PrinterCal contains advanced profile options which can provide better printed results, particularly when printing none separated artwork such as RGB images that are out of gamut.  

When you select Save ICC Profile from the File Menu of Printer Cal, you can select which type of profile you want to save. You have the following options; Best for Separate Designs, Best for Image, Best for Flat Colour and Custom. This article focuses on the Best for Images option.

In the example above, the image on the left is using the default profile option in Printer Cal (Best for Separated files) the image on the right is using the 'Best for Images' option, as you can see in this example you get better contrast and colour saturation with this option set

The colour contained within images is handled in a different way to those contained within separated artwork, and therefore, if you predominantly print images, we strongly advise you to use the Best for Images option when building your profiles. You can of course save different versions of the profile from the same set of measurements, and do some test prints to see what works best for your designs.

You will get more of a difference / advantage between the different profile options if your printer has a smaller colour gamut to start with or the designs you are printing are out of gamut.

How to save a Best for Image profile

1. Open your printer profile measurements into PrinterCal (this is the .printercal file which you saved at the end of reading in the profile target).
2. Go to File Menu > Save ICC Profile, and in the window which opens, select Best for Images from the Profile drop down menu.
3. Press OK and save with an appropriate name.
4. Once the profile has built, set this in the Profile section of the AVA CMS Controller as your new printer profile.

Within the Advanced options, the following settings are applied when using the 'Best for Image' option.

You can adjust the setting above further, for example you may prefer the look of your files with the 'Smooth Separation' option checked, but take care to note what settings you used so you can achieve the same results with new profiles at a later date.

What are the disadvantages of using an ICC profile set to Best for Images?

The main disadvantage over the 'Best for Separated Designs' is a loss of accuracy, particularly for colours closer to the edges of the colour gamut.  So for example if you are printing a spot separated design with measured colours or PANTONE®®s the output will be more accurate using the 'Best for Separated Designs' option.

Further image adjustments

To improve the look of images further you could use the Colour Correction Layer in AVA. In the example below you can see that the original image (top image) is a little too dark using the 'Best for Image' profile, so I used the Colour Correction Layer to make the shadows a little lighter and I also increased the colour saturation a little to make my image look a little more vibrant, see bottom image.

Another option would be to try using Black Point Compensation, this can have a similar effect, but can result in the image looked more washed out that it should, see related articles for more information on this.

We recommend you run some test prints with this new profile, and if you have any concerns over the printed files, please contact AVA Technical Support for advise on how to improve your prints further and check your profile measurements.

Black Point Compensation in AVA applies an offset to the black point of an image profile so it lines up with your output profile. This can help you get more tonal movement in images, particularly in dark areas so you maintain details in shadows.

AVA can use BPC when displaying images and when separating through a profile. Any functions in AVA using an embedded ICC profile can use BPC.

To separate using BPC

Separating through a profile applies the current profile settings (rendering intent and BPC). So make sure you are using a profile with the correct settings in order to obtain an accurate separation. 

1. To set or change profile settings, load the ICC profile on to a CMYK layer. Set the correct settings by holding down the control key and clicking on the profile icon in the Layers Palette.
2. Save the profile. You can then use the profile to separate other designs.
3. Remove the profile from the CMYK layer.
4. Separate your designs using one of the many separation techniques such as 'With Profile...', found in the Separate Menu.

Profiles with BPC will work with the Profile Selector separation method but the delta-E differences generated will not provide an accurate way of judging the best profile when used as a target profile. This is because BPC deliberately distorts the colours in the image, increasing the delta-E differences, whereas the profile selector looks for the closest match. The same reasons apply to the Compare function. 

Recommended settings for: 

• Scanned RGB Image - use Relative Colorimetric intent with Black Point Compensation 
• Separating to CMYK - use Relative Colorimetric without BPC, unless this gives bad results in which case try BPC for the separation. Always view the CMYK image without BPC, otherwise you can get a very unrealistic representation of what the final print will look like 
• Viewing CMYK - use BPC off and use Relative or Absolute Colorimetric rendering intent

Rendering intents determine how colours are mapped when moving images from one colour space to another. They have a particular impact on colours which are outside the gamut of the destination colour space, be that your desktop printer or production. Using the correct rendering intent for the job is necessary in order to obtain the best results from images with embedded profiles.

