ICC Profile Function for DTF Printers

ICC Profile Function for DTF Printers

Sometimes as users or beginners in DTF printing business are confused about ICC Profile. We still wondering “What is ICC Profile on a Digital Printing machine? and what can we do with that? Everything in the minds of each of us is totally different. First, let’s find out what the ICC Profile for the A3 L1800 DTF Printer is.

As users of digital printing machines or DTF printers, we want bright or contrasting print results obviously. If a design which we make don’t have the same color or different from our expectation, whether it’s too dark or too light. And also there are parts of the design which is the color doesn’t match when we print on the t-shirt, whether the color is bad or very disappointing.

Frequently, as designers or users of DTF printers, we complain that the printout is too dark, even we are sure that the photo or image of the design we see on the monitor is bright. Indeed, the printed photos result need to be compared with the original photos on the monitor, but still, we have to distinguish between the dynamic range of monitors and printers. Of course, if we design an image, wheter it a photo or a vector image, the results should be bright on the monitor.

ICC Profile available for DTF printing or for sticker printing

Unlike photo paper which is reflects light, the brightness or the darkness is depend on the light around it. Besides that, the dynamic range of a printer cannot match the monitor, because the printer’s dynamic range is dependon many factors, such as the whiteness of the paper and the number of colors that available in the printer.

So guys, both users of A3 DTF Printers and Large Format DTF Printers,when we are using ICC Profile, it is a profile to match the colors in the design with the colors of the printer’s output. The point is, if you see the design on the monitor, the results are not too much different from the results which printed on the t-shirts using DTF.

Mostly the manufacturers, both sellers of DTF Pet film and DTF ink, they have their own ICC Profile. Certainly,each manufacturer have different ICC Profile because they using different tools to calibrate each color as they expecting. For example, on monitor the color is stable and bright, then they adjust the color of the ICC Profile to match the monitor, the results will be applied to each t-shirt material. Therefore monitor calibration and ICC Profile are important for the final results when printed on t-shirts. Actually, the ICC Profile is not only for t-shirts, but it can be used to sticker materials or others.

The print on the t-shirt and on the monitor is different

If you have this problem, the print results on the t-shirt are different from the results on the monitor, definitely there is a problem with the ICC Profile, whether it’s from the manufacturer who gave the wrong ICC Profile or maybe it doesn’t match the ink which we use. As I explained earlier, basically the manufacturers make the ICC Profile according to the ink used.

If you want to go through the process of creating an ICC profile, it’s definitely a long process. You have to focus on what program that used to create an ICC Profile. After the program is installed on the computer, we must print the provided color pattern using paper. Now for t-shirt ink manufacturers, they print colors first, for example from light blue to dark blue or Dark Blue with a checkered model like the gray ladder. Then we create a profile with the printer we use.

After printing the color pattern on the t-shirt material, each color is measured according to the instructions that appear on the screen. If all the colors have been measured, the program will process the data and create an ICC profile for the t-shirt and the printer. This process must be repeated for different t-shirts or sticker materials, then each of the profile names should be different to avoid confuse, so guys, don’t get messy in compiling the ICC Profile that you have obtained in stages. If this ICC profile has been saved, we can select Color Management and select the ICC profile in advanced settings that was created earlier in the Acrorip section before printing.

So before printing, you need to do many important preparations, if you really want to get the best print results, the contrast and colors match the original. The monitor is the first thing that must be standardby calibrating the monitor. Next, the paper used also needs to be selected according to the ICC profile, if not available then a custom ICC profile can be made with a special tool.