The latest Mac OS upgrade has caused numerous problems - not least of which is a problem that can occur when printing profile targets.

First you must check you are using the correct driver for your printer, and not the standard OS driver.

Open System Preferences -> Print & Fax and choose the printer you are going to have profiled. You need to check that next to the word 'Kind' it says something like Epson 7900 and does NOT say 'Epson 7900 Gimp Print' or mention 'Gimp' in any way. If it does say 'Gimp' here you are not printing with the full driver for your printer. Uninstall and re-install your printer using the latest Leopard drivers and make sure that the text next to 'Kind' is now correct.

Also, set this printer as the default printer for now. See below for an example.

You now also need to clear out any default profiles your printer is using:

• Open the ColorSync Utility and find your printer under 'Devices'.
  
• Set 'Generic RGB' for the profile for your printer for all the papers listed under your printer - do this by clicking on each entry under your printer and using the drop down menu next to 'Current Profile' to choose the 'Generic RGB.icc' profile in the Finder window that pops up (usually found in Macintosh HD/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/)
  (if you can't find the Generic RGB ICC profile immediately, you may need to copy it from system/library/colorsync/profiles to your user/library/ColorSync/profiles/ directory and then choose it from there).
• Now follow the rest of the instructions below to print your target.

The instructions in a nutshell for people who are confident with Photoshop and colour management:

• Always download our latest colour profiling target from this page
• Before starting this process, run all self diagnostic checks on your printer (particularly the nozzle check!)
• Open the target image in Photoshop - do not let Photoshop convert or assign a profile to the image
• Go to File->Print. Check that the document profile remains 'Untagged RGB'
• Choose 'No Colour Management' in the Photoshop print window
• Make sure the entire target will print on an A4 or larger page, and that 'scale to fit media' is not checked
• Move through to your printer driver and go into the properties for your printer
• Choose the best matching paper type from the available options
• Choose the print quality you want to use (usually Best Photo, 1440, or Highest)
• Disable colour management in the printer driver as per the appropriate tab below:

• Print the target image (obviously on the paper you are having profiled)
• Check the target print - is all of it there at the correct size? Any streaks/marks etc? If so - re-print it.
• Leave it to dry for 24 hours, and label it with your name, email address, and the printer and paper details
• Mail it in to us with your payment ($75 for the first profile in any order, $60 for any others in the same order)
  
• Make sure you send it to us flat packed in an envelope with card so as to stop Australia Post ruining your target!
  
• We will email your profile back within a day or two of receiving the target
• When you get your profile back, follow these instructions to use it

The instructions in a nutshell for people who are confident with Photoshop and colour management:

• These profiles allow you to soft proof for specialist printing modes for black and white such as Epson's Advanced Black and White mode, or printing through QuadtoneRIP.
• Always download our latest colour profiling target from this page
• Before starting this process, run all self diagnostic checks on your printer (particularly the nozzle check!)
• Open the target image in Photoshop - do not let Photoshop convert or assign a profile to the image
• Go to File->Print. Check that the document profile remains 'Untagged RGB'
• Choose 'No Colour Management' in the Photoshop print window
• Make sure the entire target will print on an A4 or larger page, and that 'scale to fit media' is not checked
• Move through to your printer driver or RIP and go into the properties for your printer
• Choose the best matching paper type from the available options
• Choose your printer's black and white printing mode, such as 'Advanced Black and White'
• Set any colour tone controls to neutral, and tone controls to 'normal' (not 'dark' or 'darker'!)
• Choose the print quality you want to use (usually Best Photo, 1440, or Highest)
• Print the target image (obviously on the paper you are having profiled)
• Check the target print - is all of it there at the correct size? Any streaks/marks etc? If so - re-print it.
• Leave it to dry for 24 hours, and label it with your name, email address, and the printer and paper details
• Mail it in to us with your payment ($40 for all black and white profiles)
• Make sure you send it to us flat packed in an envelope with card so as to stop Australia Post ruining your target!
• We will email your profile back within a day or two of receiving the target
• When you get your profile back, follow these instructions to use it

1. Always download our latest colour profiling target from this page
   
   
2. Open the target image in Photoshop. If you set your colour settings up as per the instructions above, you will see the message below. Choose 'Leave as is (don't manage colour)' as we want Photoshop to send this file to the printer without any colour management applied.
   
