I'm looking for some real good information on color management. Aimed at printing from Photoshop.
I've been searching the net, but can't really find anything really good. I guess someone here has a good link..

With a good monitor finally in house, and a large format printer (Epson 7900) I feel like getting things absolutely correct. I'm already doing quite well on printing, but don't feel like I have perfect control.

Lars, I don't use Epson but an HP B9180, I have a streamlined colour management system that produces fab results both for web and printing, in other words the end results are as I expect them to look when I've finished editing an image.
All I can do is just let you know my method and then maybe you can spot a few similarities or areas to experiment with.
1. I shoot in sRGB and my whole workflow is in this colour space, I know the pros and cons but it works for me..

2. My monitor is regularly calibrated with a Spyder 2 and use the generated profile, BTW my luminocity is low at around 87.

3. All my editing programs, Capture NX2, Elements 5 and Photoshop CS2 have sRGB set as the colour management settings. All my files from camera through the editing stages to saving as master TIFFs and displaying on the web or printing look remarkably similar if comparing. My files are always embedded with the sRGB colour profile unless some competition for example needs the file at Adobe RGB, then I convert it to that.

4. I print from CS2 and have downloaded the HP B9180 print plug-in, it is found in File>Automate>HP print plug-in menu. I use genuine HP inks and HP or Hahnemuhle papers, all the profiles for my papers are in this plug-in. Here also you can select the colour management options, I use PS managed, the paper profile, Relative Colorimetric for the Intent and Black Point Compression.

The prints look better than what I see on my display monitor and all the colours, contrast and brightness etc are accurate.

Hope it all helps,
JP

That's a very low luminosity!
I'm running Adobe RGB through, otherwise we're quite in line. I'm also using makers profiles (Epson). But, that will change. I have the Spectroproofer for my printer, so I can make my own profiles. Working on it now. Seems like it will be easier than I thought.
I use some Canvas from Breathing Color that I don't have profiles for. And I doubt that any are available yet for Epson 7900. Could always check, but have decided to learn this properly as I'm sitting on some nice equipment for profiling and printing.

This is one thing that most people do wrong, having to high luminocity. I read on Luminous Landscape that if you want your monitor calibrated for printing, luminosity should be set to around 80, so 87 sounds good. Most monitors have values above 120-130, so when printed, the print will be to dark, not as perceived as on the monitor. Mine is set a little high so I usually merge everything to a new additional layer, set blending mode to screen, and set the opacity of the new layer to about 35% (will need to be adjusted depending on screen luminosity).

If you really want to get into color management, which you will need, I recommend "Real World Color Management" by Fraser, Murphy and Bunting (ISBN 0-201-77340-6, http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0201773406) A really great book that explains everything you need regarding color management, profiles, etc. It will give you the knowledge to know how different colorspaces work, what happens when you switch/convert etc so you can make the decisions needed. Then working with different colorspaces will be no problem!

/Thomas

This is the article at Luminous Landscape I referred to above: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/two-displays.shtml

Thanks Thomas! I've read that article before think. And I will have a new look at the readings I got. They have to be lower than what I wrote. The prints comes out quite good when I'm using Epson's profiles. A little on the dark side, so I might adjust a little.
My Spectrometer on the Epson seems to be dead weight.. It seems to need more than standard software to make ICC profiles. Something like Profilemaker that costs over $2000..
Anyway, Epson threw it into a special offer, so I didn't really pay for it.

I use ImagePrint (http://www.colorbytesoftware.com/) for my Epson 3800. Just for their great profiles! They have pure b/w profiles as well.

As most, they don't have my printer listed yet. And I'm used to printing from Photoshop and would like to continue that for normal photo prints.
A bit pricey that Imageprint too..
Downloaded printing profiles from Breathing Color last night, and it seems to do ok. It actually looks like I have fine control now.