Printer Options in the HP Print Driver
Printer Options in the HP Print Driver
The first thing to do is double check you have selected the HP printer. You can set it as the default printer in Printer Set Up.
Familiarize yourself with the roll down options under copies and Pages… The Colorsync menu is a pre-filter treatment that is useful but not really an ICC workflow options which it may be misunderstood to do. Rather an effects pre-filter to be used to deliberately alter the image yet not an ICC Color Management tool.
The only roll down we need is Paper Type/Quality. Start by selecting the Paper type you're using. Select the quality mode. Best quality is for the printing, designers. There seems no reason for images though to be printed with this setting.
The Color section is where you'll need to select the correct follow up on color conversions to be performed or not . Your three methods here are first; the simple automated color management tool which is ColorSmart.
ColorSmart assumes sRGB and accepts no other input source. HP have written that it does now yet I don't recommend anything other than sRGB for ColorSmart. When you've selected the media type, Quality mode , ColorSmart will do the rest, and well. Just remember the image source must be sRGB.
The second choice would be Colorsync. This setting relies on the source being tagged with the source (and proof*) profiles in Photoshop. The setting in Photoshop 7 to embed is called "Print Space: Postscript Color Management" or "Print Space: Printer Color Management" in Photoshop CS. So if you want to use Colorsync directly in the driver you MUST have these options set in the Print Preview in Photoshop.
When these conditions are met you just simply choose your media , quality settings and the private tags in the profiles are linked to the media settings. You could select another profile in the profile roll down yet you'll lose the advantage of Adobe's unique compensation for Black Point which can add a lot of impact to an image.
The third method by far the option of choice is to choose Application Color. When you choose this you're turning off color management in the driver and using full Photoshop conversion to be output without colorimetric intervention of the driver.
Lastly you'll want to save these settings out for further use as a roll down in the print driver presets roll down menu. Click on the roll down "Presets" and scroll to save as. Give it tan appropriate media, quality, and workflow name. It will then be available for that media in the printer presets there after.
Other helpful resources for color managed printing with HP printers
HP PhotoSmart 7960 - Advanced Color Management OsX and Windows
The HP PhotoSmart 7960 color management solution was designed to meet a broad range of customer needs. For customers with little imaging expertise, default automatic color processing delivers good looking results. For users that desire professional color control, printer driver settings enable advanced color management features, including support for ICC color management.
HP Designjet 30 and 130 Series Printers - How to Produce Photo Quality Prints Using Adobe Photoshop
This document describes only one way of managing color with RGB images in order to obtain excellent photographic images. This flow and the settings shown can be used as a working guide.