   
   
   
3. Go to File->Print (or File->Print With Preview if using CS2) and choose the tab below for your version of Photoshop. You must check that the Document Profile remains 'Untagged RGB' and you must choose the appropriate setting in Colour Handling as shown in the screenshot below:
   
   
   • CS
   • CS2
   • CS3 and CS4

   
   In Photoshop CS, the document profile should of course be 'Untagged RGB' and the Print space should be set to 'Same As Source'.
   
   Apologies, I don't have CS so can't do a screenshot but if anyone can make one it would be gratefully received!
   
   

   In CS2 you must choose 'No Colour Management' as per the screenshot below:
   
   

   
   
   

   In CS4 you must choose 'No Colour Management' as per the screenshot below:
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   




4. Confirm the entire target will fit on your printed page and that 'scale to fit media' is not checked. The target must be printed at the exact size it is supplied. You may need to engage borderless mode in your printer driver to achieve this, or use a sheet larger than A4 (fine, as long as it is exactly the same type of paper of course).
   
   
5. Now hit 'Print' and move through into the properties for your printer driver.
   
   
6. This depends very much on your printer driver.
   
   In short, you choose the best matching paper type available in your driver (say you are having Ilford Smooth Pearl profiled - you would choose something like 'Premium Semi-Gloss' in the driver). You choose the appropriate print quality level (usually labeled Best Photo, 1440, or Highest). And you must disable colour management as per the appropriate tab for your printer below. Also, if your printer offers a gloss optimiser option, turn that off while printing the target.
   
   Pick the correct tab:
   - Tab 'PC Epson > 1400' is for people running PCs with an Epson printer with a model number greater than 1400
   - Tab 'PC Epson < 1399' is for people running PCs with an Epson printer with a model number less than 1400
   - Two tabs follow for Mac users of the same.
   - Non Epson Printer is for Canon, HP, Etc owners.
   
   
   • PC Epson > 1400
   • PC Epson < 1399
   • Mac Epson > 1400
   • Mac Epson < 1399
   • Non Epson Printer

   Below is a screenshot where we have chosen the correct settings - in this example we are profiling Canson PhotoSatin so we have chosen an appropriate paper type (Premium Semi-Gloss), and set the colour mode to 'Off (No Colour Adjustment)'
   
   
   
   Under 'Print Quality' ->'Quality Options' we also chose the appropriate level of quality:
   
   
   
   We have chosen a quality level of 'SuperFine' in this case, but you can choose whichever you suits you best.
   
   Generally the highest or one step down from the highest quality level is appropriate - and your profile will only be valid for this specific quality level, so choose wisely (maybe print several copies of the profile target to help you choose the best compromise between speed and quality). On our Epson 7900, we have left 'High Speed' ticked. With newer printers (2007 on) this is generally fine to do but models made before 2007 can have alignment issues with this ticked, so if your printer is older, we recommend leaving this unticked. Edge smoothing and finest detail you should leave unticked.
   
   Save your settings once you are sure you have them correct. Remember that when you get your profile back you will need to use exactly the same driver settings.
   
   You can now print your target image.
   

   We treat these printers slightly unusually for colour profiling. In No Colour Adjustment mode you get slightly more gamut (range of colours), but much worse neutrals and poor shadow detail. So the best method with these printers is to profile them in another mode.
   
   Below is a screenshot where we have chosen the correct settings - in this example we are profiling Hahnemuhle Photo Rag so we have chosen an appropriate paper type (Archival Matte). You must set the colour mode to Colour Controls->Epson Standard Gamma 1.8 mode (the best mode to profile the more basic printers in).
   
   
   
   For 'Print Quality' - we have chosen a quality level of 'SuperFine' in this case, but you can choose whichever you suits you best.
   
   Generally the highest or one step down from the highest quality level is appropriate - and your profile will only be valid for this specific quality level, so choose wisely (maybe print several copies of the profile target to help you choose the best compromise between speed and quality). High speed, edge smoothing and finest detail you should leave unticked.
   
   Save your settings once you are sure you have them correct. Remember that when you get your profile back you will need to use exactly the same driver settings.
   
   You can now print your target image.
   

   In the Colour Matching section of the driver, you will see it is set to 'ColorSync'. As we have disabled Colour Management in Photoshop, this is effectively setting colour management to off, and below you will see we can confirm this.
   
