Inaccurate color no matter what

CM
Posted By
Charles_Maurer
May 19, 2004
Views
211
Replies
8
Status
Closed
I have not been able to match the colour displayed in Photoshop with either of my dye-sub printers, so today I decided trace the problem. I downloaded from Macbeth < http://www.munsell.com/index/products/products_color-standar ds/products_colorchecker-charts/products_colorchecker/produc ts_colorchecker_sw.htm> the digital version of their ColorChecker and the list of values that each colour is supposed to be. I then displayed the file in a few programs and measured the values using DigitalColor Meter. Preview and GraphicConverter displayed the colours correctly but Photoshop CS did not, no matter what profile I assigned in Image/Mode/Assign Profile. Anybody know what is going on?
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B
Buko
May 19, 2004
Read the FAQs

calibrate your monitor
CM
Charles_Maurer
May 19, 2004
The monitor is calibrated. Choosing a different profile changes the colour that is displayed but not the colour that is measured.
B
Buko
May 19, 2004
OK. you know best.
P
progress
May 19, 2004
get a custom profile made for the output device.
CM
Charles_Maurer
May 19, 2004
I looked again. It turned out that the sample I was using kept two of the three numbers the same and I was mixing up the third. This changes the question, then. I have now calibrated a monitor using Apple’s software in a way that allows other programs’ screens to match the printout but not Photoshop’s. I can find no ready-made profile that makes Photoshop’s screen match the printer or make the Macbeth’s know measurements come out right. Do I need a special screen profile for Photoshop? If so, how can I create one?
P
progress
May 19, 2004
the idea is that you calibrate your screen and PS uses that as the basis for display…the you use the profile for your target device, then the two should match. You cant pick just any old profile and expect it to work. Starting off with a solidly calibrated monitor is the first step, if thats out so will the rest be. Pshop displays things differently to other applications because its colour management aware, where as other apps may not be.

Hardware calibration eyes or pucks are a good start, especially if they are compatible with your monitor and can do a lot of the work using its hardware…if not they’ll just make a profile within the parameters of what the monitor can currently deliver.
CM
Charles_Maurer
May 20, 2004
A practical answer seems to be a package that allows cooking a monitor’s profile with better fudge than Apple’s: <http://www.bergdesign.com/supercal/>. After setting starting and ending points and shaping curves, it allows changing overall RBG balance with a picture of Macbeth’s chart filling the screen.
PF
Peter_Figen
May 20, 2004
Charles,

Simply having a file of the Color Checker open on screen is not enough. You need to know what color space that file is in. If you really want to use that to check anything, you really need to buy the hard target from MacBeth, measure your specific Color Checker with a good spectrophotometer and build your own Color Checker file using the L.a.b. coordinates from the spectrophotometer. Then you will have a device independent rendition (Lab color space) that you can bring up on screen and compare directly to the hard copy. If you want to then print that to any of your printers, convert that file to the printer profile for that printer and compare the print to the original Color Checker.

The most probably reason that PS is not matching the other apps you mention is because they are not color managed and PS is – and you are using something other than Monitor RGB as your working space in PS.

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