Set Parameters for Print or Proof
•Process parameters (process/technology, paper grade/media, process colors/profile type)
•Color composition/black generation (UCR and GCR setting)
•Special options for profile calculation (gamut mapping, paper white correction and smoothing of measured data)
Click "OK" to confirm your parameter setup and close the dialog.
Click "Cancel" to close the dialog and discard any changes to it. The last setting is restored.
Process/Technology
This is where you can select the field of application or printing process for which you will generate an ICC output profile. The settings are also influenced by the paper grade you select.
When you select your field of application, the parameters for "Color composition/Black generation" (GCR/black) and for "Profile calculation options" (gamut mapping, proof setting and correction of measured data) are automatically set with default values which generally produce good results.
This can be seen by the attribute "Default" which appears in the relevant boxes. You can, however, change these default values and use either your own settings, other defaults from the printing shop or values determined by a series of tests. This changed setup is marked by " Custom":
•"Digital Toner Print": typical defaults for digital printing
•"ISO Offset Print": typical defaults for offset printing with the new ISO12647-2_2006 (ECI) settings.
•Offset Printing": typical defaults for offset printing based on the Euro standard or SWOP for coated paper are used.
•"Newspaper Printing": typical defaults for newspaper printing with black generated with UCR (not GCR!) and the total dot area limited (for normal newspapers).
•"Gravure Printing": typical defaults for gravure.
•"Proof": typical defaults for proofing to color ink jet printers.
•"Screen Printing": typical defaults for screen printing.
•"Flexo Printing": typical defaults for flexographic printing.
•"Color Ink Jet Printing": typical defaults for printing to ink jet printers, especially for proofing but also for offices for higher resolutions on coated paper.
•"Color Laser Printing": typical defaults for printing to color laser printers for offices on normal white laser printer/copier paper. These printers frequently use their own procedure for the generation of black (GCR) which is taken into consideration during the profile calculation.
•"Multicolor Offset Printing": defaults for printing with more than four process colors with a special 50% GCR setting (Multicolor).
•"Ink Saving": typical defaults for offset printing with GCR for stabilizing the printing process and saving ink.
Our quality tests have shown the following parameters to be optimal: total dot area 280%, K = 98%, GCR = 70%.
The default set automatically for "Process/Technology" in the "Generate profile" dialog depends on the type of process standard set.
|
Process Standard Type |
Process/Technology |
|---|---|
|
Offset or CGATS/G7 |
ISO Offset Print |
|
Proof |
Proof |
|
Digital |
Digital Toner Print |
In this box, you can select the printing material for which you want an optimized ICC output profile:
•"Woodfree coated": includes the two coated classic paper grades, "gloss coated" and "matt coated"
Printing material with a very smooth surface, special ink absorption and high opacity, very suited for the reproduction of black-and-white and color photos. This paper is also known as art paper that can go from matt to gloss. Coated papers are used for labeling and packaging printing or for high-quality productions such as catalogs and coffee table books. The paper weight ranges between 80 and 100 g/m² for machine-coated papers and between 90 and 135 g/m² for coated art papers. It is equivalent to print substrate "PS1" in the new offset process standard ISO 12647-2:2013.
•"Woodfree uncoated": includes the two uncoated classic paper grades, "uncoated white" and "uncoated yellowish".
The printing of uncoated paper depends greatly on the quality of its surface finish. Uncoated papers can have a calendered (machine-glazed paper) or super-calendered finishing.
Uncoated paper is used especially for offset book-printing and rotary printing. Uncoated, woodfree papers are known as fine papers.
It is equivalent to print substrate "PS5" in the new offset process standard ISO 12647-2:2013.
•"Proof glossy", "Proof matt", "Proof semi-matt": Special papers for proofing with high-quality color ink jet printers (e.g. Iris proofer) or with thermosublimation printers.
•"Digital glossy", "Digital matt", "Digital uncoated": Paper grades for digital printing
Note: Classification compliant with the following process standards:
·ISO 12647-2 offset printing
·ISO 12647-3 newspaper printing
·ISO 12647-4 gravure printing
The profile type shown here ("CMYK", "CMY" or "Gray") depends on the test chart you selected.
