How to configure a virtual machine to read the ICC profile for my monitor?

I have an extra enterprise class server. It’s a Dell PE 2950. It has dual RAID 5 drive arrays, 16 GB of memory, and two dual core 3 GHz Xenon processors. It runs Windows 2008 R2 and i've installed my standard editing tools (CS5, PTGUI, Qimage ultimate).

It can put together one of my 11 frame stitches and/or save a 2.5 GB file in seconds. I access this computer by way of Remote Desktop (a.k.a. RDP). I want to start to print directly from this machine. I've never tried to configure a RDP accessed machine for a monitor profile before.

While it only took a couple of minutes to install the print driver for the Z3100, to complete the configuration I’ll need to install the monitor calibration profile made for my workstation on to the server. But I've never done this before and don’t know where the config files are supposed to be stored, and what all is involved in this process.

What is the way to do this? Do I need to connect my monitors to the server and then use the colorimeter to make a new profile or can I just take the profile already on my workstation and copy it to the server? Since i work with the monitors and video adapter on the workstation (not the server) this makes sense. But i don't know where the config files are, or if they are portable in this manner.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Hi Tracy,

Tracy Lebenzon said:

I have an extra enterprise class server. It’s a Dell PE 2950. It has dual RAID 5 drive arrays, 16 GB of memory, and two dual core 3 GHz Xenon processors. It runs Windows 2008 R2 and i've installed my standard editing tools (CS5, PTGUI, Qimage ultimate).

It can put together one of my 11 frame stitches and/or save a 2.5 GB file in seconds. I access this computer by way of Remote Desktop (a.k.a. RDP). I want to start to print directly from this machine. I've never tried to configure a RDP accessed machine for a monitor profile before.

While it only took a couple of minutes to install the print driver for the Z3100, to complete the configuration I’ll need to install the monitor calibration profile made for my workstation on to the server. But I've never done this before and don’t know where the config files are supposed to be stored, and what all is involved in this process.

What is the way to do this? Do I need to connect my monitors to the server and then use the colorimeter to make a new profile or can I just take the profile already on my workstation and copy it to the server? Since i work with the monitors and video adapter on the workstation (not the server) this makes sense. But i don't know where the config files are, or if they are portable in this manner.
Y
Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

There are a couple of complications here. The rdp connection (such as the remote desktop connection) employs a generic vga card emulation at 8, 16 or 24 bits to display data on your workstation's monitor.

Microsoft states:

On the server, RDP uses its own video driver to render display output by constructing the rendering information into network packets by using RDP protocol and sending them over the network to the client. On the client, RDP receives rendering data and interprets the packets into corresponding Microsoft Windows graphics device interface (GDI) API calls

Click to expand...

I would certainly not recommend this setup for photography work. The setup which shall work is to deploy a so called kvm switch (one which works over tcp/ip if the server is remote) and to connect your monitor, keyboard and mouse to either the server or your workstation using the switch. After that, attach your colorimeter and monitor to the server and profile normally.

Thanks, Cem for the reply and for looking into this!

A KVM is impractical for this instance as a broader goal is to connect to this virtual workstation from any of a number of locations.

I agree that for any of a number of reasons this could turn out to be impractical or unworkable. But for the sake of the experiment, I want to see if I can match the color output when the content is generated from my virtual server compared to my workstation.

I called the vendor of the colorimeter I use (Gretag McBeth) and they said that for Windows programs the colorimeter and other programs that create .ICC files simply create an ICC profile document and put that in the following folder: C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color

That is what I was looking for, at least for the first task. A quick review of this folder shows that both the monitor and printer .icc profiles are there. Sweet! I first made a complete backup of the folder on the new computer, and then copied just the updated .icc files to the new computer, and then configured them as needed into the applications.

The HP printer utility synchronized all my paper types on the new computer but it did not include the custom printer sizes.

So what is remaining is to copy the Qimage related config files, and either copy or re-create the printer sizes in Qimage and do some testing.

Hi Tracy,

Tracy Lebenzon said:

Thanks, Cem for the reply and for looking into this!

A KVM is impractical for this instance as a broader goal is to connect to this virtual workstation from any of a number of locations.

I agree that for any of a number of reasons this could turn out to be impractical or unworkable. But for the sake of the experiment, I want to see if I can match the color output when the content is generated from my virtual server compared to my workstation.

I called the vendor of the colorimeter I use (Gretag McBeth) and they said that for Windows programs the colorimeter and other programs that create .ICC files simply create an ICC profile document and put that in the following folder: C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color

That is what I was looking for, at least for the first task. A quick review of this folder shows that both the monitor and printer .icc profiles are there. Sweet! I first made a complete backup of the folder on the new computer, and then copied just the updated .icc files to the new computer, and then configured them as needed into the applications.

