Skip to content

Home

Jump to bottom
gronod edited this page Sep 14, 2026 · 2 revisions

ICCery user guide

ICCery helps you build a colour profile for a printer, a paper, and an ink set. You print a test chart, measure it with a spectrophotometer, and ICCery turns those measurements into an ICC profile that macOS ColorSync can use.

The app does not invent colour numbers itself. It runs proven measuring and profiling tools in the background and shows you the results in plain language.

This guide is for people who print photographs or proofing work and want a profile that matches the paper on the desk, not a generic driver preset.

Builders and packagers should use the source README instead of this wiki.

Installing

  1. Open the ICCery disk image (.dmg).
  2. Drag ICCery into Applications.
  3. Eject the disk image.
  4. Open ICCery from Applications. On the first launch, if macOS blocks it, Control-click the app and choose Open.

You need macOS 12 Monterey or later, Intel or Apple silicon. The measuring tools are inside the app. You do not install Argyll separately.

What you need

  • A Mac running macOS 12 Monterey or later
  • A printer already set up in System Settings
  • The paper and ink you actually plan to use
  • A supported spectrophotometer (see Measure Chart)
  • A folder you can write to. Every file for a session lives there.

What ICCery is not

  • It does not calibrate a display or a projector.
  • It does not replace your printer driver.
  • It does not soft-proof photographs. The gamut window is a 3D shape of printable colours, not a preview of a picture.
  • It does not turn colour management off inside the printer driver. You still have to do that yourself before you print a chart. See Lay Out and Print.

How a session works

Work follows five numbered steps in the left sidebar. A step stays locked until the right file exists in your folder. You cannot skip ahead by clicking a dimmed number.

  1. Generate Target - create a list of colour patches.
  2. Lay Out and Print - turn that list into printable pages and print them.
  3. Measure Chart - read the dry sheets with the instrument.
  4. Build Profile - create the ICC file.
  5. Verify and Install - check how well the profile predicts the chart, then install it for ColorSync.

Calibrate Printer is optional. Use it when you want a set of printer curves before you build a profile. It is a side path, not a sixth step in the same list.

Other tools

  • Projects save a bookmark to a session so you can open it again later.
  • Presets and Media remember chart settings and "this printer plus this paper plus this ink".
  • Spot Read takes one patch reading when you want to test the instrument or a scrap of paper.
  • Gamut Viewer compares printable colour ranges in 3D, including a second profile.
  • Settings holds defaults for the instrument, quality thresholds, and where profiles are installed.

Start here

New to the app? Follow Getting Started once from start to finish. Use Troubleshooting when a step stays locked or a print looks already corrected.

Contents

ICCery

Clone this wiki locally