Hi, Asher,
I would just like to comment on your opening title here.
At issue here are the calibration and profiling of displays ("monitors") and the profiling of printer systems.
I'm sure that you (prudently) truncated the title for editorial reasons. Still, I think it is important that we recognize that calibration of a printer system and its profiling are two different (although related) things, both of great interest.
To summarize the distinction:
• Calibration of a display chain means to adjust its lookup tables and such so that its colorimetric response, at its input interface from applications, implies a color space that is as near as practical to some standard color space (usually sRGB, although we are rarely told that). It in effect seeks to give the display chain itself a response matching a standard color space, so far as is practical.
• Profiling of a display chain means to develop a precise description, in a standard format, of its colorimetric response (with its calibration adjustments in effect, if applicable). It in effect seeks to precisely define the color space under which the displayed chain (with its calibration in place, if applicable) operates.
One objective of calibration is that in situations where the application does not recognize profiles, and assuming that its output is in terms of the sRGB color space, the response of the display chain will hopefully produce "very nearly" the proper colors.
The objective of profiling is that a "profile-aware" application can take the colors in an image about to be displayed, represented in terms of some color space, and transform them to the specific, parochial color space of the particular display chain in use (as defined by its profile).
Typically instrument-software packages for use with display chains will perform calibration and/or profiling, as we direct. The usual approach is to have the tool first calibrate the display chain and then, for the chain with the calibration in effect, to profile it.
Best regards,
Doug