PrinterCal contains advanced profile options which can provide better printed results, particularly when printing none separated artwork such as RGB images that are out of gamut.  

When you select Save ICC Profile from the File Menu of Printer Cal, you can select which type of profile you want to save. You have the following options; Best for Separate Designs, Best for Image, Best for Flat Colour and Custom. This article focuses on the Best for Images option.

In the example above, the image on the left is using the default profile option in Printer Cal (Best for Separated files) the image on the right is using the 'Best for Images' option, as you can see in this example you get better contrast and colour saturation with this option set

The colour contained within images is handled in a different way to those contained within separated artwork, and therefore, if you predominantly print images, we strongly advise you to use the Best for Images option when building your profiles. You can of course save different versions of the profile from the same set of measurements, and do some test prints to see what works best for your designs.

You will get more of a difference / advantage between the different profile options if your printer has a smaller colour gamut to start with or the designs you are printing are out of gamut.

How to save a Best for Image profile

1. Open your printer profile measurements into PrinterCal (this is the .printercal file which you saved at the end of reading in the profile target).
2. Go to File Menu > Save ICC Profile, and in the window which opens, select Best for Images from the Profile drop down menu.
3. Press OK and save with an appropriate name.
4. Once the profile has built, set this in the Profile section of the AVA CMS Controller as your new printer profile.

Within the Advanced options, the following settings are applied when using the 'Best for Image' option.

You can adjust the setting above further, for example you may prefer the look of your files with the 'Smooth Separation' option checked, but take care to note what settings you used so you can achieve the same results with new profiles at a later date.

What are the disadvantages of using an ICC profile set to Best for Images?

The main disadvantage over the 'Best for Separated Designs' is a loss of accuracy, particularly for colours closer to the edges of the colour gamut.  So for example if you are printing a spot separated design with measured colours or PANTONE®®s the output will be more accurate using the 'Best for Separated Designs' option.

Further image adjustments

To improve the look of images further you could use the Colour Correction Layer in AVA. In the example below you can see that the original image (top image) is a little too dark using the 'Best for Image' profile, so I used the Colour Correction Layer to make the shadows a little lighter and I also increased the colour saturation a little to make my image look a little more vibrant, see bottom image.

Another option would be to try using Black Point Compensation, this can have a similar effect, but can result in the image looked more washed out that it should, see related articles for more information on this.

We recommend you run some test prints with this new profile, and if you have any concerns over the printed files, please contact AVA Technical Support for advise on how to improve your prints further and check your profile measurements.