HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer series - Manual (Page 71)

The calibration process is fully automatic and can be performed unattended after you have loaded paper
of the type you wish to calibrate—which should be A4, Letter, or any larger size.
The process takes about 8–10 minutes and consists of the following steps.
1. A calibration test chart is printed, which contains patches of each ink used in your printer.
2. The test chart is allowed to dry for a period of time that depends on the paper type, so that the
colors have time to stabilize.
3. The test chart is scanned and measured using the HP Embedded Spectrophotometer.
4. From the measurements made by the spectrophotometer, the printer calculates the necessary
correction factors to apply for consistent color printing on that paper type. It also calculates the
maximum amount of each ink that can be applied to the paper.
Color profiling
Color calibration provides consistent colors, but consistent colors are not necessarily accurate. For
instance, if your printer prints all colors as black, its colors may be consistent but they are not accurate.
In order to print accurate colors, it is necessary to convert the color values in your files to the color values
that will produce the correct colors from your printer, your inks, and your paper. An ICC color profile is
a description of a printer, ink, and paper combination that contains all the information needed for these
color conversions.
When you have defined and calibrated a new paper type, the printer is ready to create a ICC profile for
use with your paper, which will allow you to print on it with the best possible color accuracy. Alternatively,
if your paper type is already known to the printer, you already have an appropriate ICC profile for use
with it.
Create your own profile
You can create a color profile easily by using the HP Color Center: select Create and Install ICC
Profile. The printer helps you by prompting for information about the paper, then creates and installs
the new profile automatically.
ENWW Color profiling 61
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