john jones | photography | retouching

The hardest part about creating an image these days is finding a way to get a print that looks both like what you saw on your screen and that will stand the test of time. Using 100% cotton papers and the latest in large format ink jet printers we can make prints tested to outlast you. Large format? No problem. We have the paper and printers to suit your work, no matter what the size.

When ink is applied to a resin coated paper, like a glossy photo paper, the ink doesn't actually penetrate the paper. Rather, it is held in place by the resin coating on top. This means that the printer can use less ink to make a print, but also, the ink being closer to the surface will fade faster. The advantage of 100% cotton papers is that the ink gets right into the paper, making it harder for it to fade over time. Because of the lack of coating though, ink tends to bleed as it enters the paper. To solve this some papers, such as the Hahnemühle Photo Rag have a very thin coating on them, allowing ink to both be absorbed into the paper and rest sharp in the overlaying coating.

We also offer a process of coating prints as shown in the second diagram. Once a print has been made, it can then be coated with a fixative, effectively sealing the print. Then the print is coated with an ultraviolet protectant. This process seals the print from toxins in the air around it, allowing it to be hung without a frame if desired. It also protects the entire print from harmful UV light, which can fade the artwork. And best of all, should the UV protectant fade at all over time, it can be removed and reapplied without harming the print thanks to the underlying coating of fixative. We offer this coating work produced here and items you may have you want treated.

Colour correct printing.

When you look at an image on your monitor that image my look great to you, but to all other computer screens it will look different. This is because all displays have different white points (the brightest white on the screen), black points (the darkest point on the screen) and colour temperatures (the characteristic of visible light your monitor can produce).

You can keep your screen in sync with other monitors by calibrating it using a digital colorimeter (such as the Xrite Eye-One or the ColourVision Spyder). Using one of these devices you can set your screen to industry standards. Here we have our screens set to a colour temperature of 6500K, and a gamma of L* (Industry standard, the PC is 2.2).

What is an ICC profile?

When you have used a digital colourimeter as stated above, you will be given an ICC profile. This ICC (International Colour Consortium) profile will describe the color attributes of a particular device by defining a mapping between the source or target color space and a profile connection space (PCS). As a final step to colour correcting your screen, you need to make sure the ICC profile you have created is applied in you monitor preferences.

To make sure you get a colour-matched print, you not only need your screen to be colour correct, but also the image needs be showing you the correct colours. Every printer is slightly different. The print head, inks, papers and other features are specific to each machine and wear down differently according to use. As well, inks come from different large batches, and can vary slightly in consistency.

To make sure that we get constant results, a type of densitometer is used to read the colours each printer can reproduce on different papers. This is how we generate the ICC profile (International Colour Consortium) for print. The profiles can be used on both Mac and PC, and when applied to an image, show (as long as the screen is correct) very closely what the image will look like printed using the printer and paper the profile was meant for.

Applying Colour Profiles

Before sending an image out to print, especially if it is being sent out to a commercial print house, it is important to make sure the print has the correct ICC profile embedded into it. In the follow example we will show you how to download profiles from johnjones.ca, install them into your computer and apply them to your print.

(It should be noted these instructions use Adobe Photoshop 5.5 or later)

In the “print” section of johnjones.ca you will notice with each paper listed there is also a clickable link that says “Download ICC profile”. Click there and a zip file of the profile of your choice will be saved on your machine. Once opened, if on an Apple computer place the profile in Macintosh Hd / Library / ColorSync / Profiles. If you use a PC the path is: Windows / System32 / Spool/ Drives / Color / Program Files / Common Files / Adobe / Color / Profiles. I would like to make it clear that this point that if you are having trouble finding where to put the profile on a PC you should try searching online or calling Microsoft as we cannot assure this file path will work.

Now that the file is in the right place, open Adobe Photoshop and open the image you wish to profile. In the menu above, select “View” and from the drop down menu select “Proof Setup”, from the side menu that will appear choose “Custom”. This will open a new dialog box where you can choose the profile that you downloaded. Make sure the preview box is checked and then in the “Rendering” menu choose the look that works best for your image. Once the image looks how you would like it, click “OK”. This HAS NOT APPLIED THE PROFILE it has only shown you what the image will look like with the profile applied. Once a profile is applied, the number of colours contained in the image is lessened. “Proofing” the profile allows you to view what the image will look like when the profile is embedded, but without losing the extra colours. Proofing does not apply the profile to the image however. So if the image were closed and reopened, it will still have the default profile. While proofing the image we can try and get rid of any unwanted colour changes or banding that may have occurred when viewing the profile on the image. Once the image looks suitable to you, in the “Edit” menu select “Convert to Profile” and use the same profile and intent settings you choose in the custom proofing menu. Do not change anything else in this dialog box unless you know what you are doing.

Now that you have the image corrected and the profile applied its time to save your image to be sent away to the printer. Remember, we recommend using the “save-as” command here, as it will not save over the original file which may have a larger colour space.