Thanks again for the additional information.

I profile my monitors monthly (I use a Spyder 2). I use the manufacturers' paper profiles. I really don't think those are the issues I'm talking about.

I think that what I'm really trying to get at is the color gamut supported by various media and devices. I used to use an HP b9180. I also used to work in Photoshop in the broadest color space I could, typically ProPhotoRGB. The monitors I used had wider color gamut than that printer. So when I printed, I often had to tweak the image for printing, especially if I wasn't using glossy paper.

I am now using an Epson 4900 and generally work in Adobe RGB and have fewer issues than I used to to get good results.

If I was saving an image as a jpg for use on the web or in an email, the color space got converted to sRGB.

I think that there's only so the ICC profiles can give and there is sometimes an opportunity to improve a particular image by adjusting it for a particular printer/paper -- hence creating an adjustment layer in Photoshop and my original question. I have one picture that I could never print adequately on my HP printer. It is a picture of rose petals and had only reds and blacks. I wanted to print it on matte paper. My b9180 would produce a kind of orange-y red. When I got my Epson, I could print it just fine, but it also helped to boost the contrast a bit. That was an example where I could see (through soft proofing) that the print just wasn't going to be that great without some adjustment.

So I go back to my a thought that perhaps I'm missing something in Qimage that I think needs to do but doesn't -- and that is based on my Photoshop experience.

I'm in the US (Massachusetts). I'd be happy to talk to you Fred. How can I send you my phone number off line?

Thanks for taking the time to help me.
David

Fred and Terry,
Thanks for the replies. But from your replies, I can see that I wasn't clear in my question.

I understand how to look at the original image and the simulated (soft proofed) print image (<ctrl><space> while hovering over the thumbnail). I understand about the monitor and printer/paper profiles. I understand that the space bar goes between displays of the screen and simulated print versions of the image.

The question comes when the simulated image is not so good that it cannot be improved by making a modification to the file just so the printed image will be closer to the desired image. (I've often found that goosing the saturation, contrast or brightness improves the image especially when printing on fine art paper.)

When I mentioned filters, I was attempting to use Qimage terminology. As I tried to explain, in Photoshop, I would make an adjustment layer(s) and match a before and after (the one with the adjustment layer) to each other with the one showing the adjustments simulated printed copy. Then if I am printing, I turn that layer on and if I'm setting up the file for display on a monitor, I turn it off. If I am printing to canvas, the tweaks I make might well be different from those that I want to make if I'm printing on glossy paper which might be different from those I want to make if I'm printing on fine art matte paper.

I'm wondering whether the problem I'm having might be in the definition of soft proofing.

I think of soft proofing as conditionally adjusting an image for purposes of printing. I'm getting the feeling that that's not how Qimage defines it.

So I'm getting the feeling that there is no way that I can process an image so it looks good when set up for display on a computer display (presumably using a jpg for web or email) and then have some tweaks to that file that are only applied to the file when it's being printed.

If that's the case, I still kind of wonder what the point of soft proofing in Qimage is. It's got kind of a look-but-cannot-touch feel. ...or did I misunderstand your answers?

Thanks again,
David

After a few hours of searching, Google, the videos and manuals for Qimage and this forum, I have concluded that I'm not going to find what I'm looking for.

I'm one of (what I hope) is a legion of people frustrated with Adobe's new software rental policy who is voting with their feet and looking for alternates to CS6 and possibly, in the future, Lightroom. I like Qimage and I plan to start using it more in the near future as part of my effort to cut the Adobe cord. But one of the issues that comes up for me in dropping Adobe is soft proofing.

I've been soft proofing in Photoshop for a number of years and have been happy with the results. I display the image and a copy side-by-side, enable soft proofing in one and create a layer (or occasionally layer group) with tweaks to adjust the image for printing with the paper/printer combination I plan to use.

I'm trying to figure out how to do that in Qimage.

From what I've been able to glean, I can see what the image looks like on screen and approximately what it will look like when printed. But I have not seen any way I can create a filter to use just for printing the image -- or even better multiple filters for printing with various paper/printer combinations.

What I have not been able to figure out is what kind of workflow that will allow me to create a filter that is added to an image when I soft proof or print but not at other times. Failing that, I don't really understand the value the value of Qimage's soft proofing feature -- other than a bit of information to say that the print is close or not close to the screen representation. That is, there's no way to fix the image and get it to print the way one would want.

Thanks in advance for the help.
David