FAQ

If your questions are not answered here send me them to me from Contact; I'll answer them as soon as possible and add the most common ones to this page.

May I contact you by phone? / Will you contact me by phone?

No. All pre-sales questions and post-sales technical support is only provided via email.

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Why do you ask that I provide a phone number on your Order Form if all pre-sales questions and post-sales technical support will be provided by email only?

There are rare occasions when phone contact is required; such as your target/s cannot be used to make a profile or the email address you provided is not valid.

I am in a hurry, can I request a rush order?

No, I make every profile and answer every email without assistance and every profile is delivered as soon as I can make and it.

How long after you receive my target will it take for me to receive my profile?

All profiles are delivered as quickly as workload permits. Many profiles are delivered the same day the target is received; most are delivered within 3 business days of receiving the target. All profiles will be delivered within 5 business days of receipt of the target.

Your delivery schedule says you deliver profiles sooner if you are not very busy. I need my profile ASAP how backlogged are you? If I send my order tomorrow when will I receive my profile?

Every effort will be made to deliver every order as quickly as possible. The number of orders received and the number of emails I have to answer fluctuates daily making it impossible to predict how long it will take to delivery an order that has not been received. I always meet my stated delivery schedule and many orders are delivered are early but I simply cannot commit to deliver any earlier than the delivery schedule outlined in my Terms of Sale, especially prior to the receipt of an order.

Can I pay for my profile with cash?

Yes, but I don't recommend sending cash and I am not responsible for lost shipments or damaged packages that arrive with the cash missing.

Is there a discount if I order more than one profile?

Yes, when you order 3 or more profiles at the same time the first two profiles cost $35 and all additional profiles cost $30 each. Note: The discounted price is only applicable when all profiles are paid for at the same time, all the targets are received at the same time and all the profiles are delivered to the same email account at the same time.

My prints look fine without it; why do I need a custom profile?

The automatic modes on even the best printers clip the color gamut of the printer in order to achieve equal results on individual printers that vary slightly due to manufacturing tolerances. A custom profile unlocks the full potential of your printer, allowing you to achieve better results with high saturation colors, especially blues and reds. In addition, many printers produce prints that are a bit darker than what your monitor shows. A custom profile fixes that, allowing a close match between screen and print.

Do I need a calibrated monitor?

Yes, you do. Printer profiles are designed to so the output of your printer will very closely resemble your monitor if the monitor is properly calibrated and profiled and the prints are viewed under approximately 5,000 degrees Kelvin, full spectrum, balanced white light. Properly calibrating and profiling a monitor requires a monitor calibrating and profiling tool with both software and a measurement device for measuring the output of your monitor. If you are using a visual monitor calibrating and profiling tool you can still have printer profiles made but you cannot expect your prints to closely resemble your monitor. Note: If you are using a LCD monitor, visual calibrating and profiling tools are known to produce worse results on LCD monitors than using the manufacturer's generic profile and the factory default settings.

I get poor black and whites prints! Can you help me?

I sure can. My profiles produce excellent black and white prints that are as neutral as your printer is capable of printing.

Can you make a custom profile for the digital mini-lab they have at Wal-Mart, (CostCo, Sam's Club, etc...)?

I can do that. Any digital lab by Fuji or Noritsu can be profiled. Just have the three pages of the 8x10 target printed. Don't resize the targets or convert them to a color space. They must go to the printer as untagged RGB files. Tell the lab tech to print them without any corrections or adjustments.

Can you make a custom profile for my (put in the make and model of your printer)?

Yes! I can make custom profiles for any make or model RGB printer.

How can I tell if my printer is a RGB printer?

Printers are classified by the type of color information the printer driver requires; not by the number of inks or colors of ink the printer uses to print with. All inkjet and dye-sub printers that use the standard free Windows or Mac printer driver are RGB printers.

If your printer uses a third-party RIP you may be able to print in RGB Mode and use a RGB profile. If you do not know what a third-party RIP is it is very unlikely that you using one.

Can you make a custom profile for my CMYK printer?

No, I'm sorry, but I do not provide CMYK profiling services. CMYK printers usually have user calibration and linearization utilities as well as more settings in the printer driver. All of these additional variables make CMYK printers more complex and require the operator to have more skill to properly operate and maintain the printer. The more complex the printer the more difficult it is to profile. It is also harder it is maintain the printer in the same operating condition it was in when the target was printed so the profile will continue to provide good results. This is why I consider CMYK printers poor candidates for profiling via a mail-in service and do not provide this service.

Some third-party RIP drivers (ImagePrint is one) which allow RGB inkjet printers to function as a CMYK printer also allow the user to choose between using RGB or CMYK profiles. When using RGB profiles the linearization and other advanced features of the RIP driver are unavailable. Usually if a RIP driver allows the user to choose between using RGB and CMYK profiles, one profile or the other provides significantly better results. The only way to know which profile provides the better results is to have both a RGB and CMYK profile made for the same paper and compare the results.

My printer only prints 4"x6", can you make a profile for it?

Yes, there is a 4"x6" target in the Profiling Package. It is the exact same target as the larger 8.5"x11" target, it has just been resized to print on smaller paper.

Can you profile canvas, cloth, ceramic tile?

Yes, I can profile virtually any flat media except transparent media, reflective media or media that is thicker than 10mm (.39"). Use any one of the 4 target sizes in the Profiling Package.

What printer, ink or paper should I buy? / What printer, ink, or paper is best?

I do not recommend printers, inks or papers. Even though it might seem that someone who makes profiles is the perfect person to make printer, paper or ink recommendations that is not the case. The target used to create a printer profile is nothing but a series of solid colored patches. The colors have no context and there are no gradations or transitions making them an especially poor images for evaluating a printer's, ink's or papers' capability. For recommendations for printers, inks or papers go to user forums and websites that review printers. Here are a few to get you started: www.dpreview.com , www.photo-i.co.uk/index.html, and www.steves-digicams.com

Do your profiles work on Mac's?

Yes, my profiles can be used on both Mac's and Windows' computers.

Do I need a profile for every paper I use?

Yes, the ink interacts with each paper differently, so you'll need a profile for each paper. However, there are some papers such Hahnemuhle Photo Rag that come in different thicknesses, if you use both 188gsm and 316gsm you only need one profile for both thicknesses of this paper.

Can I order a generic or standard profile? /Why must I print and send in a target to purchase a profile?

No, the licensing agreement for the profiling software I use will not allow me to sell a printer profile unless it has been made from a target printed on the printer that will be using it.

If I update or change the version of the printer driver I using when I printed print the target will I need new profiles?

Yes, the RGB printer driver controls the way the printer puts ink on the paper. If that changes a new profile is required. Sometimes a new printer driver version does not change how the printer puts ink on the paper. However there is rarely enough information about a new printer driver version to know if you will need new profiles. If your printer is not functioning well and the new printer driver version is supposed to solve the problems you really have no choice.

If the new printer driver version has new features you want to try, be sure that you have an installable copy of the printer driver version you are using before you install the new version. Test your profiles, if they do not provide good results you will have the option of reinstalling the printer driver version the profile were created for or having new profiles made.

Upgrading the operating system on your computer will require a new printer driver and new printer profiles. Major updates known as "service packs" have also been known to require a new printer driver and therefore a new printer driver.