Datacolor User to User Support Group.

>
>
> David,
>
> Thank you. Your responses are very informative. I am a bit confused  
> on one point though.
> I am used to choosing the rendering intent in Photoshop. But it  
> appears that the rendering
> intent is actually chosen with the Spyder system at the time of  
> profile generation? I
> probably have it turned around in my head. But I thought the profile  
> had to contain all
> possible rendering intents so that you could choose which one you  
> want in Photoshop and
> then the profile would apply it at the time of passing the  
> information along to the printer.
> Can you please clarify?
>
> Thank you.
>
> John
>
>

No, it doesn't work that way; the rendering intent is -not- chosen at  
the time of
profile generation.

Every printer profile contains data for ALL THREE rendering intents:  
Saturation,
Perceptual, and Relative Colorimetric. There are 3 separate "slots" in  
the profile
to hold three complete sets of data.

So you're correct: each profile has to contain data for each of the  
three possible
rendering intents, so that you can choose which one you want in  
Photoshop (both when
you soft proof, and when you print, through the profile).

And our profiles work that way, just like all printer profiles should.

The only "difference" I'm pointing out with our profiles, vs. how most  
of the
others behave, is that the Saturation intent in ours actually contains  
data
that you would (and will!) want to print all of your images through.  
Because
it's good, it adheres to the philosophy of ours that I described  
earlier (i.e.
that it's designed for photographic printing, AND that it handles out- 
of-gamut
mapping by giving you as much saturation as it can based on the  
printer inks).

And so, we recommend that you use our Saturation intent for general  
printing;
but if you want to, (just as with other printer profiles), you can  
switch to
Perceptual or Relative if you like, and the results for out-of-gamut  
colors
will be somewhat different with those intents.

Or another way to look at it: we provide 3 usable rendering intents in  
our
profiles, while most other profiles really provide only 2 from a  
practical
standpoint.... (Because you would not typically want to print - 
photographic-
images through OEM or other 3rd party profiles through their  
Saturation intents).

Does that clear things up?


David Miller
Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
Datacolor