To change the selected rendering intent, hold down the control key and click on the profile icon in the Layers Palette. A contextual menu appears.

Select the Rendering Intent you want to use for the selected layer or image and the change of Rendering Intent will be applied.

Any changes made to profiles which are attached to layers are recorded in the History Window, therefore you can go back if the change was not necessary. To further improve the reproduction of images, you may also wish to apply Black Point Compensation.

There are four Rendering Intent modes:

Absolute Colourimetric rendering intent

AVA will reproduce the colours in the image as closely as possible to the original. All colours in the image that are within the gamut of the output device (monitor or printer) will be reproduced exactly. If the profile white point differs from the current substrate colour, white areas on the image may end up darker than the substrate or light tones may be clipped. Some types of profile (such as most scanner, digital camera and monitor profiles) do not work well in absolute mode and give a strong colour cast to the image.

Absolute Colorimetric intent is recommended for proofing CMYK profiles where you want the proof to match the original image. 

Relative Colourimetric rendering intent

This mode is similar to Absolute Colorimetric mode except that the white point of the profile is scaled to that of the substrate. The effect is that ‘white’ areas of the image will be the same colour as the substrate. All of the colours in the image are modified to compensate for the differences between the profile white point and the substrate colour.

Relative Colorimetric mode would be appropriate for a design with a mix of CMYK process layers and spot colours. Using Relative Colorimetric mode ensures that the white areas in the CMYK images will match the substrate colour. 

Perceptual rendering intent

In Perceptual mode, the colours in the image are modified to produce an attractive result. Colour accuracy may be sacrificed as a result. The white point in Perceptual mode is treated in a similar manner to Relative Colorimetric mode.

Perceptual mode is appropriate for applications where you have an image and want to generate a nice looking separation from it (such as for scanned images or digital photographs). It may also be useful when importing CMYK images from other applications.

Saturation rendering intent

This mode is intended for the reproduction of business graphics (like graphs), where you want the brightest, most saturated colours possible. Saturation intent is not generally used in colour managed workflows.

All profiles have a default rendering intent. AVA will use this intent when the profile is first assigned to a layer.

The use of profiles on CMYK and RGB images is essential for the creation of colour stable images which can be viewed at a later date on the same or different CAD station with the knowledge that the colours will be as consistent as they were the day they were created.

These days, profiles can be embedded within documents rather than relying on a single global system profile to be used for all files. These profiles can also be set on individual colourways or individual layers. Once set, they are automatically saved within AVA, PDF and JPEG files and are restored when the files are reopened.

The Layers Palette shows a small multi-coloured profile icon when a profile has been assigned to a layer.

If a profile is not set on any layers the software uses the setting from the Overprinting Settings window. However, if a profile is set the overprinting option Use ICC profile on CMYK/RGB Image is overridden.

In AVA, you can apply ICC profiles from the desktop to a file, from a file to another file or from within the same file, simply by dragging and dropping individual ICC profiles next to each layer. When you hover over the ICC profile icon, a + symbol appears which indicates that you can drop the profile there.

You can also set a profile by holding down the control key and clicking on the profile icon to access its contextual menu and selecting Load Profile.

The profile is only set for the current colourway but you can apply this profile to other colourways, if required, by selecting Apply to all colourways in the contextual menu. If a new colourway is created, the profile is automatically duplicated. However, if you hold down the option key and click the “+” button when creating a new colourway, no profile will be set.

Internal efficiencies ensure that only a single copy of each profile is saved within the file. This means that your files will not become too large as a result of having many colourways using the same profile.

Once set, a help tag showing the profile’s name will be shown when you hover over the profile icon in the Layers Palette.

Embedded profiles can be removed from layers by dragging them to the bin. you can also remove a profile by holding down the control key and clicking on the profile icon in the Layers Palette to access its contextual menu and selecting Clear Profile.

It is not possible to save an ICC profile by dragging it from a file to the desktop. Use the Save Profile command from the contextual menu instead.