Idea Digital Imaging

Clients often ask us why we don't use the supplied European CMYK profiles that come with Photoshop?

There are two good reasons:

1. Neither of the Euroscale v2 profiles are suitable for producing CMYK images for magazine reproduction. Euroscale coated v2 has a maximum ink limit of 350% which is too heavy for web printing.

2. Profiles built using Custom CMYK dialog produce some very poor and very bizarre results.

We prefer the ECI ISO-standard profiles that are free to download from www.eci.org or www.fogra.org.

Aren't the supplied Euroscale v2 profiles the same as the ECI ones?

Adobe claim that the Euroscale v2 profile was created using ECI data. But the profiles produce different results and look very different when analysed using software like Heidelberg PrintOpen.

Visually, the Euroscale v2 profile produces a cooler, bluer result. It is also lighter in the shadows than the ISOcoatedsb profile.

As I've always felt that AdobeRGB1998 tended towards results that were too red, it would seem that using Euroscale v2 is the perfect antidote!

But this isn't a good way of working, because the profiles should behave in a very similar way and produce similar looking results (if they were based on the same data - which is doubtful).

Why is there a difference?

Dunno. Adobe claim that nobody has ever complained about the quality of separations from the Euroscale v2 profile and that it gives good results based on the ECI data.

There are differences between US and European print practices. European printers seem to be keener on standardizing the process and are critical about press gray balance. US printers seem more reliant on judging and adjusting gray balance on press.

So, we Europeans are more likely to get poor results from the Adobe profile.

What settings should I use?

Really, you'll need to come to your own decisions on the colour settings that suit you best.

We have decided to avoid Adobe's profiles because the results aren't what we expect. They also don't give you much choice - coated/uncoated are the only real options.

Can't you create your own profiles in Photoshop?

Yes, you can create custom CMYK profiles using Photoshop's Color Preferences dialog. But these yield even worse results than the supplied Euroscale profiles.

A normal person would assume that making a custom profile using the following settings:

Ink Color: Eurostandard Coated
Dot Gain: 12%
Sep type: GCR
Black Generation: Light
Black Ink Limit: 100%
Total Ink Limit: 350%
UCA Amount: 0

Would produce similar results to Euroscale v2 & the ISOcoated profiles. But it doesn't. It produces a horrible separation that is far too saturated and far too red.

Here are the examples:

The separation below is from AdobeRGB1998 to Euroscale v2:

Note the coolness of the neutrals and the open shadows.

This separation is from AdobeRGB1998 to ISOcoatedsb:

Note the yellower neutrals, warmer overall appearance and the slightly clogged shadows.

This separation is from AdobeRGB1998 to our custom profile using the settings quoted earlier in the story:

This is a truly horrible separation and not the sort of thing that you'd expect to get if you've carefully input the correct settings that have been supplied by your printer!

The reason for the poor results are that Photoshop's tools for creating custom profiles are very limited. Profiles that are generated by professional software are based on thousands of measurements and a complex model of press behaviour. Photoshop's profiles are based on a handful of values and a simplistic model of press behaviour.