Printer colour profiling.

Printer used: Canon MG5250

Colour profiling device:

For this assessment task, I chose the following two paper types:

• Kodak matte 200 g/m2

• Epson Gloss 190 g/m2

Once the test-target swatches were printed, I needed to scan them with a special device so it could configure a profile for me to save.

This is a rather slow manual process, but it is also worth doing in order to maintain accurate colour reproduction in relation to what I would see on a colour calibrated monitor. After all that's what it's all about right..

Anyway, once I had created and saved the printer profile I was then able to compare it (by way of a virtual graph) on the computer's monitor to see what colours were being represented (printed) and which colours weren't.

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Now... there are many factors involved with correct colour, to be honest it is almost impossible to get everything absolutely correct, but as mentioned before, worth giving it your best shot. Factors like paper is the first issue that can alter the way we see (perceive) colour.

• The paper might have a slight colour cast to it. For example a gloss paper might be slightly bluer than the matte paper, which has a more warm (yellow or red) cast to it.

• The fact that more of the ink on the gloss paper is also sitting closer to the top of the paper's construction than the ink on the matte paper, which has seeped ever so slightly further down into the paper will affect the richness/saturation of colour by upsetting the light waves ever so slightly to cause a haze in relation to how the light reflects of the pigments. Crazy huh ':|

The other simple fact that how colour is reproduced comes down to whether or not the colour is REFLECTED or PROJECTED. This means is the colour projected as artificial light from an electronic signal or is it actually reflected light from minute amounts of manufactured ink that has been slightly absorbed into a sheet of paper and/or other surface - and that's even before we start to question the colour temperature of the light source cast upon the paper or the ambient light within the room we are viewing each of the two examples.

So to summarise, it is something very important to be aware of and at the same time, something almost impossible to perfect.

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The following images are screen-shots of colour profiles being compared with one another.

Adobe RGB v Printer