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soft proofing?

Posted: March 14th, 2019, 8:56 pm
by bolonick
In programs such as Lightroom there is the implication that it is possible to "soft proof" for different inkjet printers and types of paper by adjusting the image on-screen to get a more accurate print The Color Management Help of Picture Window Pro implies that because modern inkjet printers are full gamut devices, this doesn't really make much sense. Are there two different issues here or does Lightroom have some capability missing in PWP?

Re: soft proofing?

Posted: March 14th, 2019, 9:20 pm
by jsachs
You can use it. Personally, I've never found it all that useful, but I don't do that much printing and when I do, I usually find it takes a number of test prints to get the results I want. While soft proofing can hide the colors you can see on the monitor but can't print, it can't show you the colors the printer can print but that you can't display. Soft proofing is a feature of the color management engine we are using -- lcms, and not handled directly by Picture Window.

Re: soft proofing?

Posted: March 14th, 2019, 9:35 pm
by bolonick
So, does that mean that you are dubious that what Lightroom is doing is really any more effective in adjusting for printer and paper combinations than just using the ICC files?

Re: soft proofing?

Posted: March 15th, 2019, 7:15 am
by jsachs
All soft proofing does is try to preview what the print will look like on the monitor. It does not affect what the print looks like, and I don't want to underplay the importance of using the right printer profile for your printer and paper combination. My only point is that even soft proofing cannot really show you what the print will look like, just a rough approximation. Serious color printing is almost always an iterative process, and in my workfolow, I use small test prints instead of soft proofing as they are much more accurate.

Re: soft proofing?

Posted: March 15th, 2019, 1:30 pm
by bolonick
Thanks for the replies.

Yes, the more I looked into this, the more I realized that the benefits of "soft proofing" can be illusory at least with respect to high end inkjet color printing in that most monitors do not do much better than Adobe sRGB and the color gamut of high end printers these days is larger or at least different. This doesn't even deal with the aesthetic differences in viewing an image on an additive color device, like a monitor, from a subtractive medium like a print