HP Officejet J6410 - Help in color management

[Emann]

Dear All,

I have an HP Officejet J6410 All-in-One printer. I am starting to do my own prints taken off from the Canon EOS 40D and after some post processing in PSCS3 I am getting some quite decent results.

What is really mixing me up is when I hit the print command in the PS menu and come to the printer preferences, I can only find two options for color management i.e Color smart or Adobe RGB…I do not have the option to leave as managed by application. The following are the steps I am doing:
1. PS print command
2. Set printer, paper type, etc.
3. In color management I have Adobe RGB in Document profile, PS manages color, printer profile Adobe RGB, Rendering is relative colorimetric and black point compensation checked, then hit print
4. the printer window opens, go to color management but only have two options as advised above and I choose Adobe RGB

Do you think in this way the printer is still managing the color since I do not have application managed option? If so do you know if there is any means I can get the application managed option to show in this menu?

I hope I am giving enough details and look forward to any help.
Regards,

Emann

[teaking]

As far as I know most new printers using a PL printer driver will take information in RGB and do the conversion there selves, where postscript printer drivers usualy available on laser printers will allow you to print direct in CMYK.

So your printer will be doing the conversion. Some will accept aRGB and sRGB others will only accept sRGB it sounds like yours supports both as you are not confirming any colour problems.

As to the reasons you only see those profiles in the printer prefs is probably because there both RGB profiles and thats all your printer will recognise for colour profiles. If in doubt run a soft proof and see if it looks the same on screen as when printed.

[Emann]

Hi there, thank you for your input.

When looking at the picture in daylight, I can definitely see that the prints are darker and have a blue cast than what i see on the screen. I am trying to compromise this by increasing the brightness and playing a bit with colour balance through photoshop. Slowly I am getting there.

So as regards to colour management, since as I understand from your email the printer does the conversion, in photoshop should I leave photoshop manages colour or try some other setting?

Thank you for your help.

emann

[teaking]

When using a colour managed workflow the assumption is your screen looks the same as your print out, so as you havent said the print out looks dull it isnt anything to do with RGB profiles thats my guess.

So I would advise you to properly profile your monitor either using hardware calibration or manualy with your graphics card software or monitor buttons using a test chart. And if possible a profile for your printer from your manufactures website if available. As it sounds like your screen is not showing you the true colour of your pictures.