Colors - ICC profile and export to PDF

[JohannesB]

Hello all together


My photos that look good in AF Photo are printed much too black at the printer.
Now I got an ICC profile from the printer and embed this also in AF Publischer in the PDF exoport.
Result - Bider are still too dark.

Starting position 
RGB image 
open in AF Photo and 
Document -> Convert Fomat/ICC Profile
CMYK/8 + ICC profile from printer (PSO Uncoated v3)
relatively colorimetric

saved as AF Photo "image.afphoto"
saved

placed in AF Publisher 

Export -> PDF
Raster : 300 
whole document

Rasterize : nothing
yes - recalculate images by downsampling
over 375 dpi
use DPI : 300
yes- allow JPEG compression
quality : 98
Capability : PDF/X-4
Color space: CMYK
Profile: ICC profile from printer (PSO Uncoated v3)
yes - embed profile
yes - convert image farm spaces
yes - apply spot colors
yes - overprint black

all fonts 
yes - allow extended features


What did I set wrong?
Is the profile embedded at all? 


Thanks

Best regards from Berlin 
Johannes
 

[thomaso]

Hi @JohannesB,
welcome to the Affinity forums!

In your description it is not clear what "My photos that look good in AF Photo" in fact means. To me the photos in your screenshot appear too bright by missing darkness / black whereas the test colour bars below do show black. This bright image appearance seems to conflict with your note of "printed much too black".

Also, your export setting shows "Rastern: Nichts" (rasterize nothing) which may force certain features of the layout (e.g. effects, blend modes) just to be ignored during export. To avoid unexpected results you should not change this setting from its default ("unsupported properties").

Generally: It is not required to convert the images before placing them in APub. Instead you can place RGB images and let APub do the conversion by the wanted CMYK profile as document profile (and leave the export profile "as document"). Also, since you export as PDF/X-4 which always includes an Output Intent profile, it is not required to activate the checkbox "Bildfarbräume umwandeln" ("convert image colour spaces").

[JohannesB]

Hello Thomas,

thanks for the advice.

What is the best "Export to PDF" setting for uncoated print?
 

Thanks 

Lieben Gruß
Johannes

 

macOS 13.2.1, iMac 27''; Retina; 

[thomaso]

40 minutes ago, JohannesB said:

What is the best "Export to PDF" setting for uncoated print?

There is no general "best". It depends on the type of the layout elements and also depends on the print pre-press process of the print service.

Note, "uncoated" is a matter of the profile only, not of any other export setting.

If your layout includes just photos I don't see a reason to modify the Affinity default PDF/X-4 setting.
If your document is set to the wanted profile there is no use to alter the default export setting from its "as document" / "use document profile".

[rvst]

8 hours ago, JohannesB said:

My photos that look good in AF Photo are printed much too black at the printer.
Now I got an ICC profile from the printer and embed this also in AF Publischer in the PDF exoport.
Result - Bider are still too dark.

 

If your photos are too dark when you print them out, it usually means that the brightness on your screen is too high. This results in you getting something that looks "right" on the screen but too dark on the printed photo.

General advice is to calibrate the monitor for 120cmd2 of brightness. I tend to calibrate mine at 100cdm2 as I find even 120cmd2 can result in prints that are a little too dark. 

 

 

[JohannesB]

This is my problem 
Monitor is calibrated with i1rite
Brightness set to 50% - normal daylight
In AF Photo bright
then the same photo darker in AF Publisher and then
exported to PDF even darker 
the proof from the printer is even darker

OK ok the photo is not the best quality is just what I have ... 

 

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, JohannesB said:

Brightness set to 50% - normal daylight

"50%" is no calibration value but rather sounds like a setting at your monitor. Calibration is absolute (usually in candela, cd/m^2). For my personal impression the mentioned 120 or even 100 feel too bright and I prefer 80 instead. – You can use a grayscale image to check if you see the range of brightness correctly & with correct gamma (for instance this "Monitor test" image at http://www.eci.org/doku.php?id=de:downloads (scroll down to "Monitor"). If wanted, here are some more test files: http://colormanagement.org/de/monitortest.html

Your 3 screenshots seem to be opened each with a different colour working profile, (whereas I don't know "PDF Viewer", respectively it's handling of profiles. Is it the macOS Preview.app?). Also, these 3 samples appear quite different to your first screenshot with the bunch of rather pale images.

Even though you mention CMYK + PSO Uncoated v3, we (the forum) do not know (can not proof or judge) what exactly we are looking at in your screenshots, regarding profiles and eventually another profile conversion on the way from the initial RGB profile to the current PSO Uncoated v3.