Color Profiles & Color Calibration // Affinity Photo Tutorial

[Multi4G]

 

[jer]

@Olivio Multi4G and anyone... I have a HP 15" laptop (high res, recent technology, Nvidia, etc) and a HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 Wide Format printer as I do a lot of Tabloid sized work. It is not a graphics quality printer and uses only 4 ink colors, CMYK. I work in RGB in Affinity Designer and in Affinity Photo. The AD work is primarily "cartoon" with heavy black strokes and color gradients fills. Once I get the colors visually nice on the display screen, I print and find that the OfficeJet results are 20%-50% darker on paper than the screen. Light generated vs pigment generated, right? They are even darker if I use the printer high print quality options so I stay in the normal output settings.

I wonder what is the easiest way to color correct in my work flow. I can use HSL color adjustments on each and every shape to lighten before I print thus avoiding unwanted changes to black & white. On 250 shapes with gradients, this is an effort but it works. Or maybe I should put a Curves adjustment at the top of the layers stack that affects all the layers of the drawing. This would seem to be the "sledge hammer" approach but a one-click visibility on or off for instant comparison has a lot of merit.

Is there a better solution since this problem occurs 100% of the time? I'm not into color calibration techniques between devices unless it is really easy. 

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@jer 

The simplest way to work without investing in expensive and complicated color calibration tools is to work in the sRGB color space.

sRGB is not the largest RGB color space, but it has been adopted by device manufacturers as the most common minimum color gamut that most electronic displays can display. Moreover, most desktop printers (inkjet and laser) sold to offices and home users expect sRGB files, which the printer converts (using it's built-in color engine) to CMYK for output.

And if you ever have need to send a press-ready PDF to a professional offset printer, you can then convert a copy of the document to the CMYK color space profile recommended by your print vendor (in the U.S. it's most commonly "U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2).

Check your Affinity Preferences for Color. There you can set your preferred color space profiles for RGB and CMYK documents. See the attached screenshot below for the Affinity factory defaults. 

[jer]

@Mark, thanks, my preferences are set just as yours are. My bad for not being more specific when I said I work in RGB. I appreciate your taking the time to think about it.

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@jer

I should add that if your target output is the printout from your HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 Wide Format printer consider the following:

• the quality and finish of your paper (standard uncoated office copy paper, or coated paper for photos or high-fidelity color output)
• color matching options presented by the print dialog box (with Mac OS I can select either "ColorSync" or "In Printer"; see attached image)

If you are still not getting desired results, consider using a Soft Proof adjustment layer at the top of your layer stack (see attached image), where the color profile of your OfficeJet Pro 7740 is selected. If you've installed the printer driver for your printer on your computer, the corresponding color profile should be available for you to select here. This should give you an accurate impression of what the printed output will look like. 

 

[jer]

@Mark, okay, now we're talking. I was unaware of the ColorSync and Soft Proof options. You have offered me a range of features I can look into now.

Thanks for some great suggestions.