Photo Labs, Do they Need/Want your monitors ICC Profile?

[StealthLude]

Just a quick question...

Im just thinking outlound about "workflow" and how things are profiled and what not. Is it nessary for the lab you are printing at to have "MY" monitors profile. I have their printer profile, and i assume thats all I need. Convert or Assign their printer profile to my image as the last step and im on my way correct?

I also see my Monico XR creats a file for this profile, and I should apply it in my monitors prefrences, which i have done. What exctally does that do for me?

[tim]

Nope, you should be working in sRgb on a calibrated monitor. Send that to them, it should look right. You shouldn't ever load your monitor profile into photoshop AFAIK.

[Jesper]

There are two kinds of ICC colour profiles: device specific and device independent profiles.

You have device specific profiles for devices such as your monitor, your printer/ink/paper combination etc. Those profiles describe how a certain device reproduces colour.

A device independent profile describes a standard colour space, such as sRGB or Adobe RGB. Those colour spaces aren't linked to any particular device.

On your computer, you should work with your files in one of the standard colour spaces. You set the working colour space in Photoshop to one of the standard spaces (sRGB and Adobe RGB are the most frequently used). You tell Windows what the profile of your monitor is, so that Photoshop and other colour management aware software know how to display your sRGB or Adobe RGB image on your monitor correctly.

If you have the profile of your printing lab, you can convert (not assign) your image from sRGB, Adobe RGB or whatever standard colour space you use to the printer's profile before sending it to them, so that the file will be correctly printed.

The lab doesn't have anything to do with your monitor's profile.

[DavidW]

Applying your monitor's profile to your monitor is the correct thing to do. It tells the OS to install the correct Look Up Table for the monitor, and gives the colour management system the transformations between a standard colour space (Lab in the case of an OPTIX XR profile) and your monitor, so that colours display accurately.

That's the only place you use your monitor profile (with one small exception - Canon Digital Photo Professional, at least on Windows, needs to be pointed at your screen profile instead of picking it up automatically - why it's that way, I don't know). Certainly your monitor profile never needs leave your machine.


All pictures should be in a standard colour space such as sRGB or Adobe RGB.


So far as labs go, what you do is a little bit lab specific. In some cases, you convert your image to a device profile the lab supplies, and then send those images in that profile with instructions to print with automatic corrections off. In other cases, you send sRGB images, and tell the lab to print them with automatic corrections off.

You need to talk to your lab, and make sure they know that you're sending them data that you've already adjusted.



David

[UncleDoug]

Originally Posted by StealthLude

Just a quick question...

Im just thinking outlound about "workflow" and how things are profiled and what not. Is it nessary for the lab you are printing at to have "MY" monitors profile. I have their printer profile, and i assume thats all I need.

If they are following a reasonable ICC-based color managed workflow and you are as well your assumption is correct.

Originally Posted by StealthLude

Convert or Assign their printer profile to my image as the last step and im on my way correct?

Convert, yes. Assign, NO! Never, ever, ever, ever, assign a printer profile to any of your images. Unless you realy have a realy special circumstance. All hades will break out.