Graeme and Claas, Thanks for the additional information on soft proofing, monitor profiling and achieving a better monitor to print match. I learned a lot during this discussion and it plugged some gaps and misunderstandings in my knowledge. Good information to know!! Thanks again. Lou It's worse than that though. AFAIK, Photoshop, ICC and the desktop

conspire against using display profiles in Absolute Colorimetric intent, AKA soft proofing side by side mode.

1) As I understand it, Photoshop's proofing mode only uses a pseudo-absolute mode. The print profile is set to Absolute colorimetric while the display profile is left in Relative Colorimetric. So this gives you an impression of the white shift due to the paper color, but adapted to the white point of the display. It isn't actually attempting an absolute colorimetric match.

2) ICC V4 disables display profile Absolute Colorimetric intent by mandating the white point tag be set to D50. So a standard CMM won't render the display output with the absolute intent, ruining any attempt at an absolute colorimetric match.

3) Even ignoring 1) and 2), if your desktop and application have their own GUI elements showing, they will be rendered relative to the native display white point, and so will upset your adaptation state, and make the proofing output appear too yellow.

So given all these problems, the only practical approach is to calibrate the display so that it has a white point that matches the paper white. That way a Relative Colorimetric rendering will work for a soft proof side by side comparison.

Cheers, Graeme Gill.

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The reason for this is that most instruments which are usually used are simply inaccurate in measuring CCT. Using an accurate instrument an adjustment of the monitor WP to the same CCT as your viewing cabinet gives a visual match. But these instruments are out of budget of a normal end user.

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So given all these problems, the only practical approach is to calibrate the display so that it has a white point that matches the paper white. That way a Relative Colorimetric rendering will work for a soft proof side by side comparison.

Using Photoshop I agree. There are dedicated softproofing applications around where the absolute approach works though.

Best regards

Claas