Chapter 4. Creating Your Own Device Profiles

In this chapter, you'll learn to identify the different types of color-measurement devices; create custom profiles for your display, digital camera, scanner, and printer; and compare generic and custom color profiles.

Download Chapter 4 files from www.peachpit.com/xpcolor.

This chapter takes approximately 2 hours to complete.

While generic profiles are convenient, you'll get consistently more predictable results from color management if you create your own device profiles. Making profiles isn't as complicated as it sounds, and you'll end up with profiles that capture the unique characteristics of your devices, rather than a generic profile that is no more than an estimate of accurate color.

To help you create your own profiles, several high-quality products are available. Some of these are reasonably priced, easy to use, and able to profile most types of devices, while others are professional-level solutions. You can choose from stand-alone products made specifically for a certain type of device, to profiling "suites" that include measurement devices and software for profiling a range of devices, including cameras, displays, printers, scanners, and even projectors.

To choose the best profiling solution for your needs, you need to address the following:

• What types of devices do you need to profile and how often you want to profile them?

• How easy is the solution to use, and what advanced features does it include?

• What is the quality of the results?

• What does the solution cost?

Keep in mind that solutions that take the "Swiss Army knife" approach may not do as good a job at creating profiles as programs that are dedicated to creating a specific type of profile.

This chapter focuses on a variety of profile-creation solutions to give you a sense of the kinds of options available.