📸 Pixel to Print – Part 7: Soft Proofing and Colour Management
Ever printed a photo only to find it looks nothing like what you saw on screen? Maybe it’s too dark, the blues are off, or the colours feel dull. You're not alone—and the fix lies in understanding the subtle magic of colour management and soft proofing.
"The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance."
— Ansel Adams
Source
When we print, we’re performing. But to ensure our print hits the right note, we need to control the tools of that performance—our monitors, our files, and the paper we print on. Let’s dive in.
📸 Why Prints Come Out Too Dark or Too Blue
It’s a classic problem. You spend hours editing, but your print comes back looking darker, muddier, or cooler (blue-tinted) than expected. Why?
Here’s what’s usually going wrong:
Monitor Brightness: Most monitors are far brighter than they should be for editing prints. This means you’re often editing your photo based on a screen that’s glowing much more than paper ever will. As a result, you may unknowingly make the image too dark to compensate. Then, when it’s printed, it comes out much darker than you expected.
Uncalibrated Displays: If your monitor isn’t calibrated, the colours you see aren’t accurate. What looks like a clean white or subtle skin tone on screen might shift completely on paper.
Ignoring the Paper and Printer: Every printer and paper combination interprets colour differently. If you don’t tell your editing software what kind of paper and printer you’ll use, it’s like playing music without knowing the key—it might come out all wrong.
In addition to using the correct ICC profile, you’ll also need to select the appropriate paper type setting in your printer driver. This tells the printer how to handle the paper’s physical characteristics, like whether it’s matte or glossy, how thick it is, and how much ink to lay down. Most paper manufacturers provide recommended settings for each of their papers. For example, PermaJet includes a helpful reference sheet in every box listing which driver settings to use for each paper type: PermaJet Settings Sheet.
🔧 Quick Fix: Start by reducing your monitor brightness to around 80–100 cd/m² when editing for print. It might look dim at first, but your prints will thank you.
📸 Using ICC Profiles and Monitor Calibration
To get consistent, predictable results from screen to paper, you need to manage colour properly. That means doing two key things:
1. Monitor Calibration
We discussed the importance of monitor calibration back in Part 4 – Prepare to Print, but it’s an important part of colour management that it’s worth expanding on here.
When you calibrate your monitor, you're essentially teaching it to display colours and brightness levels accurately and consistently. Most monitors out of the box are tuned for general use—meaning they’re often too bright and overly saturated, which looks great for browsing or gaming, but not for printing.
Why it matters: If your monitor is too bright, then you’ll be artificially compensating for your screen and making the image file darter. Then when you print your image, your prints may come out too dark. If your screen has a colour cast, your prints might lean too warm or too cool. Profiling your monitor aligns its output with standard colour values, helping you make editing decisions with confidence.
🔧 How Monitor Calibration Works
A hardware calibrator is a small device that sits on your screen and measures how your monitor displays a series of colour and brightness patches. It compares this to known standards and builds a custom ICC profile for your monitor—essentially a correction map your computer uses to display colours more accurately.
Once installed, this profile becomes the foundation of a colour-managed workflow. It helps Lightroom, Photoshop, and other editing software show you colours as they truly are, especially in tricky areas like skin tones, highlights, and deep shadows.
đź› Suggested Calibration Tools
There are two main brands trusted by photographers:
· Datacolor Spyder X Pro or Elite
o Approx. £150–£250
o Fast and beginner-friendly, with automatic room light detection
o Available at WEX Photo Video
· X-Rite / Calibrite Display Pro HL (formerly i1Display Pro)
o Approx. £200–£300
o More advanced features for demanding users
o Available at Park Cameras
Both come with easy-to-follow software that guides you through the process in about 5–10 minutes.
đź’ˇ Practical Tips
· Calibrate in a neutral environment: Use a dim, evenly lit room with neutral-coloured walls to avoid colour contamination.
· Avoid glossy screens: They can reflect room light and distort your perception of colour and contrast.
· Target settings:
o White point: D65 (6500K)
o Gamma: 2.2
o Brightness: 80–100 cd/m² for print editing (or up to 120 cd/m² if you review prints in brighter lighting)
🗓️ Recalibrate once a month—monitors shift over time, and staying on top of calibration ensures consistency across print projects.
2. ICC Profiles
Again, we touched on ICC profiles back in Post 4, but they’re important enough to expand in more detail.
An ICC profile is a small data file that tells your editing software how colours will appear when printed on a specific paper with a specific printer. Without it, your photo might suffer from unexpected colour shifts—like greenish skin tones or dull skies.
