Professional Quality Custom ICC Printer Profiles Are Now Only $30 Each

Four Easy Steps To Achieving Professional Quality Photos From Your Printer

1.  Download our two Profile Test Charts (TC918_1.tif & TC918_2.tif)
2.  Print the Test Charts on your printer.

3.  Download Order Form, print it, and fill-in.

4.  Mail the two printed Test Charts and order form to us.

PC35 PhotoLab

PO Box 810

Pine Grove, CA  95665

We create and email a custom printer profile back to you.  We accept credit cards, checks, Paypal, and money orders. 

The two Test Charts you will print contain 918 color patches.  This is the same TC9.18 Test Chart developed and used by Bill Atkinson for his icc profiles.  Bill Atkinson printer profiles are well known as quality, high-end profiles used by a wide array of photolabs and are considered the best generic profiles for Epson printers.  The difference here is that we are creating a custom profiles specific to YOUR printer, YOUR inks, and YOUR print media.

Check other custom profiling services.  Many use fewer color patches for a less accurate printer profile and also charge you more.  We charge $30 per profile.  We then measure all 918 color patches on our GretagMacbeth spectrophotometer, creating a professional quality color printer icc profile.  Once the profile is properly installed on your system you will be impressed with the print quality, color accuracy, and color gamut.  You will never want to go back to even your generic profiles.  Plus, no more wasted ink, paper, and time fiddling around with your printer settings trying to get the color right.

Questions?  Call us at 800-240-7235 (office) or 209-753-8553 (cell).

Why Should One Use Custom Printer Profiles?

The primary reason one would use printer profiles is to obtain high quality photo prints from your printer, print quality not possible with any other process.  Our standardized icc profiles give you the ability to accomplish this at a reasonable cost.  You'll see better prints even when compared to the printer profiles that came with your printer.

Printer profiles are a crucial part of a color management system.  A color management system includes a calibrated monitor, a color managed software system (Apple's Colorsync or Windows ICM), an application program to control color management (like Photoshop), and a color profiled printer.  In this system one color profile is used to control the monitor colors, and a second profile is used to control the printer and its print media.  Profiles are also used with scanners and digital cameras.  See Color Management Primer for a better understanding of color management.

When using this setup most printers capable of producing photoquality prints can use and benefit from custom printer profiles.  These benefits include more accurate color, a wider range of printable colors, better shadow and highlight detail, and more neutral grays.

Why Use a Complicated Color Management System?

A color managed system is necessary because we want our digital prints to match our original photos.  Original photos can come from digital cameras, film cameras, existing prints, slides, artwork, or computer generated images.  We use our calibrated monitor to adjust colors, contrast, brightness, etc. when necessary so our digital print will match our original photo.  If the original photo is less than perfect then we can rely on our calibrated monitor to make appropriate adjustments so our digital print is to our liking.

Right Now You Have Three Ways To Control Your Printer Output . . .

1.  Use your printer software without ANY color management system.  In this setup you select your print media, print dpi, color mode and quality, and adjust brightness, contrast, and color saturation if necessary.  But, we cannot rely on our monitor to show us what the print will look like.  We can only make the print first and then decide if it is acceptable.  If print quality is not important then this setup can suffice.  If print quality is unacceptable then we try and figure out what to adjust and then make a second test print.  More test prints may be needed before we get something we like.  This, of course, wastes print paper, ink, and your time.  Even worse, you never get the print quality you want.

2.  A better way is to use generic printer profiles.  Some printers come with generic printer profiles.  Others are available online for free from various sources.  In this setup you use a color management system.  Most likely it is either Windows ICM or Apple's Colorsync.  You have installed a color profile for your monitor and you are using a color managed software application like Photoshop.  Your print quality will improve significantly when using the proper generic printer profile, paper, and ink.  This is the setup that is used by most people needing quality printer output.

However, is this the best possible digital print from your printer?  Probably not.  Why?  Generic printer profiles are based on averages.  The average colors for your printer model, using original OEM inks and paper media.  Variations exist between printers, even between units within your printer model.  Printhead alignment and wear and tear can change print quality and colors.  Inks and paper can vary from batch to batch, and change from aging.  And, if you want to use third-party papers or inks then the generic printer profile is useless.

We then come to custom printer profiles . . .

Why should I Spend Money Buying Custom Printer Icc Profiles?

Custom printer icc profiles are created specifically for your printer, your inks, your paper media, and your specific printer setup.  Simply, it eliminates all the variables and problems mentioned above.

First, color charts are printed on your printer, using your inks and paper media, and your specific printer setup.  We then create a custom icc profile from the color charts.  Once properly installed and used on your system your custom printer profile will produce the best possible digital print from your printer.  Compared to whatever you were using previously you'll see more accurate colors, a wider range of colors, better shadow and highlight detail, and neutral grays.  This is possible on any photo paper, fine art paper, canvas, or fabric media you want to use.  No more wasted paper, ink, and time.  And, dependiing upon the printer you are using, you'll have print quality that can equal or exceed that of any professional photolab.

For more information about our custom profiling services and how to order our  printer profiles . . .

Order Form . . . Includes everything we need to know in order to create a high quality custom printer icc profile for you.

Buying An ICC Printer Profile . . .  Instructions on how to download our Test Charts (two of them), the proper settings to use when printing the Test Charts, sending the Test Chart prints back to us, and installing your custom printer profiles properly on your computer after you receive them via email.

All About Color Management . . .   This is a comprehensive, easy to understand writing about color management.  Reading this will help you understand color management better and ultimately produce better digital prints.




Attn: Photographers and Artists

We are starting up a new website, www.photofineartprints.com, where we are archiving photos from which anyone can order a fine art print up to 30x40" on canvas and art papers.  We are inviting you to offer a selection of your photos or artwork for display and printing on our website.  You will have your own individual webpage formatted similar to what you see on our website.  We keep things simple and easy to navigate.  You can specify a royalty fee for each print made, either a flat royalty fee or variable fee based on print size.  When we sell a print you get the royalty fee and we get the amount we normally charge for a print.  You can specify a specific number of prints to be made from any given photo or artwork.  Our website offers you another avenue to sell your photos and artwork.  There are no initial fees or maintenance cost.  If we don't sell one print it doesn't cost you one cent.  For every print sold though you get the royalty fee.

We are currently using two new 10-color Epson printers, printing at 2880 dpi.  We create our own custom printer profiles for accurate color and definition.  Our B&W and color prints are the highest quality archival prints possible with current technology.  We use Breathing Color Lyve canvas and a variety of other art and photo papers.  Please email us at pc35@volcano.net if you are interested.