I am quite lucky that my job allows me to play with some of the latest printing technology and as a thinly veiled attempt to justify printing some of my own photos (strictly for personal use) I often colour profile these printers and media and make the profiles available here for download.

If a particular media type does not have a profile available here then there is a good chance that I have never used it. Generally the only media I have access to is the media that is sold by Canon NZ, so don't expect to see many 3rd party media profiles (it is also worth noting that Canon NZ re-brand 3rd party media's so if I know the OEM I will note this). I also have a preference for 'photographic' media, so you won't see many profiles for the lightweight uncoated paper stocks. This is a work-in-progress and I will add profiles for different printers and media as I test them.

If you are wanting custom ICC profiles created for your printer and media combination or need colour management consulting then please feel free to contact me (use the form on the About page) and I will get back to you via my official role with Canon NZ.

Most of these profiles are created using measurements on a X-Rite Eye-One Isis spectrophotometer, though some are measured with a GretagMacbeth Spectoscan (usually only the heavy stock that won't feed in the Isis) and if I am feeing particularly masochistic, a handheld X-Rite i1. I usually use Bill Atkinson's 1728 patch chart, but sometime I may use a different chart such as the 918 TC9.18 or my own small gamut chart for toned B&W output. All of the profiles have been generated using Graham Gill's excellent Agyll CMS, mainly as the license allows distribution of the profiles (while I also have a couple of other profile creation packages, none of them allow the free distribution of profiles) although through testing, the Argyll profiles are as good as profiles generated using expensive commercial packages.

The files that you can download include a Readme.txt file that describes exactly how I printed the patch chart, what settings I used on the printer, what resolution I was using, the commands feed to Argyll to create the profile and any comments or observations I have made about the media. I also include the measurement file in the Logo CGATS format generated by X-Rite MeasureTool - this allows you to generate a new profile using alternative Argyll settings if you wanted to (for instance if you were exhibiting prints under D65 lighting you could generate a profile for this type of lighting).

Naming profiles can be tricky. You don't want the name to be too long as many tools will truncate long names (for example the Canon Photoshop Export Module) but you also need to encapsulate as much information about the profile, the printer and the settings to be used in the driver as possible.

These profiles have the naming convention of: Model Print_Method Media_Code Resolution, where the Model refers to the printer series that the profile should be used on. The Print_Method will be either PD when printed using the Printer Driver, or PSE16 when using the Photoshop Export Module to print 16bit (in theory I could use PSE8 but I don't expect that I will generate any profiles using the Photoshop Module in 8bit mode). The Media_Code is the product code used when ordering the media - an example would be W180GP which is a 180gsm Glossy Photo paper. Finally the resolution is the print resolution used in the driver. Generally this will always be the highest resolution the printer is capable of printing at.

If the profile is designed for toned B&W output then the profile name will have SG appended to the end of the name (SG stands for small gamut). These profiles are designed for printing toned/tinted B&W prints using the 'Color' option in the driver (as opposed to the 'Monochrome' or 'Monochrome (Photo)' options that don't use ICC profiles for printing).

Full information about the paper name, printer model etc is included in the profile Readme.txt file included in the download.

These profiles are distributed by myself and are free to download and as such, neither myself or Canon NZ offer any support for these profiles (other than the information contained on this page and any information included in the download). I offer no guarantees that these profiles will be suitable for your work (though I have tested them all with a number of images that I personally like along with some synthetic test charts), nor that they won't damage your printer or computer system (I can't see that happening but you can't be too careful :-)

I am always adding profiles, so please check back frequently (and have a look at some of my photos while you are here :-)

Profiles for the iPFx000 series (iPF5000, iPF8000, iPF9000).

iPFx000 Canon Photo Gloss 180gsm W180GP for the Print Driver.

iPFx000 Canon Photo Gloss 180gsm W180GP for the Photoshop Export Module.

iPFx000 Canon Poster Satin 230gsm W230POST for the Print Driver.

iPFx000 Canon Poster Satin 230gsm W230POST for the Photoshop Export Module.

iPFx000 Canon Coated Paper 180gsm W180CP for the Print Driver.

iPFx000 Canon Coated Paper 180gsm W180CP for the Photoshop Export Module.

iPFx000 Bockenford Watercolour Paper 300gsm Small Gamut for the Printer Driver (pending further testing)

iPFx000 PVC Banner 375gsm W375PVC for the Print Driver.

iPFx000 Fine Art Archival 280gsm W280AM for the Photoshop Export Module.

iPFx000 Waterproof Canvas 390gsm W390CAN for the Photoshop Export Module.

iPFx000 Waterproof Canvas 390gsm W390CAN for the Printer Driver.

Profiles for the iPFx100 series (iPF5100, iPF6100, iPF8100 etc).

iPFx100 Fine Art Soft 315gsm W315SOFT (Innova Softex 315gsm) for the Photoshop Export Module.

iPFx100 Photo Satin 180gsm W180SP for the Print Driver.

iPFx100 ProPhoto Semi Gloss 250gsm W250SP for the Print Driver.

iPFx100 Canvas 390gsm W390CAN for the Print Driver.

iPFx100 ProPhoto Semi Gloss 250gsm W250SP for the Photoshop Export Module.

iPFx100 Archival Fine Art Photo 280gsm W280AM (Innova Soft White Cotton) for the Print Driver (plus an alternative with higher ink density but suffers a little patchiness in dense colour areas but good for B&W.)

iPFx100 Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk (Baryta) for the Photoshop Export Module. Note I have not tested this profile, but I have tested the measurement file with ProfileMaker so should be good.

iPFx100 Sihl Baryt 290gsm (Sihl Professional Photo Barite Paper 290) for the Photoshop Export Module.

iPFx100 Sihl Iridium Photo Paper PE280 Satin #3696 for the Photoshop Export Module.

Eventually I am planning on recording some tutorials on how to use these profiles, however I have not yet had a chance. In the meantime I can highly recommend "From Camera To Print - The Craft of Fine Art Printing" which is available from the Luminous Landscape webstore. Not only is using ICC profiles when printing covered, so are many other topics such as soft proofing, sharpening, monitor profiling, scanning, RAW processing, noise reduction etc etc