# Help with Manual Calibration of Mac to Match a 'Calibration Print'



## jackjohn777 (Sep 30, 2014)

Hi

I am aware of calibration tools such as those from Spyder, but have no idea if the experts out there would recommend one in particular given my needs (I'm also ideally not looking to pay more than £100-£150)?

I'm also not sure how you manually calibrate a Mac. For example I use Photobox for my prints and they provide a 'calibration print' for you to download and import into Lightroom, and they also send you a physical version for you to then match the two. However on receipt of the physical print I suddenly realised I didn't know how to adjust my Macbook to match it to the downloaded version, since the only tool I'm aware of on the Mac is via System Preferences, selecting 'Color' and then using their proprietary calibration tool, which takes you through a few steps using various shapes and images. I haven't seen anything that allows you to alter various elements manually as you look at your own image, so any help would really be appreciated.

Finally, 'soft proofing' was mentioned on another thread to help with the issue of prints coming out much darker due to illuminated screens etc, but whenever I click on that function within Lightroom it simply puts a white border around the image, and the image itself doesn't seem to really alter in terms of going to darker etc to represent better how it would look in print, or is this not what you'd expect the soft proofing option to do? I am going to spend some time learning more about it online but wondered if anyone was able to briefly recommend the best way to avoid the whole issue of what you see on screen ending up being close to what you see in print when it comes to darkness and the ambient light levels (colour covered in the paragraph above) you are working under at any given time? Just to be clear I am not asking about the best way to then boost the levels etc, I'm talking about easily finding out there's currently a significant difference between what's going to print and what you see, so you can do something accurately about it.

Thanks


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## Tony Jay (Sep 30, 2014)

OK Softproofing!

Firstly, there is no point in softproofing without a correctly calibrated monitor and a monitor also set to the appropriate luminance for the working environment.
Secondly, in order to softproof for a print one needs to have access to printer/paper ICC profiles that precisely reflect the printer/paper combination(s) that you are using. These can be downloaded and installed (not into Lightroom but into the OS).

Softproofing in Lightroom means that the ICC printer/paper profiles are installed.
When softproofing is activated and the appropriate ICC printer/paper is selected (I often print with Canson Baryta Photographique on my Epson Pro 7900) a couple of things happen.
Most images immediately start to look horrible - selecting softproofing has been termed the "How to Make my Image Look Like [email protected] button".
This is because the whole point is to simulate how the image will look when printed.
Without further processing a poor print is very likely.
Hopefully before one checks softproofing that image has been optimally processed in the Develop module: this image becomes the master image.
With softproofing selected as soon as any (of the very necessary) edits are made Lightroom will invite one to make a proof copy.
I always edit the proof copy using the master copy for reference.
As best possible the idea is to restore the proof copy to resemble the master copy.
To the nth degree this may not be possible because the Dmax achievable with paper and ink cannot achieve the Dmax that a monitor can and it is likely that the paper/ink combination cannot completely reproduce all the colours in the image as represented as a selection from the ProPhotoRGB colourspace which has a much larger gamut than any printer can achieve.
Generally most of the edits required to the proof copy involve changes to contrast and either vibrance or occasionally saturation.

This way consistent results can be obtained. Once consistency has been achieved then fine tuning becomes possible to maximise the capabilities of the printer.
I print a lot and this is the way to get consistency and accuracy in my prints.

This post has a lot of information and should be used in a referential sense to further educate oneself on the subject.

Tony Jay


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## jackjohn777 (Sep 30, 2014)

Tony Jay said:


> OK Softproofing!
> 
> Firstly, there is no point in softproofing without a correctly calibrated monitor and a monitor also set to the appropriate luminance for the working environment.
> Secondly, in order to softproof for a print one needs to have access to printer/paper ICC profiles that precisely reflect the printer/paper combination(s) that you are using. These can be downloaded and installed (not into Lightroom but into the OS).
> ...



Thanks Tony. Great reply that certainly covers the 'soft proofing' element on my question. Hopefully someone else can cover the first bit now (you've more than done your bit!). Unfortunately as I use Photobox for my printing and they have told me that they not only use loads of different printers that are also different brands and on each print run your images could be printed across those printers even if e.g. you are only printing 20 images i.e. 5 could be done on one printer and 3 on another and the rest on another, and this also varies with the aspect ratio, so even if they would give me their profiles, which I doubt, it wouldn't be much use as I wouldn't know which printer is being used for each image. It sounds like the best thing I can do in the circumstances is simply use the calibration print Photobox send etc, which comes back to the first part of my question. 

BTW Do you recommend getting your own printer? Are they really sufficient quality compared to printers like e.g. Photobox (I know Photobox aren't exactly top end)?

