Calibrate Printer

Calibrate Printer

Calibrate Printer builds a set of per-channel curves for the printer and paper, saved as a .cal file. A later profile can include those curves so the ICC does not also have to correct a strongly non-linear printer.

You can skip this entire page. Many good profiles are built with no calibration file at all. Use it when:

• the printer's native greys are far from even
• you reprint the same paper often and want a stored starting curve
• a media recipe you trust already includes a .cal and that file has gone stale

This screen is a separate session. It is not step 0 of the same five-step list. The numbered stepper stays where it was.

What happens to the name

While this screen is open, ICCery works under a temporary basename that starts with CAL_. When you click Return to Profiling, the original basename comes back.

Do not save a project while the temporary name is active. Finish the curves or return first. Save stays disabled on purpose during that window.

Do not hand a live CAL_ file to the normal chart layout as if it were an ordinary target. The app refuses that mix.

Settings on the screen

• Colour Space. RGB or CMYK. Match how you will print the wedge.
• Steps per channel. How many density steps each channel gets.
• White patches. Extra paper-white patches on the wedge.
• Ink-limit exploration. Extra patches used to see where the ink stops changing colour.
• Neutral emphasis. Extra patches along the grey axis.

Buttons, in order

1. Generate Target writes the wedge file in the current working folder under the temporary name.
2. Create Layout and Print builds printable pages and sends them to the printer. Colour management in the driver must still be off. See Lay Out and Print.
3. Measure uses the same measuring tools as step 3, still on the temporary files. Calibrate the instrument when asked, then read the wedge.
4. Compute Curves produces the .cal file. The path appears as Loaded plus the file name.
5. Apply calibration to next profile. When you return, step 4 is ready to include that file.

Return to Profiling leaves this screen and restores the original basename.

When a curve is too old

Settings has Stale after N days (30 unless you change it). A media recipe that points at an older .cal shows Calibration stale. Run this screen again on the same paper. Do not rename some other file to look like a calibration file.

After you return

Step 4's Apply calibration curve toggle and file path reflect what you just built, if you left the toggle on. You still click Create Profile yourself. Calibration does not build the ICC.