Luckily, most of the time, you don’t need to create one yourself. Just go to the paper manufacturer’s website—like PermaJet, Hahnemühle, Fotospeed, or Canson—find your printer model, and download the ICC profile for the paper you’re using.
Your editing software uses this profile to soft proof your image and guide more accurate colour decisions.
🔧 Quick Fix: Installing ICC Profiles
Download and install the ICC profile that matches your printer and paper. Think of it like giving your computer the instructions it needs to speak the same language as your printer.
· On Windows: Right-click the .icc or .icm file and choose Install Profile.
· On Mac: Manually place the file in ~/Library/ColorSync/Profiles (user only) or /Library/ColorSync/Profiles (system-wide).
🔧 How ICC Profiles Work
Every printer has its own colour gamut—the range of colours it can reproduce—defined by its hardware and ink set.
Every paper type also has a unique colour response based on its coating, brightness, and texture.
An ICC profile maps your image’s colours into what that specific printer–paper–ink combination can accurately reproduce.
🛠️ How to Use ICC Profiles
Here’s where ICC profiles come into play:
· Soft Proofing: In Lightroom or Photoshop, use the ICC profile to preview how your photo will look in print.
· Exporting: Usually, export in a wide-gamut colour space like Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB. Only convert to a printer ICC profile if your print lab requires it.
· Printing: In the Photoshop Print dialog, select the correct ICC profile under “Color Management” to ensure accurate output.
📩 Can’t Find a Profile?
Most high-end paper manufacturers—like Fotospeed, PermaJet, and Hahnemühle—offer a free custom profiling service if they don’t already have an ICC profile for your printer model. You print a test chart (they’ll provide the file), send it to them, and they create a bespoke profile tailored to your exact printer, paper, and ink combination.
This ensures the highest possible accuracy—especially useful if you're using less common printers or third-party or refillable ink systems.
🎯 Important Reminders
ICC profiles are specific. You’ll need:
· A different profile for each paper type, even within the same brand.
· A profile that exactly matches your printer model.
· Profiles that align with your ink set—especially if you’re not using OEM inks.
🎨 Bonus Tip
Think of ICC profiles as the translator that helps your printer and paper “speak the same language.” Without them, you’re leaving colour accuracy up to guesswork.
🔍 Pro Tip
ICC profiles are only as useful if your monitor calibration is correct. If your screen isn’t accurate, soft proofing won’t reflect reality. Use a hardware calibrator like X-Rite i1Display or Datacolor Spyder for best results.
What is Soft Proofing?
Soft proofing is the process of previewing—on screen—what your image will look like in print. Your editing software uses the ICC profile to simulate how the printer and paper will render the photo.
This gives you a chance to see and correct any shifts in colour, contrast, or saturation before you print.
It can be a little humbling. That rich black in the shadows might not print as deep, and some vibrant colours may dull slightly, depending on the paper. But that’s the value of soft proofing—you’re in control and can make informed adjustments.
How to Soft Proof in Lightroom and Photoshop
In Lightroom Classic:
1. Open your photo in the Develop module.
2. Check the Soft Proofing box at the bottom of the screen.
3. In the Profile dropdown, select the ICC profile for your chosen paper and printer.
4. Choose a Rendering Intent—try both Perceptual and Relative to see which looks better.
5. Tick Simulate Paper & Ink for a realistic preview.
6. Create a virtual copy to make print-specific edits without affecting your original.
In Photoshop:
1. Go to View > Proof Setup > Custom…
2. Select your ICC profile in the Device to Simulate dropdown.
3. Choose a Rendering Intent (Perceptual or Relative).
4. Tick Black Point Compensation and Simulate Paper Color.
5. Use View > Proof Colors to toggle the soft proof view on and off while editing.
🔧 Quick Fix: While soft proofing, look for clipped shadows or colour shifts, especially in reds and blues. Make gentle adjustments to keep your print looking natural and true to your vision.
🛠️ Action Step: Using Soft Proofing
Download the ICC profile for the paper you plan to use, enable soft proofing in Lightroom or Photoshop, and experiment with a favourite photo. Make some small adjustments and print a test version—you’ll likely be much closer to what you intended.
🔜 Next Up: Presenting Your Prints
Once you’ve picked the perfect paper and made the perfect print—how should you show it off?
In Pixel to Print #7, we’ll explore how to mount, frame, and display your photos for competitions, exhibitions, and your own wall at home.
Until then, happy printing—and enjoy discovering the creative power of paper.