Thanks again


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## Tony Jay (Sep 30, 2014)

If you don't know what the paper/printer combinations will be then you cannot softproof.
In fact, by the sound of it Photobox do not use a colour-managed workflow and so printing through them will result in truly random results.
My advice is to find a company that does use a truly colour-managed workflow or get your own printer.
Which way you jump will depend on your budget, printing volumes, and how determined you are to get optimal results.

Tony Jay


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## jackjohn777 (Oct 1, 2014)

Tony Jay said:


> If you don't know what the paper/printer combinations will be then you cannot softproof.
> In fact, by the sound of it Photobox do not use a colour-managed workflow and so printing through them will result in truly random results.
> My advice is to find a company that does use a truly colour-managed workflow or get your own printer.
> Which way you jump will depend on your budget, printing volumes, and how determined you are to get optimal results.
> ...



I agree Tony, and I've had this debate with Photobox mgt as I have indeed had truly random results across even small print runs e.g. some are excellent and some are way too dark etc, which I couldn't understand until they told me that lots of printers, including different brands etc, could be used across even a very small print run such as 20 images. I'm guessing files get assigned to whatever printer is currently showing most capacity at any moment and that changes all the time given the volume of customers & images being produced to meet their quick turnaround times. Photobox seem to get round any unhappiness with prints by simply doing without question as many more runs as you want until you are happy with the results. However it's no way to operate and makes it impossible to alter the base image if that is even necessary as you don't know what printer etc is going to be used and certainly wouldn't know if it was the same one as before.

I know you print your own but is there a company you have heard good things about that would match your advice? 

Regarding the scenario you raised, I am very keen to get as good results as practical given I'm not a professional selling prints, and I absolutely want to match as closely as possible what I see on screen with what prints out. Budget wise I'm open minded and don't have any constraints, but again I'm not a professional so not having any constraints doesn't mean I'll burn cash for the sake of it or to achieve a quality that only the experts will appreciate compared to other options. Printing volumes is difficult to estimate. I'm drowning in baby photos at the moment (1000s) as I have a very young family, and have lots of requests for them. However most of the time currently I'm producing the pages for Photobooks, but we would like a lot of pictures around the house too. Do you have a high quality printer/paper recommendation that is not over the top given the points I've made? What would make you lean towards your own printer rather than a company?I wasn't sure for example if high print volume meant don't get your own printer or low print volume.

Thanks for all your help and advice

PS Just out of interest whereabouts are you in Brisbane? My wife is from Brisbane and we're most likely moving to Queensland from England in the next year.


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## jackjohn777 (Oct 1, 2014)

BTW Just in case the original post is getting lost in the discussion re soft proofing etc, is there not anyone out there that can help with the first two paragraphs e.g. how to manually calibrate e.g. a Macbook Pro to match a calibration print?


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## clee01l (Oct 1, 2014)

jackjohn777 said:


> BTW Just in case the original post is getting lost in the discussion re soft proofing etc, is there not anyone out there that can help with the first two paragraphs e.g. how to manually calibrate e.g. a Macbook Pro to match a calibration print?


You do not calibrate a computer monitor to a Calibration  image.  You tune the monitor response such that when the computer sends a color signal the monitor emits that same color frequency.  If the app sends a red pixel to the screen (255,0,0) the screen emits 255,255,0  A calibration tool will measure the color emitted from the display and compare it with the values sent to the screen and then compute an adjustment to tune the monitor to send the correct color signal.  Color Calibration is done for all of the possible colors that the display is capable of (not just red)

If you do not have a real calibration tool then your eyeball is the next best thing.  In System Preferences under the Dispaly applet  {color) tab is a  button labeled {Calibrate}  Pressing this will produce a series of color and resolution tests that based upon your response will create a display icc profile that will tune your display to something close to accurate colors. 

Then if you view a calibration print image file in a color managed application like LR or PS the colors on the screen should match those on a printed card held up along side the display.  You can not print your own calibration card unless you have a very well tune calibrated printer.    Normally the card is used to adjust other color images taken in the same lighting conditions at the same time as a photo of the card.


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## jackjohn777 (Oct 1, 2014)

Thanks for the reply Cletus, and it's good to get that confirmed, because as per my original post I have followed the Mac process you've highlighted, but the Photobox process for calibration made me think there was some sort of manual option for calibration too, especially as after using the mac tool it was still absolutely nothing like the physical Photobox calibration print I was sent, and given they also ask you to import their digital image into e.g. Lightroom as well and modify settings as appropriate. I'll paste what they ask you to do, so you can see what I mean...

If you usually use image editing software, it’s a good idea save a copy of this calibration image. You can then open the image using your software programme and modify your RGB settings for the correct colour match.

A print of this calibration image is automatically included with your first order. Use it to alter the brightness and contrast on your monitor, until it matches how the image appears in print.


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