My workflow consists of importing photos into Apple Aperture, where I do most of my editing. Sometimes, I edit the photo in Photoshop. Aperture can automatically create a .psd file based on my edited image, and include that in its own library. The final results gets printed on an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 printer.
In the Aperture settings, I can select which color space to use when generating the .psd file. As I have set it up right now I use 16bit and ProPhoto RGB color space.
However, when opening up the color utility, I can see that some of the glossy paper color profiles for the printer contains colors that are not inside the ProPhoto RGB color space. This is mainly blue and purple nuances in the black area that are outside the scope of the ProPhoto RGB color space.
What puzzles me is that the icc profiles for my printer, an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 are not CMYK, but RGB profiles, I am wondering if I should choose one of the color profiles for that printer when exporting to PhotoShop. The annoying part about that setup is that I would have to go into Aperture preferences and select the export color space based on the papertype I wish to print on before opening an image in Photoshop.
What also puzzles me is the fact that the icc profiles for the printer use the RGB, not the CMYK, color space. Although the printer does have 8 instead of 4 types of ink instead of 4, it is still based on subtractive color, as opposed to additive color that the RGB space is.
I'm quite new to the entire color management thing, and I want to set up my system to be able to generate predictable prints, and also fully utilizing the capabilities of my printer, e.g. I can see by comparing the color profile of my monitor with the color profile of the printer that the printer by far exceeds the monitors capabilities in producing very saturated green and blue colors.
My primary workstation is an iMac, on which I have calibrated the display using a x-rite Colormunki.