The HP printer utility synchronized all my paper types on the new computer but it did not include the custom printer sizes.

So what is remaining is to copy the Qimage related config files, and either copy or re-create the printer sizes in Qimage and do some testing.

Click to expand...

You do not really need a color managed monitor if you are not going to do photoshop or other pp work on the server. Output profiles for printing will do just fine.

I understand the concerns re. a KVM, it is a solution with a certain downside indeed.

The directory for the profiles is the correct one. But the info given by GM is not applicable to the RDP I am afraid. I am almost certain that the monitor profile used for the virtual graphical card (if one is used at all) is not the one which is used for the actual monitor. You can try this out by deliberately creating a false monitor profile and assigning that one as the default. If you see the results in the RDP session, then you are set to go. If not, you will have to work the whole chain to make it work to an extent. By that, I mean that you have to somehow connect the colorimeter to the server, use the workstation to log in via RDP and execute the calibration process from within the RDP window. However, if my above assumption is correct, this will be in vain as well.

One can also assume that the color representation of the images will be shown on the workstation, therefore if the workstation is profiled it should show the correct colors anyway. Nevertheless, remember the fact that the highest color depth transferred is 24 bit (i.e. 8 bits per channel). This shall cause among others posterization with 48bit files and that is why I have recommended to shy away from this way of working.

You can use QImage for output and PTGui for stitching safely, they won't be affected. But PS work is a no-go I'm afraid. Anyway, just my Euro 0.02

> You do not really need a color managed monitor if you are not going to do photoshop or other pp work on the server. Output profiles for printing will do just fine.

The goal is to continue use the server for those purposes. The combination of drives and overall performance makes it way too good to say no. For about the last 6 months I've been doing most of my workups on the server via RDP, and doing the final passes along with the printing from my workstation. I think that Qimage needs to use the monitor profile to correct colors. And I think that PS also reads the monitor profile, but I'm not positive about either of these.

> I understand the concerns re. a KVM, it is a solution with a certain downside indeed.

I use them in my clients server rooms where they are well suited (I own an IT service company), but long cable runs cause signal degradation and all kinds of problems come from this.

> The directory for the profiles is the correct one. But the info given by GM is not applicable to the RDP I am afraid. I am almost certain that the monitor profile used for the virtual graphical card (if one is used at all) is not the one which is used for the actual monitor. You can try this out by deliberately creating a false monitor profile and assigning that one as the default. If you see the results in the RDP session, then you are set to go. If not, you will have to work the whole chain to make it work to an extent. By that, I mean that you have to somehow connect the colorimeter to the server, use the workstation to log in via RDP and execute the calibration process from within the RDP window. However, if my above assumption is correct, this will be in vain as well.

To me it doesn’t matter all that much if the monitor display is correct for the server, only that the programs (Qimage and PS) look to the right directory and read the monitor & paper profiles as they are set up on my workstation; which they appear to do. But in a recent image I posted (the valley floor) the snow appeared white on the monitor but shows a reddish tint when shown from the web site. So clearly there is room for improvement. I think that's on my workstation, and will have to get the colorimeter out and re-do the monitor setup.

> One can also assume that the color representation of the images will be shown on the workstation, therefore if the workstation is profiled it should show the correct colors anyway.

You’d think but that gets iffy when using RDP. Once I get the rest of the build done, I’ll do some testing.

> Nevertheless, remember the fact that the highest color depth transferred is 24 bit (i.e. 8 bits per channel). This shall cause among others posterization with 48bit files and that is why I have recommended to shy away from this way of working.

24 bit color also causes some banding of the video image.

According to some research, it is possible to get high resolution color by way of RDP. I haven’t implemented this yet as my day job has kept me busy recently, but take a look at the following as it shows how to get 32-bit color by way of RDP.

1) This shows a key stepping stone to make Win 2008 R2 have a desktop similar to Win 7.
http://www.win2008r2workstation.com/win2008r2/themes

2) This shows how to enable 32-bit video (and other stuff) by way of RDP.
http://www.win2008r2workstation.com/win2008r2/enable-remote-desktop-with-aero

3) The steps above require RDP version 6 or > and at least Vista on the workstation to get 32-bit color by way of RDP. This link shows how to determine rdp version installed.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5813991_determine-version-remote-desktop.html

4) And this link shows how to download a current version of RDP for different platforms.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925876

Tracy Lebenzon said:

...I think that Qimage needs to use the monitor profile to correct colors.

Click to expand...

No, the QImage does not need the monitor profile to print correctly, just the printer profile. I know for sure, being a long-time user of the QImage Studio.