Color Managed Workflow for EPSON Scanners and Printers
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Color Managed Workflow for EPSON Scanners and Printers PMA Preview Edition Color Managed Workflow for EPSON® Scanners and Printers PMA Preview Edition Copyright © 2003 by Epson America, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Epson America, Inc. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty While Epson America, Inc. has strived to be accurate in preparing this book, it makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The information and opinions stated herein are not guaranteed to produce any particular results, and the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual. In no event shall EPSON be liable for any loss, inconvenience, or damage, including but not limited to direct, special, incidental, consequential, or other damages resulting from the use of the information contained in this booklet. Trademarks EPSON and EPSON Stylus are registered trademarks of SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION. EPSON Perfection is a registered trademark of Epson America, Inc. General Notice: Other product names used herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. EPSON disclaims any and all rights in those marks. Printed on recycled paper 2/03 All photographs © 2000 by Stephen Wilkes CPD-16082 Contents The Art and Science of Color . 1 Profiling Your Scanner and Printer . 1 Printing the Printer Profiling Target . 2 Preparing the Printer and Scanner Targets . 4 Scanning the Targets with SilverFast . 5 Building the Scanner and Printer Profiles . 7 Building Additional Printer Profiles . 9 Printing the Printer Target from Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 . 10 Printing the Printer Target from Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 . 12 Preparing the Targets . 13 Building a Scanner Profile for Transparencies . 14 Scanning the Transparency Target . 14 Building the Scanner Transparency Profile in MonacoEZcolor . 17 Building a Display Profile . 19 Configuring Color Management in Your Host Application . 22 Configuring Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 . 22 Configuring Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 . 23 Scanning with LaserSoft SilverFast . 23 Reflective Scanning with SilverFast . 23 Transparency Scanning with SilverFast . 25 Using Color Management with Your EPSON Printer . 27 Using the Workflow . 29 he EPSON Perfection® 3200 scanner and All the components you need to build a color- Tyour EPSON® photo printer form an ideal managed workflow are included in the EPSON system for reproducing photography and fine art. Perfection 3200 Pro software bundle: With these outstanding tools, you expect the highest quality color output. That’s why we’ve MonacoEZcolor offers an easy, effective created this booklet. It gives you all the tips and means of building profiles for your scanner, techniques you need to optimize color on your printer, and monitor. EPSON system. LaserSoft® SilverFast® provides powerful tools Monitors, scanners, and printers each use different to deliver great scans that need little or no technologies to reproduce color. Different color correction after scanning. technologies mean that the devices have different color ranges or gamuts. Each one can produce Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 2.0 lets you certain colors that the others can’t. manipulate your images until they’re just right, then hand off the color correctly to The good news is that a color-managed workflow your EPSON printer. can help you match colors as closely as possible. By following the instructions in this booklet, you In this booklet, we’ll walk you through the can achieve effective color reproduction using process of building the profiles you need, your EPSON Perfection 3200 scanner and configuring SilverFast to pass the color along EPSON photo printer. to Adobe Photoshop Elements, and applying the profiles to ensure that your prints contain the color you expect. The Art and Science of Color Profiling Your Scanner Each device in your computer system has a different color “language.” Color management and Printer translates these languages into a universal form of communication, or device-independent color The starting point in building the workflow is model. By using a common language, a color- to create profiles for your scanner and printer. managed workflow lets you convert an image MonacoEZcolor lets you build a scanner and from one color model to another. printer profile in a single session. The first step is to print the printer profiling target from Profiles describe the color gamut of various MonacoEZcolor. devices and the color space of individual images. With the information in profiles, color management Note: You need to create a separate profile tools determine the best method for “mapping” for each combination of ink, paper, and out-of-gamut colors. The result is that you get printer settings. When you use the profile to consistent, predictable color reproduction. make a print, you need to ensure that you’re printing on the same paper, with the same This booklet provides you with the step-by step inks, using the same printer settings you instructions you need to create accurate profiles used to print the target. for your scanner, monitor, and printer. 1 Printing the Printer Profiling Target 4 For any EPSON printer, click RGB Printer. From the Printer Model/Technology pop-up 1 Launch MonacoEZcolor. The welcome menu, choose Other for any EPSON printer, screen appears: or choose EPSON Stylus Photo 2000P if this is the printer you’re using. 5 Click the right arrow to proceed. The Print Target screen appears: 2 Click Create Printer Profile. MonacoEZcolor provides you with some general guidelines to observe during the profile creation process. If you aren’t sure how to follow these guidelines, don’t 6 Make sure your EPSON printer is selected worry—just follow the steps provided here. as the current printer, and the paper you want to profile is loaded. Then click Print. 3 Click the right arrow at the lower-right of the MonacoEZcolor screen to proceed. Tip: If you plan on profiling multiple papers, The following screen appears: or the same paper at multiple resolutions, click Save TIFF to save the target as a file named “RGB Print Patches.tif”. Printing the target is always the first step in building a printer profile. If you have the target saved as a TIFF, you can print it without having to go through the introductory screens in MonacoEZcolor. Click here to proceed 2 MonacoEZcolor advises you to record the 9 Once you’ve made your selections, choose settings you’ll make in the printer driver, so Color Management from the Options you can apply them when you use the menu. The color management settings profile. When you click OK, the print appear: window appears: 7 Choose Print Settings from the options pop-up menu. The print settings appear: 10 Click No Color Adjustment to ensure that the driver doesn’t alter the colors in the profiling target. Then click Print. Once you’ve printed the target, you’re ready to proceed to the next part of the process: using SilverFast to scan both the scanner and printer targets. Tip: For an accurate printer profile, make sure you let the printer target dry for at least an hour to reach its final, stable color. Some paper-and-ink combinations take longer to dry than others. If you wait until the next day, you can be sure the target has reached its 8 Choose the paper type you want to profile final color. from the Media Type list—for example, Enhanced Matte Paper. Then click Advanced Settings and choose your desired print settings. Most of the time, the default settings work well. 3 Preparing the Printer 4 Click the right arrow to proceed. The and Scanner Targets following screen appears: The next step is to scan the printer and scanner targets in a single image. MonacoEZcolor will use this scan to build the profiles. 1 In MonacoEZcolor, click the right arrow. The following screen appears: Caution: On some operating systems, MonacoEZcolor lets you scan directly into the application using the EPSON scanner plug-in. Do not use this feature. To create a profile that LaserSoft SilverFast can use correctly, you must scan the scanner and printer targets using SilverFast, as described in the following section. 2 Follow the on-screen instructions to attach the reflective IT8 target included in the MonacoEZcolor package to the target you printed. Note: If you use tape to attach the target, make sure the tape doesn’t cover any of the color patches on the IT8. 3 Click the right arrow to proceed. Follow the on-screen instructions to place the printer and scanner targets on the scanner. 4 Scanning the Targets with SilverFast 2 On the main SilverFast screen, click the General tab, and make sure the Scan Mode To build profiles, you must use special settings in is set to Normal (File), Original is set to SilverFast that are quite different from the ones Reflective, and Pos./Neg. is set to Positive, used in normal scanning. You must scan the as shown: profiling target with all color management and color correction features turned off, following the instructions in this section. 1 Launch the standalone SilverFast application. You’ll be prompted to import the SilverFast (Epson) plug-in, as shown. You can find the plug-in inside the SilverFast application folder. Note: Your scanner must be connected to your computer and turned on before you can successfully import the scanner plug-in. 3 Once you’ve confirmed the settings, click the Options button. The SilverFast Defaults Next, you’ll be prompted to enter your screen appears: name, company, and serial number information.