Printers can have quite different colour “gamuts”, but there’s a lot you can do to make our prints match those you make in-studio as closely as possible.

About proofs

Unless corrections are done before you produce "proof copies" (and on the same image files), your proofs will only be a guide to the finished product. However you will get reasonably close using the procedure described below.

Matching your prints to ours

• You'll need to install in Photoshop the colour profiles for both printers – the lab’s profile and the profile for your own in-studio printer. Click here for how to install lab and printer profiles .
• Make sure you have selected the appropriate lab Profile for soft proofing in Photoshop. (Look under View > Proof Setup and the currently selected Profile will appear checked at the bottom of the menu list. Click here for more about Proof Setup for Mac / Windows
• When you are ready to print the proof sheets on your in-studio printer, in Photoshop select Print With Preview from the File menu.
• The screen shot above is from Photoshop CS and Mac OSX but it should be similar with your Operating System and version of Photoshop. If it doesn’t look like the screen shot, click Show More Options and then select Colour Management to reveal the options at the bottom of the screen as they appear in the screen shot.
• For the Source Space select Proof Setup (NOT Document). Provided you have selected the appropriate Profile under step 2, that Profile’s full name will appear.
• For the Print Space select the Profile for your in-studio printer, then select Intent: Perceptual, and check the Black Point Compensation checkbox.
• You're ready to print.

Cautions

If your in-studio printer cannot print all the colours in the lab profile colour gamut you prints may not match. However setting Intent to Perceptual as suggested above will “shift” all colours slightly to ensure that as far as possible you don’t lose detail.

For good results you’ll need accurate Profiles for both the lab and in-studio printers.

And don’t forget that you’ll always get better results if you have an accurate Custom Profile for your in-studio printer rather than the “generic” profile supplied by the manufacturer. (The Profiles you receive from us are Custom Profiles for our machines.)