   
   
   Move into 'Print Settings'. In this example, we have set the printer paper type to Premium Lustre Photo Paper as we are profiling Ilford Gold Fibre Silk which is a lustre (pearl, semi-gloss) paper. We have also set the Colour Settings to 'Off (No Colour Adjustment')'.
   
   
   
   We have chosen a quality level of 'SuperFine' in this case, but you can choose whichever you suits you best.
   
   Generally the highest or one step down from the highest quality level is appropriate - and your profile will only be valid for this specific quality level, so choose wisely (maybe print several copies of the profile target to help you choose the best compromise between speed and quality). On our Epson 7900, we have left 'High Speed' ticked. With newer printers (2007 on) this is generally fine to do but models made before 2007 can have alignment issues with this ticked, so if your printer is older, we recommend leaving this unticked. Edge smoothing and finest detail you should leave unticked.
   
   You can choose '16 bits/Channel' if you want.
   
   If you move into 'Advanced Colour Settings' you will see this rather confusing message:
   
   
   
   You can ignore this message.
   
   This message is saying that IF you have enabled colour management in Photoshop, and IF you have no other better profile, the profile you should have chosen in Photoshop is the one they list. But we have explicitly disabled colour management so this message is not relevant. (Must be the worst example of printer driver design I have ever seen though!).
   
   In the summary, it confirms that colour management is turned off:
   
   
   
   (This says the colour management mode is 'ColorSync' but we have turned off colour management in Photoshop, and the driver is set to No Colour Adjustment, so ColorSync won't actually do anything!).
   
   Save your settings once you are sure you have them correct. Remember that when you get your profile back you will need to use exactly the same driver settings.
   
   You can now print your target image.
   
   

   We treat these printers slightly unusually for colour profiling. In No Colour Adjustment mode you get slightly more gamut (range of colours), but much worse neutrals and poor shadow detail. So the best method with these printers is to profile them in another mode.
   
   Below is a screenshot where we have chosen the correct settings - in this example we are profiling Ilford Smooth Gloss so we have chosen an appropriate paper type (Premium Glossy Photo Paper).
   
   
   
   For 'Print Quality' - we have chosen a quality level of 'Photo - 1440dpi' in this case, but you can choose whichever you suits you best.
   
   Generally the highest or one step down from the highest quality level is appropriate - and your profile will only be valid for this specific quality level, so choose wisely (maybe print several copies of the profile target to help you choose the best compromise between speed and quality). High speed, edge smoothing and finest detail you should leave unticked (the screenshot above has finest detail checked in error).
   
   You must also set the Colour Management section up correctly:
   
   
   
   You must set the colour mode to Colour Controls->Epson Standard Gamma 1.8 mode (the best mode to profile the more basic printers in).
   
   Save your settings once you are sure you have them correct. Remember that when you get your profile back you will need to use exactly the same driver settings.
   
   You can now print your target image.
   

   Disable ALL colour management in the driver

   This is often referred to explicitly as 'No Colour Management' but sometimes also 'Host Controlled Colour' or 'Application Controlled Colour' (as we have turned off CM in Photoshop, application controlled colour means no colour management)

   (Canon owners take note - this includes checking that if there is a 'photo' setting under colour or ICM in your printer driver that you set this to 'none'!)
   
   Some example screenshots:

   
   
   
   
   If you have a large format Canon Printer, you might want to check this page for recommended settings for both the printer driver and Photoshop plugin (we recommend using the plugin).
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

 

7. Now check your target print - is all of it there, at the correct size? Are there no blotches or streaks or faint lines in the print? If there are any quality issues, re-run your printer diagnostic checks, and then re-print the target.
   
   
8. Leave your target to dry for 24 hours (colour can shift within the few first few hours particularly), and then mail it to us with your payment of $75 for the first profile and $60 for any others in the same order. Make sure you send it to us flat packed in an envelope with card so as to stop Australia Post ruining your target!
   
   Don't forget to write on it your name, email address, the printer type and the paper type!
   
   We will email your profile back within a day or two of receiving the target.
   
   
9. When you get your profile back, follow these instructions to use it
   
   
   
   
   

Please note this black and white profile service is only intended for recently made printers with specialist black and white printing modes using multiple black inks (like Epson's Advanced Black and White mode), or other printers producing already very neutral prints via a RIP like ImagePrint or QuadtoneRIP. It is designed to give you accurate tonal placement via accurate soft proofing, and to indicate paper tone accurately.

