Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hi,

I do my processing in Photoshop and use QI for printing. I want to try doing Soft-Proofing in Photoshop, as part of the preparation of the 'Copy for Print' file which I'll submit later to QI for printing. However, there are one or two points which I need to clarify. (I know QI has the Soft Proof option, but I prefer to do the adjustments in PS.)

I follow these steps:

In Photoshop, I set 'View->Custom Proof Setup' with the printer profile I'm going to use for printing.

I duplicate the original image to create the 'Copy for Print', and arrange the original and the copy in side-by-side windows on the screen, so that I can better compare the two.

I Set 'View' to 'Proof Colors' for the copy, and use the necessary adjustment tools on the copy, to make it look as close as possible to the original.

Then I want to save the copy with 'Save As...'.

In the 'Save As...' dialog, Save Options->Color  'Use proof setup:...' is grayed and cannot be selected (Why? Is there a setting which will enable this option?). The only option is 'ICC Profile:...' the original color space (sRGB, in this case).

For QI to properly deal with the print file, does the printer profile need to be embedded (or tagged) in the file?

QI identifies the input color space as sRGB, is this OK? Doesn't it have to be informed in some way that the image was tweaked according to the printer profile?

Any help will be appreciated,

Moshe

No. the actual image profile should be embedded, sRGB, Adobe RGB etc.
That is the default if there is no embedded profile or no exif tag. Embedded is the sure way to communicate an image colour space to a colour management aware application like Qimage.
No. That is what a colour management aware program does; you need, as well as the image having an embedded profile, the printer profile set up in Qimage, and the monitor profile of course.
You do this in Edit preferences of click the blue dot next the appropriate ICC line, bottom right of the main screen. Basically, it's the set-up you would use for printing.

An involved procedure  ::)
In Qimage, hover the mouse over the thumbnail, key CTRL-Space bar together and yo get a softproofed view. Hit the space bar repeatedly and it switches between softproofed and normal view for easy comparison.  :D
Just a comment on softproofing, it relies on accurate monitor and printer profiles, there is 2 lots of conversion going on. You can't beat doing a print, that eliminates the monitor profile and is the "real thing"; Qimage does have a test strip feature too  :P
Terry.

Thanks Terry!

The purpose of proofing in PS is not just for viewing, but mainly for adjusting the print copy. I do it with PS tools, to which I'm used, more than the QI tools.

Moshe

Is there a way to adjust the filters in QI while looking at the soft-proof?  As far as I can see, one has to make filter adjustments and then exit out and use the Full Page Editor to see the soft-proof, then if further adjustments are needed, return to the filter editor, adjust, then return to Full Page Editor, etc.  It would be very useful to be able to adjust the filters while looking at the soft-proofed version of an image.

You can call for the Softproof at any time from the main screen by right click on the thumbnail and select Softproof, or use the keys, CTRL SPACE

But is there any way to see the softproof while using the filter editor?  The filter editor screen replaces the main screen, so there's no way to access the thumbnails while using the filter editor.

If memory serves me right, Softproof is achieved by comparing a monitor profiled image to a printer profiled image.
If that is the case, then you would need an updated image after you made editing changes.
Those changes go into effect after you save the filtered changes, and the image can refresh based on the changes.

Fred