Print Soft Proofing - What to do when it doesn't seem to work?
I am encountering a problem with ON1 Photo Raw 2020.1 soft-proofing. The problem is:
The Soft Proof image displayed by the Print module does not match, by a wide margin, the soft proof image displayed in the Edit module.
By "does not match", I mean: There is a margin-to-margin shift of the Print module soft proof preview image color as if a light fog were spread over the entire image. The "fog" seems to be biased just a bit to the magenta hue but is really more "grey" to my eye. It is accompanied by degraded clarity as well, and again, the "foggy" description seems best. It is almost as if a fine "film grain" filter were being applied. This bias and the "fog" are not present in the soft proof image of the Edit module.
The Print module Soft Proof preview image difference is very clear when viewing the Soft Proof preview as that window "floats" above the Edit window behind it. I've watched it many times to be sure the underlying Edit window is not being de-emphasized when the popup Print window appears. I see no detectable change in the Edit window.
I have tested this on several images, using three different papers/profiles (see usage notes below). The results are consistently different between what I see in edit when I enable Soft Proof with a printer+paper profile enabled, compared to what I see in the Soft Proof preview of the Print module with the same printer+paper profile selected. I also checked what happens to the Soft Proof preview image in the Print module when I change the printer+paper profile selection within that Print module. There is not any obviously visible change, regardless of changing the profile selection.
I am using:
ON1 Photo Raw 2020.1 (14.1.1.8943)
on
-MS Windows 10 Pro
-HP Elitebook 8770W (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3720QM CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2601 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical CPU)
Epson Artisan 1430 with Epson OEM inks
My monitor is freshly calibrated with Spyder at 80 candellas, 5000K White Point.
For papers I have been working with:
- Espon UltraPremium Glossy
- Espon Premium Glossy
- Hanhemul Glossy Fine Art Baryta FB
I am using the paper manufacturer's downloaded ICC profiles for these papers, along with the specified "paper handling" for each.
I am at a loss for how to proceed from here. What am I overlooking? What might I be doing wrong? I've watched all the printing and color management videos I could find. I've read up on color management, ICC profiles, calibration, and applied it to my work/environment. All of this has helped me get this far, but now it seems I might be at a dead end. Is this something I should report to Support on a Trouble Ticket? It seems more likely that I am overlooking something because I have not found any (recent) similar reports by other Community members trying to print from PR2020 directly.
Thanks in advance for feedback and suggestions.
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Deborah, If you are a plus member this is a great course by Hudson Henry that may help you out.
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Thanks for the link. Plus member=YES and I have watched not only Shoot to Print but his more recent update to it, on Color Management, more than once. He's taught me a lot. They don't seem to be any help for my current problem though.
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Deborah, yes, if you have examples to provide, you can contact support and ask them however I would suggest posting this question in the Plus forums. I only see one other post about Soft proofing in these forums and I'm not sure it was ever resolved. I've never used Poofing myself, I don't know how much Brian knows, but there are a few gurus in Plus that might have suggestions.
You could just copy/paste your original post if you like.
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Thanks for the tip. I will try that as soon as I can.
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I recently purchased an Epson XP-15000. All seemed fine except that any image that had red tones came out with excessive reds and even tending some browns to outright red. After trying everything I could think of, including spending 45 painful minutes on the phone with Epson, I narrowed my problem down to a config setting in the Epson driver. It has a default setting for Color Management of "Automatic" which means it will add it's algorithm on top of whatever the ICC profile is calling for. I changed the setting to "Custom" and No color management and all is working perfectly. Anyone using Soft Proofing and ICC profiles needs to make sure their printer has this turned off if you want proper results. I'm not sure if this is the problem here but wanted to make the suggestion.
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Thanks, Rich. Good to know.
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Rick, failure to set this correctly is "mission critical". Unfortunately, even within the same maker (Epson, Canon, etc.) the drivers exhibit different nomenclature and of course the setting does not appear in the same panel in the driver dialog. In working with Epson they suggested I try with different software and I just happened to have a copy of Photoshop installed. In configuring the print settings in Photoshop it issued a caution to be sure I had turned off color management in the printer which was the clue I was looking for. In the ON1 support tech note on this, it shows an example of the setting but would be better to call it out specifically with emphasis rather than leave print newbies like me to stumble around in the dark for a few days. It would also be good if Hudson could mention it in his Shoot to Print series.
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Maybe it's worth you sending this into Tech support to be added to the user guide.
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I found that if I change the Epson "No color management" using the Settings->Printers->Properties the setting is made persistent. which if you are going to print with an ICC profile is mandatory. Unfortunately ON1 print seems to be setting it back to Automatic which means it has to be changed for every print. I'm going to log this with support to see what they have to say.
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