This process will NOT neutralise a a non-neutral printing process.

We're one only a handful of services in the world to offer custom ICC profiles specifically for black and white printing. Whether you use the new Advanced Black and White mode with the Epson pigment ink printers, or something more exotic like Quadtone RIP, your black and white printing process can be profiled - and thus you can open up the world of soft-proofing your black and white prints, just like you're (hopefully) soft-proofing your colour prints already.

Having an accurate soft proof allows you to better pre-visualise your results. You can see the difference between papers without actually printing, and can place tones in your image more precisely at the points you want between d-max (your darkest possible black) and d-min (the lightest grey you can print). You can also see how the white point of a particular paper will affect your print - to decide, for example, if your image will be better printed on a warmer fine art stock, or a bright white semi-gloss stock.

1. Always download our latest black and white profiling target from this page
   
   
2. Open the target image in Photoshop. If you set your colour settings up as per the instructions above, you will see the message below. Choose 'Leave as is (don't manage colour)' as we want Photoshop to send this file to the printer without any colour management applied.
   
   
   
   
3. Go to File->Print (or File->Print With Preview if using CS2) and choose the tab below for your version of Photoshop. You must check that the Document Profile remains 'Untagged Gray' and you must choose the appropriate setting in Colour Handling as shown in the screenshot below:
   
   
   • CS2
   • CS3
   • CS4

   In CS2 you must choose 'No Colour Management' as per the screenshot below:

   
   
   

   In CS3 you must choose 'No Colour Management' as per the screenshot below:
   
   
   

   In CS4 you must choose 'Printer Manages Colour' and set the rendering intent to 'Perceptual'.
   
   Ignore the message about enabling colour management in the printer.

   
   
   

 

4. Now move through to the printer driver by hitting 'Print One'.
   
   
5. The next stage depends very much on your printer driver.
   
   In short, you choose the best matching paper type available in your driver (say you are having Ilford Smooth Pearl profiled - you would choose something like 'Premium Semi-Gloss' in the driver). You choose the appropriate print quality level (usually labeled Best Photo, 1440, or Highest). And you engage your printer's specialist black and white printing mode and set all tone controls to neutral and a normal density curve (not dark or darker if these are available).
   
   
   • Epson ABW - PC
   • Epson ABW mode - Mac
   • Other Printer Brands
   • Quadtone RIP

   It varies slightly driver to driver but here are some screenshots from a late 2008 Epson driver:
   
   
   
   Here we have chosen Archival Matte as the paper type as we are profiling a fine art matte paper (Museo Portfolio Rag). We have set the driver to print one sheet of A4 as required.
   
   In the 'Print Quality' section, we chose 'Quality Options' which gave us this screen:
   
   
   
   We have chosen a quality level of 'SuperFine' in this case, but you can choose whichever you suits you best.
   
   Generally the highest or one step down from the highest quality level is appropriate - and your profile will only be valid for this specific quality level, so choose wisely (maybe print several copies of the profile target to help you choose the best compromise between speed and quality). On our Epson 7900, we have left 'High Speed' ticked. With newer printers (2007 on) this is generally fine to do but models made before 2007 can have alignment issues with this ticked, so if your printer is older, we recommend leaving this unticked. Edge smoothing and finest detail you should leave unticked.
   
   Back on the main page, we also went into 'Advanced' next to 'Colour Controls', which gave us this screen:
   
   
   
   We set this to 'Neutral Normal' by setting 'Colour Toning' to 'Neutral', then 'Tone' to 'Normal'. There is a quirk in the Epson driver that means when you set the tone to normal, the colour toning settings changes to 'Current Settings' - but it is still set to neutral (you can see nothing moves on the toning wheel).
   
   (N.B. You don't have to use 'Neutral Normal'. If you make the target print and you see a colour cast (or want a colour cast!), you are free to tone your sample however you see fit. The profile we make you will reflect whatever tone is printed. Some clients make three profiles - a neutral, a cool, and a warm. This way they can soft proof three distinct colour tonings that are suitable for different types of images! Also, if you are using a warm paper, the 'neutral' settings might be a bit cool for the paper, and vice versa for a cool paper. Tweak the toning as you see fit to produce the best target print on your paper, but remember to save your settings as you will have to recall these when you actually make prints with the profile later).
   
