Imaging 12 - Fujifilm Graphic Systems

Getting to grips with
colour management
THE THEORY’S FINE, BUT HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY DO COLOUR MANAGEMENT? WHERE DO YOU GET THE
ICC PROFILES FROM AND WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF THEY’RE MISSING? MICHAEL WALKER TAKES ADVICE.
W
e all want to get colour right.
And we want it to be right
everywhere. When it was one
scan for one print job that
wasn’t too hard to achieve, but now it’s
one scan (or supplied image) for everything
– print use and re-use on a variety
of stocks in different publications, plus
possible Web and other screen-based
uses. Colour management is the only way
to get consistent colour, but what do you
actually need to do to implement it?
The key to colour management based
on ICC (International Colour Consortium)
profiles is to have a profile for every
device in the repro chain that can reproduce
colour. The profile describes the
colour behaviour of each device in such a
way that its peculiarities can be accounted
for when making design and production
decisions. So that’s a profile each for the
scanner (or digital camera), the monitor
on which you view and edit images, the
digital proofer and the eventual output
device – typically but not necessarily an
offset press. As we’ll see, in the real world,
it might not be possible or absolutely
necessary to have all of these, but let’s
first look at how you acquire them.
Repro quality flatbed scanners ship
with default profiles which are usually
specific to the model rather than the particular
unit. Although this is a reasonable
start, it’s better to profile your own
scanner. To do this you scan a supplied
transmission or reflection target and use
profile-creating software such as Fujifilm’s
ColourKit Profile Maker (available separately,
though input profile creation capability
for Fujifilm Lanovia Quattro scanners
is included with the bundled version of
ColourKit). This compares the measured
colour values from the scan against the
known values of the target and creates an
input profile that you can then use with
reflective or transparent originals respectively.
A further refinement is to make
profiles for different original types, particularly
brands of transparency film, as
each has its own colour characteristics.
Screen test
So much for profiling captured images.
What about viewing them? Most good
monitors ship with a supplied profile but
CRT monitors are prone to drifting with
age (and even during the day), so if you’re
serious about getting accurate on-screen
colour you’ll need to make your own
monitor profile.
Profiling monitors is a little more tricky
and involves additional hardware, in the
form of a colorimeter or spectrophotometer
that attaches to or is suspended in
front of the monitor. This measures the
colour values as a series of test colours are
displayed. Again, the displayed colours are
compared to the reference colour values
and a profile generated by the profile
making software. The newer flatscreen
LCD monitors such as Apple’s Studio
Display range appear to be much more
stable in their colour behaviour, but note
that colour measuring devices for monitor
calibration that attach by suction can
distort these displays and produce invalid
results. As well as making sure you choose
profiling software that’s compatible with
your system (most are designed to work
with Macs; you might have more difficulty
if you’re Windows-based), think about
whether the associated hardware is going
to cause problems like this.
Who’s going to do it?
At this point it’s worth pointing out that
you don’t have to profile all your screens,
only those on which colour adjustments
are made, so don’t bother with systems
that are used only for page layout. Also,
you don’t necessarily have to buy all the
colour measurement gear and do it your-
COLOUR MANAGEMENT
WITH FUJIFILM
If you buy a Fujifilm scanner or digital
proofer, this is what’s included.
Finescan 2750 and 2750XL
Both scanners ship with Fujifilm ColourKit
for image editing, re-processing and SOOM
(scan once output many, see p28) functions.
Includes wide range of negative and transparency
profiles for different film types plus
many output profiles. Can import third-party
ICC profiles and images.
Lanovia Quattro
Ships with ColourKit as above, but also
includes a cut-down version of ProfileMaker
to enable users to make custom input
profiles for their own scanner.
Pictro Proof
Fujifilm’s high quality proofing system is
driven by the GMG RIP. This uses a unique
4-dimensional profile system and includes
the tools to create and edit the profiles.
Ready-made profiles are available to
accurately simulate a wide variety of printing
and proofing processes.
Imaging 12 autumn 2002 23