Expert colour profilers! Slight magenta shift. Advice?

[genericname]

I've been doing all of our own profiles since day one, and while I've never gone to a seminar or otherwise taken a course, I am confident that my skills in the area are pretty sharp. There is one area of it that's always been a nagging issue though. No matter how much my profiles have improved over the years, there still seems to be juuuuust a little too much magenta in them. This is most noticeable while printing greys, of course, which adds a bit of complexity to the issue.

Has anyone else dealt with and fixed this issue with their profiles? How do I tweak them, or otherwise overhaul my current process to output profiles that don't skew towards one tone?

Using an X-Rite and Onyx 7.3's internal profile generator in the Media Manager.

 

[eahicks]

Never really noticed an issue like that, but if you can, I imagine slowly decreasing your Magenta ink limit by a notch or 2 will help. Does a pure magenta print come out TOO wet?

 

[genericname]

Never really noticed an issue like that, but if you can, I imagine slowly decreasing your Magenta ink limit by a notch or 2 will help. Does a pure magenta print come out TOO wet?

Naw, that's just the thing. I've always had my ink limits where I thought them to be perfect. A 100% print of anything comes out perfectly saturated, without pooling.

Seems that whenever I've experimented with lower than normal limits, the final profiling portion automatically shifts the skew back to magenta, as if it really thinks that's what's neutral.

 

[eahicks]

And you notice this with all profiles for all different media? What kind of lighting is this seen in? Is this after lamination as well, on final product, outside?

 

[genericname]

And you notice this with all profiles for all different media? What kind of lighting is this seen in? Is this after lamination as well, on final product, outside?

Yeah, pretty much everything has a slight magenta shift. It's not really noticeable until I'm printing something that's suppose to have an overall neutral tone. FL lighting that I know also skews, but the magenta shift is evident under true lights as well. So it definitely seems like something in the final interpretation of the profiling process.

 

[DIGIXTRA]

That where the "Tweaking Profile" function is for. This will further customize the profile to your need..overall less magenta for example. I don't know if you can do it with Onyx software but ProfileMaker does have this section.

 

[genericname]

That where the "Tweaking Profile" function is for. This will further customize the profile to your need..overall less magenta for example. I don't know if you can do it with Onyx software but ProfileMaker does have this section.

Profiles in Onyx are editable to a degree, though I've generally just re-profiled entirely if I'm unhappy with one I've produced. For the sake of avoiding proprietary editing modes, can you describe generally what you would do to the profile while editing it in ProfileMaker, if you ran into the same issue?

 

[DIGIXTRA]

Profiles in Onyx are editable to a degree, though I've generally just re-profiled entirely if I'm unhappy with one I've produced. For the sake of avoiding proprietary editing modes, can you describe generally what you would do to the profile while editing it in ProfileMaker, if you ran into the same issue?

I've never have a need to used this module (It is called Profile Editor). I just play with it once long time ago.. It is just like using Photoshop color correction curve.. You load the profile up and adjust the color curve to control the color in areas such as Grey balance, hi-light, mid tone, shadow or just any particular color etc... until you like it and then re-save the profile. Hope this could help.

 

[DIGIXTRA]

I've never have a need to used this module (It is called Profile Editor). I just play with it once long time ago.. It is just like using Photoshop color correction curve.. You load the profile up and adjust the color curve to control the color in areas such as Grey balance, hi-light, mid tone, shadow or just any particular color etc... until you like it and then re-save the profile. Hope this could help.

I read your thread again and the problem may not be the profile. It is just the lighting condition that you view your grey image. We have an area with standard graphics art 5500K Daylight fluorescent and one with the normal cool white tube. The grey color will have a strong magenta cast if it is view under 5500K Daylight...Therefore it is up to you to choose your "standrad viewing condition". In ProfileMaker it gives you many choices for viewing condition (D50, D65, 3400K, 5000K etc...) when you generate an ICC.

 

[eahicks]

I read your thread again and the problem may not be the profile. It is just the lighting condition that you view your grey image. We have an area with standard graphics art 5500K Daylight fluorescent and one with the normal cool white tube. The grey color will have a strong magenta cast if it is view under 5500K Daylight...Therefore it is up to you to choose your "standrad viewing condition". In ProfileMaker it gives you many choices for viewing condition (D50, D65, 3400K, 5000K etc...) when you generate an ICC.

That's kind of where I was heading with my questions....I know several of my profiles are pretty tight too, yet sometimes I have prints that just look "off". Once viewed in another light source, it all changes.

 

[Stephenedwardgraphic]

Sounds like you are dealing with metamerism - the shifting color you are speaking of.

You could try profiling to G7. G7 is based upon gray balance so if your grays are dialed in tighter you may not see the shift to the red as much. It doesn't take a very big shift in grays to swing to the red side or blue side.

You could also try building some UCR/GCR into your profile. This replaces some of the CMY with Black, which makes your gray colors more stable and less likely to swing.

What printer are you using?