ICC color profile digital proofing application

The significance of color management lies in the consistency of the output colors of various devices such as scanners, monitors, digital proofers, and printers in the process of printing and copying. One of the important elements is the Icc color profile. A complete Icc color profile should contain parameters describing the nature of the association between the primary color space and the destination color space, such as the device itself and the different tone curves, gray axes, and color tables for the operator.

There are three different types of Icc color profiles for different relationships between different color space models. The first one is the most important and the most used one. It is the Icc color profile that describes the characteristics of a specific device's color space (such as scanner's RGB, proofer's CMYK, etc.). This Icc color profile is based on device-independent color. Domain feature descriptors. The second is a device-associated color profile, based on two or more color gamut spaces, such as between two monitors, between multiple monitors and printing devices, etc., designed to describe the device and device Difference with other software systems to complete color management. The third type is based on different color gamut space or even different standards associated color profiles described in the PCS profile (profile connection space profiles), such as described in D65 and D50 different standard light source environment under the same device or different device color characteristics. The following describes the application features of the Icc color profile in the digital proofing color management system according to the conversion method between different devices.
At present, there are many color management softwares used for digital proofing in China, and the principles of color management are similar. Take Blackmagic as an example. We know that the ultimate goal of digital proofing is to achieve the consistency of proofing and printing content and color, and the premise is that the color space of the proofer must be larger than the color gamut of the printing, so that the matching and unification of the two color space can be achieved. There are four ways to convert the printer gamut space to the printing gamut space.

The first is the sensory method. If you use this method to measure the color difference after proofing, the Delta E is not necessarily the smallest, but the impression on the human eye seems to be closer to the actual printing. It caters to the feeling of the human eye. Therefore, the effect is closer to printing on the overall color, and this method is more suitable for proofs such as artwork or sample albums. The second is the absolute colorimetric method. If the colorimeter is used to measure the results, the resulting Delta E will be smaller because it is based on the smallest measured color difference. The process will consider the color of printing paper and proof paper. In this way, even if there is a color difference between the two papers, the paper color balance will be balanced by ink simulation so that the proofing and printing colors are completely consistent. This method can be selected for strictly required packaging and printing proofing and some proofs involving spot colors.

Again, the relative colorimetric method is very similar to the absolute colorimetric method, but it does not consider the paper color as the absolute colorimetric method, because the entire color gamut space white point changes in the process of simulating the paper color space. The conversion will be affected, so if the printing paper and the proofing paper color are very close, the relative colorimetric method will achieve a smaller sample color difference than the absolute colorimetric method, and the color will be more accurate.

The last method is the saturation method. If the sensory method is to reduce the color difference in the human visual sense, then the saturation law tends to brighten and saturate the color on the basis of the sensory method, due to the color space of the proofer to the printing color. The compression of space makes some color impressions that need to be exaggerated unsaturated. Saturation is the best choice for those who require the printer to continue to use color control in pursuit of better printing results, especially for Devices with a relatively small sample gamut space need this color conversion method. The above four conversion methods have their own characteristics and application objects, as long as a reasonable choice of use should be able to achieve the desired expected results.

It is the diversification of proofing requirements that makes the color management must have more application space, digital proofing is so, scanning equipment, display equipment and so on, as long as they have excellent color management software and the necessary hardware facilities and then choose the right The application of the method to achieve color management in the printing process is not far away.