Photoshop
With your file open in Photoshop, go to View > Proof Setup > Custom then select the paper profile you would like to soft proof. Tick ‘Black point compensation’. ‘Simulate paper colour’ is very useful for simulating the effect a paper bases luminosity and base colour/whiteness. This is most noticeable on MATT papers and those with warmer bases. It is very useful to observe whether colours become subdued and blacks lose depth.
It’s worth trying several profiles if you are new to this process, to see the different papers characteristics.
This simulation is often over-emphasised on matt papers though, so please have this in mind when you are making adjustments.
Toggle Proof Colours on and off with cmd+Y (on a mac) CRTL+Y (on a PC). or choose View > Proof Colours to see what your image will look like as a print. (Your file’s title will change when viewing proof colours). You will notice when you toggle back and forth from the working space to our profiles that vibrant colours and deep blacks may appear dull, especially on matt papers.
You can now make adjustments to make this differences less noticeable and to optimise the image for printing on the paper chosen. Typically with matt papers extra contrast is required or dark tones deepening. Often saturation benefits nudging up, although this will depend on the image. Some glossy papers require no or very little adjustment.
View>Gamut Warning will set any clipped colour to grey, on screen, so you can easily spot any parts of your image which are over-saturated. This can be rectified In a number of ways depending on the image. Global hue/saturation adjustment, or more localised adjustments, a small tweak to white balance or a curves tweak will often fix small amounts of clipping. N.B. Try proofing stubborn images with alternative paper profiles to see if there is a better candidate without making huge image adjustments.
When you’re satisfied with the file, send it to us with the source profile embedded (usually Adobe 1998). You can assign an RGB profile such as Adobe 1998 or sRGB by Edit>Assign Profile.
It is important you DO NOT embed our paper profile because your image will not print correctly!
Lightroom
After installing your profiles you need to enable them in Lightroom before you can use them.
In the develop module, check the box underneath the main image “Soft Proofing” then in the right hand panel, underneath the histogram click the profile currently selected. This will open a list of installed profiles. Click “other” to bring up another box which lists all the profiles installed. Simply check or uncheck the boxes, until you have enabled our profiles.
Then you can select the profile for the paper you are choosing, tick the box for “Simulate Paper & Ink”
From here the process is more or less the same as photoshop. If you do need to make adjustments to the image, a virtual copy is created with the name of the profile appending the file name, which can be seen at the top of the image (Press I to toggle through the metadata overlay if it’s hidden)
When ready, export the file as per our requirements. (See ordering or further support questions for info)
