Hello all,
1 - Adobe gamut mapping is very smooth. During testing
of non-Adobe
profiles, we noticed some poor smoothness of perceptual mapping in
certain areas of the color gamut.
2 - Perceptual gamut mapping of Adobe profiles are consistent with
gamut mapping of many commonly used press profiling applications. This
leads to better consistency in workflows. We noticed that the ECI
profiles' perceptual mapping was significantly different than the
perceptual mapping of our current set of profiles (lighter in the
mid-tones).
Question: Is this a preferred perceptual mapping in the EU compared to
the Gretag/Adobe type rendering?.
3 - User's are aware of Adobe's gamut mapping strategies (they're in
our other profiles). The new (Adobe) Europe FOGRA27 profile shares
these traits reducing unexpected surprises when separations are
reviewed.
4 - We are not required to license Heidelberg's IP to distribute the
profile.
5 - ECI's profile creates a very long black starting at 0%. We have
been told that users like to see "cleaner" highlight color without K.
Our black starts at 30% of total ink.
Our observations and trials of the ECI profiles agree very much with
the views above. We also have some issues with the ECI profiles when
used with relative colorimetric rendering intent (I'm not sure if
these profiles were generated with this intent in mind).
We've been using both the new Adobe Europe FOGRA27 profile , and
generating our own profiles using the FOGRA characterisation data and
Gretag software using varying parameters for black generation depending
on the images being converted/separated . Both of these routes are
working well, especially when using the relative rendering intent as
our work is for the best part totally colour critical.
As a matter of interest, are Adobe considering building profiles with
varying amounts of GCR/UCR for use on an image by image basis? (On a
recent project we produced a 'family' of profiles for a photographic
publishing project. Just three were needed to deal with the various
types of images reproduced in the book concerned).
As far as licensing of profiles is concerned, we understand that there
may still be some issues. This has been much discussed among the
various standards committees we are involved with. Initial contact
with some of the profiling software/ hardware companies points to some
leeway in this area for profiles placed in the public domain , but this
has yet to be confirmed.
Bob Marchant.
Bob Marchant Photography / Colour Therapy