•"3 color CMY": With a four-color test chart (CMYK), you can also calculate a profile for CMY without black if you check this box. Black generation is then disabled for the profile setup.
This function is required for printing processes where black is hard to control or if a large amount of black has to be used because of other elements on the page (for example, fonts). In such a case, there would be too much black in the black separation and the colors would appear dirty.
•A three-color composition using only CMY may be the best choice for certain laser color printers if black is calculated by internal processes in the printer and cannot be deactivated for profile calculation.
•"Gray": A single-color gray profile just using black will be calculated if you check this box.
'Color composition / Black generation'
Black generated for the print and proof table is determined by the UCR setting for total dot area and maximum black. Black is also influenced by the parameters "Black length" and "Black width". An alternative method is to generate black by setting a GCR value (Gray Component Replacement) and a starting point.
Explanations of the terms "GCR" and "UCR" can be found in the Glossary.
Total dot area / Maximum black
The "Total dot area" and the "Maximum black" affect each other. A restriction in maximum black affects the available density range in printing much more than a restriction of the total dot area. For that reason, you should first try to reduce the total dot area and leave the maximum black as high as possible.
In offset printing, black is usually the first color to be printed. It is often a good idea to restrict maximum black to between 95% and 98% so that black does not fully cover the paper surface at once and that splitting of the next ink is diminished, consequently letting you differentiate between images and text/graphics in the pdf.
Depending on the printing medium and printing process you use, it may be necessary to restrict the total dot area for all colors.
•"Total dot area": The maximum dot area that can be set is obtained from the total of cyan, magenta and yellow dot areas in the darkest neutral dot (three-color composition without black) and the maximum dot area permitted for black.
You can set the total dot area to values between 110% and 400%.
If no specific values are required by the printer, you should enter the following values:
·a value between 280% and 330% for offset printing
·260% for toner digital printing
·400% for ink jet proofers on coated paper to have the maximum gamut.
Note: With values below 210%, you can have a loss of print quality. For example, issues can occur in the transitions with secondary colors because the total dot area is no longer achieved in the composition of the secondary colors (e.g. red = 100% each for Y and M; with 110% total dot area it can be printed only with 55% each for Y and M).
For some machines, however, such low values are required for the total dot area for technical reasons.
If you want to set a higher value, you must first increase the maximum dot area for black.
A small loss of contrast always occurs in the image: the lower the selected total dot area, the higher the loss of contrast. A satisfactory contrast can be achieved by defining a high value if this is possible with the printing medium you use.
•"Maximum black": Use the setting for maximum black to define the maximum screen percent possible in the black separation of the print and proof table.
You can set the maximum dot area for black to a value ranging between 60% and 100% (or to the press limit of the test chart).
The UCR calculated for black in the print and proof table depends on the setting for total dot area and maximum black.
See the descriptions in Total dot area / Maximum black for more information about these two settings.
Click "Modify" if you wish to generate black either with GCR or with black length and width. The 'GCR setting/Black generation' Dialog then appears.
You can use these special profile calculation options to define other specific settings for your print and/or proof table (expand the section by clicking "Show profile options").
This function allows you to define special options for color composition in the color conversion table for printing (print table/separations).
Gamut mapping lets you set how the original images will be matched visually to the color gamut available in printing.
By default, an optimized gamut mapping for your printing process is calculated.
Click "Modify" to open the 'Gamut mapping' Dialog.
Note: Corrections relating to a specific image should not be made using the profile settings but with the appropriate functions of an image editing program.
You can set further options with this function that are important for certain proofs. You can correct the effect of fluorescent whitening either by automatic paper white correction or by a spectral conversion of the color data. Paper white can also be corrected by matching the lightness of the L value to proofing.
If you wish to change these settings, click "Modify" to open the 'Correction of color data' Dialog.
This function allows you to trigger an automatic correction of the measured data (plausibility check) or an intelligent smoothing of the color data. The changed color data are used for profile calculation. The original color data are retained, however.
Note: If you use this correction function in the "Measure" main function, the changed color data will be saved and your original values will be overwritten. For that reason, we recommend that you save the changed data as a new file.
If you wish to change these settings, click "Modify" to open the 'Smoothing of color data' Dialog.
