Roses are magenta, violets are cyan… this one (by photographer and author Elliot Ng) goes out to all you dedicated digital photographers out there who diligently color-corrected Aunt Gladys’ navy kneesocks in holiday photos with Photoshop (you know who you are). As a Valentine to all you true-blue color aficionados, our contractor (and semiprofessional bonsai photographer) Sam Edge has posted the sRGB ICC color profile currently used for Blurb books so you can shoot and color-correct your photos using the same color profile.
This will help you make the colors in your photos a closer match with those output by Blurb’s commercial printers, so that the magenta roses you see on your BookSmart screen look brilliant when you see them in your published Blurb book. If that’s not enough for you, here are more red-hot tips for color management.
We thought about making you a card out of paper doilies, but figured this would be a better way to win the hearts of you savvy Blurbarians. Got any tips of your own to offer? Come on, share the love with your fellow photogs…
39 Comments
Hi folks, just a piece of information to add to this string. Please note that the HP5000 Indigo profile is appropriate for the inside pages only of our 10×8 and 8×10 books. The dust jackets are printed using a different device as are our 7×7 books (hardcover and softcover) and standard softcover books. We are working to get generic profiles for these devices too and hope to be successful. Please note that using generic profiles in a non-closed loop color managed workflow is an inexact science but should be helpful in getting an idea of the conversion from RGB to CMYK in our system.
I’m new to tweaking ICC/color profiles and so have a pretty basic question…. can I use the HP5000 Indigo profile in Elements? I have downloaded it and installed it in the directory advised but it doesn’t show up for me as an option in Elements. Is this one of those PS-only details? Thanks………
Hi Kate, I don’t think Elements supports ICC profiles but I would check the Adobe website for more information.
Best,
–bw
Any news about Indigo profile for use with softcover and 7X7 books?
What about the 13 x 11 books? Does this apply to them as well?
Hi there. I have not found an output profile publicly published by Xerox for the iGen3 as of yet. I’ll be at GraphExpo next week in Chicago and I’ll see what I can shake out. 13×11 books are done exclusively on the Indigo.
–bw
Bruce: Does this mean that the covers for the 13 x 11 are also done with the Indigo and I can use the profile in the post?
I was able to download the ICC for HP500. But I have a Mac, where should I put this file to be able to softproof my photos in photoshop?
Lily,
Try: Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Color > Profiles
Thanks, Kathy.
About the soft proof, I am not sure I am doing it right. Here is what I did:
I went to ‘proof setup’ in the ‘view’ menu in photoshop;
chose ‘custom’
chose device to simulate as HP 5000;
the rendering intent is ‘relative coloremetric’ and ‘black point compensation’ is checked;
two options in ‘display on screen’ are not checked;
Then when viewing the photo under ‘proof colors’, nothing changes.
If I check one of the options in ‘display on screen’, there is a lot aweful color change.
What should I do, what is the right way to do it? First time using this function, very confusing.
Thanks,
Hi, the HP colour profile seems to be only for CMYK but Blurb works in sRGB. Does it mean I work in CMYK with the HP profile and then save in RGB before sending. Why not sending in CMYK. Thanks
Hi, I have a similar situation with Peter, wherein I have all of my eps files in CMYK.
So I want to save them to JPEG in order to be able to import them into the book.
Do I assign or convert these files first to the HP profile
then, adjust the colour (if need be)
then, assign or convert them to sRGB?
It was kind of touched on here, but it’d be great if anyone can clarify, the difference between assigning and converting.
and what is the difference between the sRGB profile and sRGB IEC61966 -2.1?
Thanks, btw purpose of book is to put all of my art work together
Armida,
We don’t answer technical questions in the blog, because our Tech Support crew and the Forums do such a better job.
Give one of those a try and I bet you’ll find your answer in no time.
– Kathy
Hi there
Is there a colour profile for soft-proofing the 7″x7″ book format yet please?
If not, should working in the sRGB colour space be sufficient?
Thanks
Jayne
Reading these posts makes everything even more confusing.
All of these people are doing it differently and you guys at Blurb are not telling them how to do it right. I think you should just give them the answer straight up and not make these poor people have to go through so much hell just to get a book printed.
I also think it is really bad that you are having Sam Edge help these people when you should be the ones helping them out. I did Sam’s tutorial and it didn’t work. His method wasn’t even close to your final printed image. I know because I have four books printed from you. Plus he was to darn confusing. Get straight to the point please. Black and White Q&A’s are best.
Let’s see how it goes this time.
Question: How do I stop you from printing dull muddy images?
Answer: ______________________________________________
This is what Blurb wrote me….
Please note that we do not honor color profiles, and that this information can help, but not guarantee, your color management process. I’d also recommend having your monitor calibrated, and using sRGB.
