About Profiling

The first step in achieving consistent colour is system calibration. Once your system is running correctly and within tolerance you will need to create or obtain profiles for each device.

It is important to calibrate your monitor, this is your window to your images, if your monitor is calibrated/profiled incorrectly your image adjustments will be based on incorrect information. Calibrating most monitors consists of setting the contrast, brightness and colour temperature to the manufacturer's standard or your preferred settings. Once this is done you can generatea display profile using either the system software, or special software with a hardware measuring device (spectrophotometer) such as the popular ColorVision SpyderPro or Pantone Huey.

Now you can see your beautiful images rendered in glorious colour on your monitor, you'll want to print them out with the same accuracy on your favourite photo paper, this is where a custom printer profile is necessary to tell your computer exactly how to send the data to your printer to achieve optimum results.

To profile a printer, first you need to establish that it is calibrated. Most desktop inkjet printers come with a utility for Print Head Alignment and Nozzle Check. It's recommended that you run both these tests to establish that your printer is calibrated to the manufacturers standard. It's pointless making a profile if the printer fails either test.

Next you will need to print the Target Patches file (Comp Profile 729 Patches 1 & 2 or Std Profile 343 Patches 1) using 'no colour management' either applied to the image, or during the print process. This is to ensure the colour values of the Target Patches are not modified in any way when they are sent to the printer.

Make a careful note of any printer settings and save your settings with an appropriate title wherever possible. These settings will be used each time you print with the new profile to ensure consistency. Full instructions are supplied with the download package.

Finally, check your printed target carefully, there should be no marks or blemishes on any of the colour patches. Allow the prints to dry thoroughly and mail them to us in a stiff A4 envelope, supported by some card if necessary (we can't make a profile from prints that have been folded). If you are sending multiple targets it's preferable to interleave the prints with plain paper (cheap photocopy paper will sufice).

When we receive your printed target, we will check it then analyse it using our X-Rite spectrophotometer and X-Rite software. Then we'll check the profile to ensure there are no problems, once we are satisfied with the results, the profile is emailed straight to you, or saved to CD and posted if requested.

Every profile we produce is guaranteed. If you are unsatisfied with the results from your new profile, please let us know.

Guarantee:

Your satisfaction is very important to us, therefore we offer a no-quibble 30 day money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied with our service in any way. Because we offer a service where the final product is software we are putting our faith in your honesty.