Preferences for color composition and black generation are set after you define the field of application ("Process/Technology", "Paper class/Media" and "Process colors/Profile type"). You can save parameters for the entire dialog in a parameter set and display it again using the name you assigned it.
Click "Store" to display the 'Store parameter set' Dialog where you can save your current parameters for profile calculation to a parameter file you name. These settings are then available for other profile calculations, making it unnecessary to retype the parameters. You can, of course, make changes to them at any time.
Click "Load" to display the 'Load parameter set' Dialog where you can select and open a parameter set with saved settings for profile calculation.
In "Calculation", you start calculation of the ICC output profile after you selected the profile size and profile specification (V2 or V4).
You can then save the new ICC profile to any folder you specified or directly to the system folder for profiles.
Prerequisite: You can calculate an ICC output profile only if you have a test chart with at least 100 color patches. Other requirements must be met depending on the process, for example, there must be solid tints (CMY and RGB colors), contones and a certain number of combinations.
The open data file is checked automatically and, in some cases, rejected with an error message. The smallest test chart in the shipment that you can use to calculate a profile is the "PrintOpen Basic 135" with 135 color patches.
Calculating the ICC output profile
•"Profile size": The transformation tables in the profiles are calculated with a different color depth and a different number of coordinates depending on what you set here. The computing time required, the profile size and the quality of the ICC output profile vary accordingly. The default for profile size is "Large (16 bit profile)".
You can select the following profile sizes in the list box:
·"Small (8 bit profile)": All the transformation tables are 8 bit.
·"Medium (8/16 bit profile)": As "Small" but the colorimetric transformation tables are 16 bit and have a large number of coordinates (as "Large").
·"Large (16 bit profile)": All the transformation tables are 16 bit and have a large number of coordinates.
•"Calculate V4 profile": The V4 specification for ICC profiles that has been valid since 2002 allows additional tags and structures such as matrixes. However, these new profiles are still not very widespread and are not yet supported by many applications.
The ICC profile is calculated on the basis of the new V4 ICC specification and not on V2.1 of 1998 if you enable this option.
Click "Start" to start an analysis of the measured data. During the analysis the program examines all the results for errors and corrects these.
Afterwards, calculation of the profile starts. You can follow the progress of calculation in the status display line.
A message saying that color patches with significant deviations were found may appear. Confirm this message with "OK" to automatically correct the data and continue calculation. Click "Cancel" to stop profile calculation. You can now remeasure or correct the implausible values and then restart profile calculation.
You can stop calculation at any time by clicking "Stop".
The description you type is suggested as the file name of the ICC output profile when it is being saved.
The file name of the currently open data file and its key parameters displays automatically in the text box. The suggested file name has no blanks to avoid issues when saving the file.
You can edit this suggested file name and type any description for the new ICC profile into this box. We recommend that your description shows you at once what type of profile it is, e.g. "OffsetPT1_glosscoated_IT873 U340 K95 7-5":
•Process/technology (e.g. offset)
•Paper grade/media (e.g. PT1_glosscoated or gloss coated)
•Test chart type (e.g. IT 873)
•Total dot area (e.g. U340)
•Maximum black (e.g. K95)
•Black length and width (e.g. 7--5)
•[Profile type (e.g. CMYK)]
•[Number of patches (e.g. 928)]
•[set GCR value (e.g. G50)]
This profile description is saved along with the profile. Some applications or system extensions use this entry instead of the file name for selecting ICC profiles.
After calculation of the profile is finished, close the dialog box by clicking "OK". Now you only have to save the new ICC profile.
Click "Save" in the button bar to open the "File Save" dialog.
Select the type of file here:
•"ICC Profile (.icc)": contains the calculated profile data as well as the color data in IT8.7 format and the parameter settings for profile generation. This type of file can be opened again by Prinect Color Toolbox and is the default setting.
•"ICC profile without measured data (.icc)": only contains the calculated profile data (benefit: small file size) and cannot be opened by Prinect Color Toolbox again.
•"Measured data (*.txt)": contains the color data in IT8.7 format and the parameter settings for profile generation. This type of file can be opened again by Prinect Color Toolbox. Can be used for archiving, for example, if the profile is saved without measured data.