I agree with Alexandria’s post, #15. And, I have the exact same questions as Armida in post #12.
Blurb, please assist all of us designers who wish to use Photoshop by answering the questions we ask. Don’t send us elsewhere.
We’re all simply attempting to use your BookSmart software and your publishing service… Keep your customer base happy. We’ll stay with you if just help us out a bit.
Thanks,
Elle
Hi Alexandria and Elle,
If you’re looking for color management specific to Blurb, please check out our Blurb Business to Business (B3) membership program designed for creative and communications professionals. The B3 program includes an ICC profile custom-created for the Blurb publishing platform and a Custom Workflow option that ensures your work will go to the same dedicated and regularly calibrated print device every time. The HP profile posted by Sam is the generic Indigo profile provided by HP and should work fine for our Standard Workflow as long as your monitor is calibrated.
We are inviting creative and business pros to try B3 out while it’s in a limited charter phase. If you calibrate your monitor, use ICC profiles, and are used to adjusting images before sending them to print, B3 might be for you. If interested, please add your name to the B3 mailing list and we’ll invite you to the program as space allows.
– Kathy
It is absurd and maddening that Blurb has all the information its users have been requesting—almost begging for—but it’s restricted to members of its “B3″ program. They claim that they don’t want to post the printing/setup/profile information because their members do such a good job on the forum answering each other’s questions. Yet, they have an exclusive program that does precisely that. This is both unfair and hypocritical. This is like a person not being allowed to take driving lessons because he is not, nor ever plans to be, a professional driver. Simply ridiculous.*
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
B3 is a charter program right now, which means we’re putting it through a test phase to fine-tune it before we roll it out across our entire network. B3 is not restricted to anyone at this point, you simply need to fill out our form to register to make sure you qualify, so I invite you to sign up. That said, our Custom Workflow books do print on a specially calibrated printer that is maintained on a fairly rigorous schedule, which costs more to maintain. We stand behind the quality of our standard books, but for those that want that extra level of color consistency, and are willing to pay a bit more for that, we think our B3 program is the answer.
– Kathy
Just got back a 13 x11 book with what seems to be a common complaint - magenta cast on the B&W’s. Agree with others that is just plain silly that Blurb seems to shrug this off.
I’ve check the forums and people have various suggestions, but these are incomplete and often confusing.
Here is a simple question.
If I soft-proof using the profile for the HP 5000 will I get a better result? If so, please tell me exactly what pofile to use and where to get it. Even the model is confusing. Is it an Indigo 5000, an HP 5000, an Indigo HP 5000? What?
I have now found my way to Sam Edge’s site, and downloaded and installed the HP5000 profile as recommended.
When I soft proof using it, however, the soft proof does not match the magenta cast I got on the B&W’s in the book. Instead the cast is blue.
My monitor is fairly recently calibrated - month ago. Is that the best bet? I should note that color in the book matches the monitor fairly well when NOT soft-proofed. Soft-proofing seemsto just add a very mild haze to the color images.
Blurb are not doing themselves any favours by witholding a suitable workflow and color profile.
I tried to sign up to their Blurb Business to Business (B3) membership program as suggested by Kathy above, I’m still waiting on a reply. I should add that I’m a professional photographer looking for precise and predictable results, rather than waste time having to complain about a less than satisfactory product. Repeatability is also something to be taken into consideration.
Perhaps someone might leak the secret profile (if it works) online.
s.
I had no problem asking and getting a prompt reply(Jeremy-Tech Support) about the color profile. It is a HP5000 SemimatteExp05.icc profile.
Even though I have the profile and a Eye-One (Gretag Macbeth) callibrator for my monitor, in advanced mode I am not sure how to callibrate accordingly.
Can anyone help?
I’m going to upload to your site for the first time and have some questions.
If I’m sending you JPEG files do I need to upload them into Booksmart?
Can I leave my images in CMYK colour? If they were built in the sRGB profile?
Thanks,
Rob
I second SEORAS
We need clear instructions for which color profiles we need to convert our images into when submitted. You say use sRGB. You say you print some things on the HP Indigo and others on another device which you do not name. How can we feel confident that the images we submit will look like we expect?
We are happy to do the conversion into proper profiles based on where the images will appear, but we need clear information and instructions. Tell us to convert images to HP Indigo CMYK color space for interior pages. Tell us to convert images to “whatever” color space for dust jackets and soft cover books.
Your BookSmart product is a very nice tool. I compared it to iPhoto on the Mac and your package is much more flexible and offers a lot more options for page designs, layouts, etc. Please provide clear guidance on color profiles and submission guidelines.
