On Mar 26, 2008, at 10:31 AM, Mark Roberts wrote: > William Robb wrote: >> >> If you are sending files to a wet lab for printing, it is also >> best to convert the files to >> sRGB. I know that there are a bunch of people supplying colour >> profiles for various labs, but >> the colour paper itself fits within the sRGB colur space, so there >> isn't a lot of point in >> profiling for a specific printer, presuming the lab operator is >> keeping up his or her end of the >> bargain by maintaining the machine's calibrations. >> It'a also very difficult to get perfectly neutral B&W off of a >> colour lab, so be patient with >> your lab operators, and don't ask for a perfect B&W print in a >> hurry, especially if they are >> busy. >> This is especially true of the labs found in retail environments, >> they can usually do well >> enough with colour, but sometimes don't have the skill set in >> place to accurately render a B&W >> without some experimentation. > > I don't know if it's still true, but when I worked at the photo shop a > few years ago, the owner told me that Fuji Frontier machines weren't > even color space aware. > > He also said that putting your photos into sRGB color space was the > way > to get the best results for printing on traditional wet color photo > paper (like the Frontier uses).
I don't have many prints made at a service bureau, but when I do I usually use Calypso Imaging. They have several services for printing ... the pro services recommend doing a conversion to their printer/paper profile and embedding it, sending them a TIFF file prepared that way. For one of the less expensive prints I made, I did the default sRGB conversion and had them do their usual. The result was good, cheap, and close enough to what I saw on screen for the price. I printed four 27 x 42 inch B&Ws with them last year using the profile instructions. They came out perfect, exactly as they looked on screen, so for some services proper profiling is certainly a plus. Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.

