convert the file to your minilab profile. This changes the RGB pixel values in the file to optimize them for that printer, but also makes the file only good there, which is the reason you do the conversion on a copy.

Bruce Fraser and David Blatner’s book "Real World Photoshop" would be an excellent place to start reading more on the subject.
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Apr 9, 2004
Check this Bruce Fraser article on scanner color:

<http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/2944.html>

Vuescan and Nikon’s site should have some additional workflow info specific to your needs.

I’m not familiar with either software. Maybe someone with the same setup will post here.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Apr 9, 2004
Why don’t you use NikonScan with your Nikon scanner?

To my mind it is FAR superior to VueScan (which I find to be considerably "dumbed-down").

Set NikonScan to scan to its version of Adobe RGB, which it calls "NKAdobe" (possibly for Trade Mark reasons?) but which seems to be identical to AdobeRGB98.

If you use the same working space in Photoshop, the NikonScan Preview (which can be expanded to full-screen size) will match your completed scan when you open it in Photoshop.
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Apr 9, 2004
Ann, when you say "scan to"-do you mean the destination space or the source space in the CM dialog box of scanner software. I’m not familiar with Nikon’s sw-only relating to my scanner which has Source, Display, Destination and Editing space dropdown menus.

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