Profiling of printers
Now about profiling the printer. It makes sense to carry out this procedure only if the printing device is stable over time, i.e. the same image with the same settings will be guaranteed to print the same over a long period of time. Good or bad - in this case it doesn't matter, the main thing is the same.
Print stability is more important for electrographic (laser) printers. For example, there are printers that even have built-in “intelligent” algorithms that are designed to stabilize the print quality depending on external conditions, but in reality they are not only unable to do this, but are themselves a factor of instability. are triggered automatically when the printer is turned on. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get a predictable color on such devices.
Inkjet printers are more stable in printing, but at the same time, more demanding on paper. Their color gamut is highly dependent on paper type, ink and print quality settings. Therefore, the profile is built only after fixing these parameters. It will be relevant only if printing will be performed continuously with the same settings, on the same paper and the same ink. If you need to use several types of paper or settings, then, most often, you need to make your own profile for each type.
Separately, it should be said about paper. Manufacturers of paper, including paper for inkjet printing, to improve whiteness (especially of its cheap grades) often add a special component to the composition - fluorescent optical brightener (OPB). This additive allows the yellowish paper to appear whiter due to the luminescence effect. In this case, the absorption of light energy from the near ultraviolet region of light, which the human eye practically does not perceive, and the emission of this energy in the form of light in the blue visible part of the spectrum. Thus, the paper turns blue due to invisible ultraviolet radiation, as a result of which the human eye perceives yellowish paper as white.
This relatively inexpensive method of bleaching paper has its drawbacks. First, the perception of color on a print on such paper depends very much on lighting, more precisely, on the presence and amount of the ultraviolet component in it. Therefore, under different lighting conditions, the color of the print can vary significantly and unpredictably, depending on the properties and amount of FOF added by the paper manufacturer. Secondly, the sensitivity of the device that is used to measure color (spectrophotometer) in the near ultraviolet region is much higher than the capabilities of the human eye, and it will not work to “deceive” it in this way with the help of the OOF: the device will still “see” such paper as yellowish. Therefore, after “normal” profiling, all colors on such paper will have a parasitic (most often bluish or greenish) tint, which is very clearly visible “by eye” in neutral gray tones, where the sensitivity of human vision to color deviations is highest.
There are ways to compensate for the influence of the OLF through the use of various algorithms that are developed empirically. But due to the fact that the nature of such effects is due to the addition of OLF, the amount and chemical composition of which each paper manufacturer keeps secret, these algorithms do not always give a satisfactory result. In addition, a color profile with such compensation must be done separately for each light source under which these prints will be viewed.
Profiling of any printer can be performed with the visit of a specialist in the city of Khmelnytsky or in our office (you will need to bring the printer to our office with all the cables that are used to connect it). In the second case, your monitor is not calibrated, and you can evaluate the quality of the printer profiling work on a calibrated monitor in our office.