Profiles are Redundant?

[Mike Farley]

The Online Photographer has published an article in which Ctein describes the results of his tests printing with profiles and printer managed colour. If you are printing at home and want to get the best out of your images, it is well worth a read, regardless of which operating system and printer you are using.

Ctein makes a few observations:

• His conclusions relate to OS X only, which uses the wider Adobe RGB colour gamut, whereas Windows is restricted sRGB when printing. As a consequence Windows users need to stick with profiles.
  
• If using a profile, Perceptual rendering is better than Relative. Usually the "standard" advice is to try Relative first and switch to Perceptual if you do not like the result.
  
• His conclusions relate to the Epson 3880 and P800 printers which he used for the test. The outcome for other printers might be different.
  
• Printer managed colour is best, even with non Epson papers. In that instance, choosing the closest Epson equivalent paper works well enough.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.co ... nting.html