Better printing & ink management

ICC profiles are the key to quality image colour management and ink management. If you are aiming for perfect pictures, get the results you are looking for every time. Simply install Ace Printer Profiles' custom ICC profiles

Colour profiles are a simple piece of computer code that helps the printer to produce the right colours. and is personal to you (your property), we send your custom ICC profile(s) by email which are quick and easy to install.

Getting the Highest Tone and Colour Quality from your Inkjet Printer

Custom ICC profiles ensure that your printer delivers the correct amount and colour of ink to the paper for true colour output. Using ICC profiles gives you better colour, better ink management and less wasted paper. In fact printer profiling goes further, as it standardizes the colour. This means that if you have two or more printers, or pass on an image to an external printer or a friend, each printer will produce the same colour (provided that they are all profiled). Remote Printer Profiling is the simplest way to acquire a profile, as it enables the user to profile a printer at home or in the office.

There are two principal types of Printer profile:
A)   Generic Profiles (sometimes called ‘Canned Profiles’) are actually typical for a printer or paper type. Generic profiles can be prepared by printer makers for a type of printer or by the paper manufacture for general use. Generic profiles can give quite good results on one printer but poor on another so are suitable for non-critical work.
B)    Custom Profiles are prepared to optimise the performance of all elements in the chain of paper grade, ink and the actual printer used to make the print. Custom profiling therefore gives the best quality since the ‘variables’ are tied down. Custom Profiles also give the greatest flexibility since any ink and paper can be used for profiling, with a specific printer.

Importance of Paper Quality

The formulation of inkjet paper for photo-printing is complex and critical to getting optimum colour and tone. Papers are given a coating, which is utterly critical to the depth and range of colour (Saturation and Gamut) that is reproduced. The coating is very thin but is able to absorb more liquid than its own volume by a huge degree. This keeps the colour at the surface, where the eye can see it, and prevents the colour from migrating into the paper base. For those requiring a first class paper as an alternative to your printer maker’s paper we can recommend www.papermilldirect.co.uk. This is a British maker in the Lake District who manufacture a wide range of types from glossy photo-papers to exquisite Art Papers for the connoisseur.

Paper Surface Finish

At Ace Printer Profiles we always use Matt surface papers for our exhibition prints because matt papers bestow a visual quality not achievable with glossy and pearl papers. Glossy papers very commonly have UV brighteners (so that they appear very white) included in the formulation. These brighteners generally have a negative effect on the colour performance of the paper and do nothing for its archival properties. If you wish to try a matt paper for your quality work we would recommend Photo Smooth High White Cotton 315g/m² from Paper Mill Direct www.papermilldirect.co.uk. This has no optical brighteners and a wonderful silk-like smooth surface.

Paper Economics Tip

Stocking paper is an expensive business, especially if you use a variety of sizes. One way to reduce these costs is to buy only the largest size that you can handle and then cut down. For instance an A3 paper can cut to 2 off A4, 4 off A5 and 8 off A6 without waste. A6 is an excellent size for cheap proofing.