ICC Profile Variants

ICC Profile Variants

ICC based printer profiles (PMMs) are created with 2 default variants:
  • Colorimetric: paper relative colorimetric conversion from the normalisation color space (standard) to the printer color space. All out of gamut colors will be clipped (loosing detail). All in-gamut colors are color accurate.
  • Perceptual: perceptual conversion of the full normalisation color space (standard) to the printer color space. Where the normalisation space is bigger than the printer gamut it will be compressed (preserving detail) and where it is smaller it will be expanded.
The PrintFactory Editor and PrintFactory Layout operators will see those options in the PMM quick selection bar when selecting the PMM:

To enable more advanced conversions, like purifying primaries, PrintFactory Calibrator allows to create custom variants for ICC based PMMs. Those variants will then also become available to the operators.

Managing ICC Variants

To create custom ICC variants, select an ICC based PMM in PrintFactory Calibrator and select one of the predefined variants:


This will enable the button at the bottom, giving you the following options:

Add a new variant

Delete the selected variant

Duplicate the selected variant

Or, double-click the selected variant to edit it.

When Add new variant is chosen the Variant properties will show:


The Variant properties window currently allows the settings listed below:
  • Name of the variant
  • Rendering intent to use: Colorimetric, Perceptual of Absolute
  • Black Generation: This setting defines how much K is used.
  • Profile size, color boosting and viewing conditions
  • Purify Primaries : All primary colors (chromatic channels) of the source (normalisation space) are purified. So if CMYK ( 80 / 0 / 0 / 0 ), thus 80% C, in the source exists and the printer CMYK would be ( 67 / 2 / 1 / 0 ) then the function will set the MYK channels to 0, resulting in ( 67 / 0 / 0 / 0 )
  • Purify Secondaries : All secondary colors are purified in the same way as explained above but using the combinations of 2 chromatic channels. So for CMYK: CM, MY, CY. This enables to retain clean Red, Green and Blue.
  • Max 100% Primaries : The 100% value of the primary colors in the source will result in 100% in the printer CMYK. This change is not causing a break, it is not done locally and will gradually move to the default separation behaviour.
  • Max 100% Secondaries : The same as for Max 100% Primaries, but applied on the secondaries.More information on the above settings can be found here
After creating the new variant it will be listed, but it only will be made permanent (sent to the RIP) when the Save icon in the top-right corner is clicked:


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