Conor Mongey.com

In Picture Window Pro, the Proofing Profile setting in the Color Management Settings dialog box is normallly set to None to disable soft-proofing. To enable it, select a printer profile (the same profile you plan to use for your printer/paper combination) for Proofing Profile, and select a Proofing Rendering Intent, usually Maintain Full Gamut (perceptual) or Preserve Identical Colors and White Point (Relative Colorimetric). (I find Picture Window Pro’s non-standard nomenclature to be somewhat confusing.)

1. Proofing is applied to all open images. Be sure to reset Proofing Profile to None when you’re finished.

Photoshop does a more convenient job of soft-proofing. You’d expect as much because Photoshop is aimed at the printing industry, where soft-proofing is an important part of the workflow. To enable (or disable)

soft-proofing, click View and check (or uncheck) Proof Colors. I find this to be very convenient. To select a proofing profile and rendering intent, click View, Proof Setup, Custom…

You can find more details by looking up Soft proofs in the Adobe Help index. Soft-proofing only applies to the images selected while settings are chosen. You can use Image, Duplicate to make a copy of the original image for comparison.

• Saving files. Associated profiles are embedded in files saved in BMP, TIFF, and JPEG formats. (BMP is obsolescent; it’s not generally reocommended.)

• Printing. You should be able to select the printer profile either in the image editor (in the PW Pro Print dialog box) or in the printer driver. The latest release of the Epson 2200 printer driver software (v. 5.40+) allows you to apply the ICC profile of your choice, but I don’t recommend it because it has bugs. Do not apply the printer profile in both places.

• The Print dialog box (the last box you see before printing starts; right) asks you for the printer profile (below). These two entries appear only when color management is enabled. Your answer is not saved. I would prefer to be able to enter a default printer profile in the Color Management Settings dialog box, then have to option of overriding it when I print. You must be certain that your printer driver settings are identical to the setting used to create the profile. You should save them with a similar name.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!