Hi, I’m currently trying to use Krita to upload my designs for printing, and I’m wondering where I can find U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 for DTG graphics and/or Coated FOGRA39(ISO 12647-2-2004) for AOP (All Over Printing), or the equivalent of these in the Krita desktop application? I’m looking for the FOGRA39 one (or the equivalent in particular). I recently reached asked this question in another forum but I wasn’t able to find what I needed. To put it into context, this is what I said:
Quote: "I’ve been following along with your instructions and the only place I’m stuck at now is trying to figure out where I have to go on Krita to choose U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 for DTG graphics and/or Coated FOGRA39(ISO 12647-2-2004) for AOP? I tried going through the desktop application to find them in the settings but I didn’t see them. The only things I could find in Krita that were remotely close are presented in the images below in the Imgur links.
The person replied saying that FOGRA39 or SWOP should be under Image Properties > Image Color Space in the Krita application but I didn’t see it there. I don’t know why. If you all can give any advice or insight into the situation, I’d really appreciate it. I’ve been trying to figure this out for days.
You’ll only see the printing profiles if you select CMYK/Alpha as the Model option, in New File or in the Softproofing options etc.
If you want a profile that isn’t listed, you need to find it and download it from somewhere (Google Search is good) and put it in the ‘profiles’ folder of your personal resources folder:
C:\Users\{your username}\AppData\Roaming\krita
Also there is no need to manually put the files in the Appdata folder, just click on it and Windows will automatically add the .icc profiles to its profile list (which should also show up on Krita)
Thank you for letting me know, @Grum999.
I went to the website that you mentioned and I noticed that both of the FOGRA39 files look slightly different from each other. What’s the difference between the two besides that, and do the results that they give differ from each other? I don’t want to choose the wrong one.
One says: Coated_Fogra39L_VIGC_300.icc
And the other is: Coated_Fogra39L_VIGC_260.icc
Here is a screenshot of the FOGRA39 options that I mentioned above
Thank you for sharing the information @MikhailAsmo. I’m actually not using a Windows computer for Krita, it’s a Mac. Is it possible that you know how I can download it via Mac? I found this video on YouTube, I’m wondering if its valid for my situation with Krita:
Thanks for the warm welcome, @AhabGreybeard, I appreciate it
In terms of what you mentioned for downloading ‘profiles’ from Google, can that be done with a Mac also? I also found this video on YouTube with instructions about downloading color profiles to Mac and I’m trying to make sure that its valid (or up to date) for Krita this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmDd-rzGqKg&t=52s
Im not sure since i dont use Macs, but back when i was using those in my school, i just right clicked on the .icc and there was an option to install them.
Okay, some general information to the best of my knowledge:
If I’m not mistaken, to make a color profile available in Krita you need to import it through Krita itself. In the different color space menus (like Image > Convert Image Color Space) next to the profile drop-down you’ll find button with a folder icon to import your ICC files.
Also under that is a big button labeled Color Space Browser for detailed information about each profile:
I could not spot any difference between the 260 and 300 variants of the CMYK specifications you mention, by the way.
So, what’s the purpose of these color profiles in the first place?
They are supposed to model the appearance of resulting colors as closely as possible within the limitations of a given output device - In this case it shows what colors can be achieved with specific chemical pigments printed onto a specific kind of coated paper.
See the printing section in particular.
However, in the vast majority of cases you should not use a CMYK profile as the working profile for any of your documents. If you don’t know, CMYK is a subtractive color model to (roughly) describe how mixing together chemical pigments absorbs color components. In this regard it works the opposite way of RGB - Adding together all color components evenly in RGB results in neutral white, while in CMYK adding all components produces black. This means every color blending operation in a CMYK document, every brush stroke painted, every layer with transparency blending with another layer, (almost) every blending mode or filter you try to use will give different results from RGB.
So unless you specifically want that blending behavior, it’s far easier to stick to RGB and only at the end merge all layers, then convert to your CMYK profile and export an image without overwriting your working document.
Also most image formats don’t even support saving in CMYK. You’d need to export a TIFF image or possibly PSD file for compatibility.
Instead you can use soft proofing in Krita to get an idea of how the colors will translate into print. Set the proofing profile under Image > Properties > Softproofing, then use the View menu or Ctrl+Y to toggle the preview and Crtl+Shift+Y to show out of gamut colors.
More often I would expect it’s not even necessary to bother converting an image to CMYK anyway, as printer software and professionals should know how to deal with that.
I wasn’t saying that you download colour profiles ‘from’ Google but that you use the google search engine to find websites containing references to that profile.
If I type “FOGRA39(ISO 12647-2-2004)” as a search item in Google then the first result is a link to color.org as was suggested by @Grum999
Then, as seems to be usual in these case, you have to scrabble around among various links until you actually find the download link for the profile file itself. http://www.color.org/registry/Coated_Fogra39L_VIGC_300.xalter
with a small download button at the bottom of that page.
So, that gets the profile file downloaded and stored, presumably in your ‘Downloads’ folder or whatever a Mac calls it.
As noted by @Snudl , there is a facility, within krita, for bringing colour profiles into krita using a neat and tidy method.
I believe that import method is a GUI ‘convenience’ for users who are not familiar with or comfortable with directly inserting files into the various user resources folders. Many people can lose their way and/or make mistakes if they try finding their way around the file system.
I’ve just manually put the Fogra39 profile into the -/krita/profiles folder and it was available and working when I started krita.
Yep, what I meant is that the profiles have to be made available to Krita directly, instead of being installed on the operating system. I don’t think Krita shares that pool of color profiles.
Just click on link, and you have a detailed description of ICC profile.
Looking description for the ‘300’ and ‘260’, profiles are the same except for the TAC (Total Area Coverage) defined at 300% and 260%
I’m not an expert about ICC profile.
Usually, just use ICC profile asked by your printer.
If you have no knowledge about ICC color profiles (for what I can read here, that’s the case but Ok, maybe I’m wrong ), then just work in sRGB or Adobe1998 and let the printer doing the profile conversion for you, if possible.
I think you can also try to read some documentation (easy to find with google) but that’s very technical, and in most case the color profile you’ll apply for printing will depend of the combination of printer, ink and paper.
Another thing, working with a dedicated color profile make sense if, at least, your screen is properly calibrated with a probe.
Otherwise you can be practically sure that print result won’t match to screen vision…
@Deevad wrote an excellent article about this, you can read it, you’ll see that subject is not easy…
On my side, I’m still unable to get proper results with printer
No, Krita does see profiles installed in the system. That’s why it sees the screen profile and that’s why there was a crash when someone had broken icc printer profiles: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=423685
I’m not sure Maybe they aren’t .icc profiles?.. But I’ve had users on reddit that couldn’t find their display profile in Krita, too. But usually it works that way.
(Not entirely relevant to the original topic, this in on Linux.)
I see 2 folders, /usr/share/color/icc/colord and /usr/share/color/icc/krita, both filled with their own ICC profiles, and the KDE colord module lists all profiles from both.
Maybe they aren’t .icc profiles?.. But I’ve had users on reddit that couldn’t find their display profile in Krita, too. But usually it works that way.