Soft Proofing with Photoshop
Soft proofing is a function within Photoshop that allows the image displayed on your monitor to match the photographic prints produced by our printers.
The output profiles we provide are only intended to be used in conjunction with Photoshop and the soft proofing function
DO NOT convert your images to these profiles. Converting an image to one of these profiles and submitting the image for production will result in the image being incorrectly printed. All files should be submitted in sRGB.
Soft proofing displays the files based on the printer colour space in conjunction with the monitor profile. The image file itself is not altered, the pixel values of the image remain untouched. The pixels displayed on the monitor are mapped so the colours of the image are as close as possible to what a final print would look like.
Installing a Printer Profile
Firstly, download the Loxley Colour printer profile from the Downloads tab.
The profiles need to be copied to your PC or Mac so the operating system (OS) and other applications will have access to them. Different OS may deal with the profiles differently.
The instructions below are intended only for the OS version specified. If you have a version other that what is stated below contact you OS provider for specific information.
On a PC, place the profile in C:WINDOWS\sytem32\spool\drivers\color (Tip for XP, Vista and Windows 7 you can right click the profile and click install)
On a Mac, place the profile in Library\colorSync\Profiles
STEP 1 - Open Photoshop
Open Photoshop click on the view menu, select ‘Proof Setup, then select ‘Custom’ option.
Click on the 'Device to Stimulate' and chose the profile
Do not use the ‘Preserve Colour Numbers’ option
Click on the ‘Rendering Intent’ pull down menu and select ‘Perceptual’
Place a tick in the ‘Black Point Compensation’ tick box
- This option will more accurately scale the black level in your image to the output device black.
STEP 2 - Device to Stimulate
Depending on your viewing conditions you can select ‘Simulate Paper Colour’ or ‘Simulate Black Ink’
- These setting decrease the amount of visual contrast to compensate for the fact monitors typically show brighter whites and deeper blacks than the actual print.
- ‘Simulate Black Ink’ will allow you to check the shadow detail in your image.
- ‘Simulate Paper Colour’ will display the image with the difference between your monitors white level and the paper.
STEP 3 - Display Options (On-Screen)
Once the above changes have been made, click on the save button and give this setup a unique name.
You are now ready to use Photoshop soft proofing option with your images.