I see a lot of talk about soft proofing with the HP Indigo ICC color profile. Then I see a lot of talk about entire books of images coming out too dark. When I soft proof with the specified color profile, my images appear very washed out. But I am afraid to adjust contrast or other qualities to make them darker due to the claims that images are printed dark. The guidance on these two issues appears to be contradictory. It seems that the guidance to soft proof may be the cause of the reportedly dark images. Clarification is badly needed.
I just signed up and downloaded the booksmart program and ended up here after search the knowledge base for color management. I had hope to get a book printed to give to family in early January. I’m now very histant to get into this too far as there’s no point in getting a photo book published if it I cannot be assured of it’s quality. We have invested heavily in tools and techniques to get our final image product to it’s best. I would agree that there may need to be a seperate division for a more demanding client such as myself. And I’m willing to pay a premium, to a point, for ensuring that the images match a color managed system. I also believe that there should be a system for those that simply want to know how to make sure that their black and white images are true black and white.
From a pure, marketing oriented point of view, create a reasonably easy to understand step by step guide that will allow anyone using images in a book to get a reasonable expectation of what there book will look like.
What about people who are just learning to make an album and not into all the photoshop and graphic type procedures? My album is for my son who is getting married in June 09 and the book I have produced so far looks fantastic on my computer. How can I be sure this will look magnificent when it is printed? Is there some sort of guarantee that the look that I get on the screen will transfer to the paper and the book will be something to be treasured and of which to be proud? I too am hesitant regarding this issue (re Gil December 13, 2008).
Howdy all
I downloaded this software on the suggestion of a friend and have thoroughly searched the site for information before embarking on making a book. And after reading all this hoohar about colour profiles i’ve removed the software and am looking at an Australian provider.
Terrible.
I have painstakingly re-created a wedding album after the 1st one got dumped. Wasn’t automatically saved as promised. The new one was manually saved. Now the work is done and it looks great. BUT…yesterday I looked at a BLURB album printed for another photographer, (friend of mine who happens to be one of the best in Atlanta), and it looks AWFUL. Compared to one I had printed by GRAPHI, Italy, the results are disastrous. Images are muddy, green and inconsistent. B&W’s have a magenta cast. Compared to what is displayed on our tried and true calibrated monitors, they hardly come close.
Now I am hesitant to send any $$. All the questions here about the HP 5000 profile and how to effectively use it to color match prints seem to go unanswered.
Hi Stan,
For really active conversations around color profiling, please check out our Forums. The community is super supportive and always ready to help. For some reason, people feel more inclined to answer questions in the Forums rather than our blog format.
Hope this helps.
– Kathy
It seems obvious that Blurb’s main press, which doubtless cost a fortune, isn’t able to accomodate profile printing. If it was, I’m sure they’d have told the community by now.
But for them to read all these anguished posts and just tell people to search elsewhere in the company is ridiculous. Blub’s said this several times in this thread and on their main pages. I’m going to search elsewhere.
I just happened to stumble upon this sight recently. I downloaded the BookSmart software and I put together an album. By the way, I am a professional Photographer as well as Graphic Designer. I thought the program was the best thing that I could possibly find but now reading through these posts, I am a bit skeptical about ordering because I don’t want to end up muddy dark photos that I’ve read about.
I think the same as Patrick in the previous post. It seems an offer of a Mercedes Benz but (maybe) with a Dacia engine.
There’s no doubt that Blurb talks a professional game, but…..
I purchased a sample book two years ago and was nonplussed. Hoping things had changed, the more I read here the more hesitant I become to use them… JPEG with sRGB is not exactly “professional” in my opinion, nor is it probably going to be acceptable to my customers…
The “B3″ special treatment stuff seems to have been in the development process for at least a year now (or is it two?), without any visible signs of improved quality being made available… What gives???
Blurb… for amateurs only???
Kathy, I’m considering having 3 monagraphs of 35 years of my work printed in the 13 x 11″ size by blurb, but I’m a little startled by your attitude. it seems that a lot of people are having problems with muddy blacks, hazy whites and color shifts and instead of just giving them a clear concise answer you insist on telling them to get the information from other customers in the forums. you seem to be a lovely person, but treating your customers like kindergarten children makes me a little hesitant to send you my work or my money. Is there a reason that blurb is unable to publish an easy to follow tutorial that gives your potential customers a base from which to procede, instead of winging it and hoping for the best?
kevin
Hi Kevin,
A lot of our customers print B&W books and reorder them without any problems. Unfortunately they do not post to the blog. ; )
That said, we are working on a few things around color profiles and certainly hope to offer better information and documentation about this process in the months to come. We are very aware that we could have more tutorials available, which is why I like to point people to the Forums as a stop gap. In the meantime though, I recommend you try doing a small proof book first to see if our service meets your needs.
Hope that helps.
– Kathy