A frequently asked Photoshop questions is: why don't my prints match
the screen? Generally it's down to poor monitor calibration, but on other
occasions it's simply the fact that the user has unrealistically high
expectations of what can be printed or they’ve made the wrong selection
in the Photoshop Print with Preview dialog.
This section will discuss the options and commands associated with the
Photoshop CS Soft Proof feature and should also go some way to answering
the above question. However, you should note that I haven't included any
reference to specific printer driver set-ups as these have been covered
in a dedicated tutorial at: -
Managing colour
when printing
Basically soft proofing is nothing more than using your monitor as a
proofing device. However, accurate proofing is dependent upon the quality
and accuracy of the monitor profile that I described in Part 1. You’ll
also need good quality media profiles for each printer/media/ink
combination.
In order that we may get Photoshop in a state ready for soft proofing
we must configure the relevant dialogs. This is done via the View > Proof
Setup > Custom menu as shown below.
Proof Setup only affects the current or active image on your desktop.
So if you want to define your own default Proof Setup (as wise move) you
MUST configure the proof setup via the Custom menu option with NO
image/document open.
The various proofing options are:
- Working CMYK - soft proofs the image using the current CMYK
working space defined in the Colour Settings dialog.
- Working Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black Plate or Working CMY
Plates - soft proofs the image using the current CMYK working space
defined in the Colour Settings dialog.
- Macintosh RGB and Windows RGB - soft proofs the image using the
standard Mac or Windows monitor profile (i.e. Apple RGB and sRGB
respectively).
- Monitor RGB - soft proofs the image using your actual monitor
profile. If the image look bad when this option is selected you know
that your monitor profile is broken and needs to be recreated as
described in Part 1.
- Simulate Paper White - provides a preview of the shade of white
for the paper based upon the active soft proof profile . This option
requires a very accurate profile otherwise the whites of the image can
appear significantly more blue/yellow than it should.
- Simulate Ink Black - provides a preview of the dynamic range of
the image based upon the active soft proof profile.
The screenshot below shows a typical view of the Proof Setup dialog
for an Epson inkjet printer simulation. From this dialog we can easily
select, configure and save our own customised soft proofing setup for any
number of different printer profiles. Remember; make sure you have NO
images/documents open when going through the process of defining your own
default Soft Proof profile.
We begin the process by choosing the Profile; in the example shown
above I have selected the Epson profile for Premium Glossy paper. This
choice will be the profile for the media that we want to simulate on the
monitor.
Preserve Colour Numbers
This option will only be available if the image and profiles are in
sync, i.e. both are RGB or both are CMYK. Selecting the Preserve Colour
Numbers checkbox will usually result in a quite awful looking display,
this is how it should be. Basically we are simulating how the
document/image will appear if it is not converted to the actual device
profile.
One use of this option is to enable you to see how the image would
print if the media profile had not been selected in the Profile pop-up
menu. There are apparently others, but these all well beyond my
understanding. Normally it is best the leave the checkbox unchecked.
Use Black Point Compensation
I described Use Black Point Compensation previously when discussing
the Conversion Engines. Typically, it will be best to keep it checked.
Intent
Intent is the setting that appears to cause most confusion and it's
generally worth trying both Relative Colorimetric and Perceptual.
Typically Relative Colorimetric will be best but some highly saturated
images may benefit from choosing Perceptual.
Simulate
There are two options (or checkboxes) shown in this section of the
Proof Setup dialog. The first Paper White allows you to simulate, on the
monitor, the shade/colour of the paper white. The second Ink Black will
enable you to simulate, on your monitor, the dynamic range defined by
the media profile (i.e. how dark black will appear on the media you are
printing to). Note that selecting the Paper White checkbox will cause
the Ink Black to be selected and greyed out. Not all profiles will
support both options.
The resulting soft proof display can be quite disconcerting in that
the overall tone of the image may tend to look compressed or slightly
colour shifted (e.g. white takes on a blue cast). This can often occur
when using scanner derived printer profiles. In such circumstances it
may be best to ignore the use of the Paper White and Ink Black since it
is VERY unlikely that they are in fact providing an accurate soft proof.
No doubt things will improve as the suppliers of the profiling software
update their programs to be compatible with this Photoshop feature.
To save your customised proof setup simply choose the Save button and
give the soft proof profile a name that clearly indicates the
printer/media combination for which it should be used. The name of a
saved soft profile will be appended onto the bottom of the list
immediately below Simulate Ink Black.
The saved soft proof profiles are saved to the following locations:
Windows - Program Files/Common
Files/Adobe/Color/Proofing folder
Mac OSX - ~Library/Application
Support/Adobe/Color/Proofing folder
A comprehensive tutorial describing the technique of soft proofing is
provided here
Page 7 of 8