   Now check the summary panel to make sure all the settings you think you've set have indeed been set:
   
   
   
   If you are sure all your settings are correct, save these settings in your driver so you can easily recall them later when using the profile.
   
   Now, hit 'Print' to make your target print.
   
   
   

   It varies slightly driver to driver but here are some screenshots from a late 2008 Epson driver:
   
   
   
   Here we are in the printer driver.
   
   We have chosen our printer (Epson 7900) and then we are going to step through the 3rd drop down menu and set various printer specific settings.
   
   We start by checking Colour Matching. If you have CS4 it will look as above, indicating the Epson driver will be controlling colour. If you have previous version, choose 'None', 'No Colour Management' or whichever settings indicates best that no colour management will be use. (If someone could take a screenshot of this section in CS 1, 2 or 3, and send it to us, that would be much appreciated!).
   
   
   
   Next we go into the 'Print Settings' section.
   
   Here we have chosen Archival Matte as the paper type as we are profiling a fine art matte paper (Museo Portfolio Rag). We have set the driver to print one sheet of A4 as required.
   
   In the 'Print Quality' section, we chose 'Superfine' with Super MicroWeave turned on.
   
   Generally the highest or one step down from the highest quality level is appropriate - and your profile will only be valid for this specific quality level, so choose wisely (maybe print several copies of the profile target to help you choose the best compromise between speed and quality). On our Epson 7900, we have left 'High Speed' ticked. With newer printers (2007 on) this is generally fine to do but models made before 2007 can have alignment issues with this ticked, so if your printer is older, we recommend leaving this unticked. Edge smoothing and finest detail you should leave unticked.
   
   We also chose 'Neutral' as the tone on this page.
   
   Next, still in 'Print Settings' we choose 'Advanced Colour Settings'.
   
   
   
   We set this to 'Neutral Normal' by setting 'Colour Toning' to 'Neutral', then 'Tone' to 'Normal'. There is a quirk in the Epson driver that means when you set the tone to normal, the colour toning settings changes to 'Fine Adjustment' - but it is still set to neutral (you can see nothing moves on the toning wheel).
   
   (N.B. You don't have to use 'Neutral Normal'. If you make the target print and you see a colour cast (or want a colour cast!), you are free to tone your sample however you see fit. The profile we make you will reflect whatever tone is printed. Some clients make three profiles - a neutral, a cool, and a warm. This way they can soft proof three distinct colour tonings that are suitable for different types of images! Also, if you are using a warm paper, the 'neutral' settings might be a bit cool for the paper, and vice versa for a cool paper. Tweak the toning as you see fit to produce the best target print on your paper, but remember to save your settings as you will have to recall these when you actually make prints with the profile later).
   
   Now check the summary panel to make sure all the settings you think you've set have indeed been set:
   
   
   
   If you are sure all your settings are correct, save these settings in your driver so you can easily recall them later when using the profile.
   
   Now, hit 'Print' to make your target print.

   We currently don't have screenshots or specific instructions for other printer brands. Just follow the notes above about setting paper type, print quality, and black and white mode in your driver.
   
   We might be convinced to make you a free profile if you send us some screenshots of your Canon or HP process!
   
   If you have a large format Canon Printer, you might want to check this page for recommended settings for both the printer driver and Photoshop plugin (we recommend using the plugin).

   You can print the target (and later use your profile) with QuadtoneRIP. This will allow you to soft proof in Photoshop before making your final print through QTR.
   
   When printing the target, on the PC you just open the image in QTRGui, set all the QTR settings, and print. On the Mac you open the image in PhotoShop and print via the QTR Driver. Remember to save your QTR settings as the profile we make will be valid for only those settings/curves!

   
   

 

6. Now check your target print - is all of it there, at the correct size? Are there no blotches or streaks or faint lines in the print? If there are any quality issues, re-run your printer diagnostic checks, and then re-print the target.
   
   
7. Leave your target to dry for 24 hours (colour can shift within the few first few hours particularly), and then mail it to us with your payment of $40 per black and white profile. Make sure you send it to us flat packed in an envelope with card so as to stop Australia Post ruining your target!
   
   Don't forget to write on it your name, email address, the printer type and the paper type!
   
   We will email your profile back within a day or two of receiving the target.
   
   
8. When you get your profile back, follow these instructions to use it