Printer calibration

[Tobyh]

Not sure if this is the right place for this, didn't see anywhere that appeared to fit any better sooooo...

I printed an A4 photo quality print last night from a waterfall picture that when it camne out on the printer was alot darker than my screen shows. I have never calibrated my equipment. IS there any free software to enable me to do this? Does it depend on which priner I have etc?

Thanks


TobyH

[GerryNick2]

Hi TobyH

Unless your a Pro calibration can be a nightmare.

On the question of software if you have any Adobe software installed it generally installs a file called Gamma, have a look in control panel and you may spot it.Usually these days most monitors are shipped out with software that includes calibration tools my Samsung came with two different calibration tools.

If you would really like to get into calibration I would get a good digital photography book, most have detailed sections on the subject, there is also a wealth of information on the net.
If money is no object there is a contraption that fits on the screen which is supposed to be the Bees Knees.

I experienced similar problems as you when I recently upgraded to a Epson Photo R800 printer. Pictures looked great on screen but were disapointing on print and bore no resemblance to the screen shot. Spent a whole week trying various calibration tools and profiles, went from bad to worse and ended up doing a windows restore to get back to where I started.

To save boring you with all the intricate details I eventually resolved the problem with two simple initiatives. The first was to do a print and then fine tune the brightness and contrast on the monitor controls to get a close match. This gave me a considerable improvement but still not ideal. Next action was to change the glossy photo paper, had been using unbranded paper on my old Photo 830 without any problems. Tried Epson Photo glossy and bingo printed image near on 100% match with screen view.

In essence what I am saying is try the simple initiatives before entering deep waters.

Gerry

[SteveHL]

Hi Tobyh
I've just been through the calibration process, but still learning so here goes.

The first thing is to calibrate your screen. Its best to use a a a proprietry software like Colour visions Spyder Pro. A sensor is placed on the screen and it reads colours and colour temp and builds a Profile for your screen. This is then set as the default profile. Unfortunatly this needs to be done every 30 days as monitor screens change over time.
You will next have to get your paper and ink profiled by printing a test print ( image supplied by the company doing the profile) sending it off and making sure you load that papaer profile every time you print with that paper.
All printer manufactures have paper profiles which come with the printer. If you use paper from someone like Lyson and their ink then suppliers often have profiles available.
To sum up its a two step process of screen and then paper/ink profile. Once you've got the two and use them in combo you should be able to produce prints of the same quality over an extended time period. I don't know of any free software that calibrates screens accuratly and ICC profiles for ink/paper combinations are available from paper/ink suppliers or can be specifically created for you .. but at a price. If you can do both I'd recommend it. Its improved both my web pctures and prints by 100%
Hope this helps.
Regards

[Tobyh]

Thanks Gerry.

Money is an issue and although my monitor came with calibration software, i didn't know how to ensure the printer "sees" the same image. I also have an Epson (Photo 900) and i was considering just overbrightening my picture to see what happened when printed, bit of a waste of ink (though obviously would do it much lower DPI).

Thing is I'm happy with the way the screen looks, the gamma etc has been set up to what I considered to be right for me, I don't really want to change that now. Maybe I've been thinking of this the wrong way - It is the screen that needs to change, not the printer.

Paper is good quality heavy glossed Epson stuff so thats not an issue here for me.

Out of interest, I wonder If i put the file into a photo shop to get a print done do they ever suffer this type of issue? I've not done it before but have a few photos I was thinking that maybe I would get properly done.

TobyH

[SteveHL]

If you are using Photoshop there is a prset control the sets PS automatically so you monitor is desaturated by a default of 20%.
To resst this go to: Edit, Color Settings, Advanced Controls, Destaurtae Monitor color by__%and reset to you required level.
This also makes a big difference.
Regards

[Tobyh]

Hmm,

Im on Paint Shop Pro. It normally has equivalent abilities so I'll try and find that.

*actually* reading that I'm not sure I fully follow you there Steve. PS has already desaturated your monitor colours? Would that then not mean that the printer would output oversaturated colours? Apologies if I sound a noddy at this, it's er because...I am !


Thanks

[GerryNick2]

Getting a professional print done for comparison may well help with nailing down what needs to be tweeked.
What I did was put a couple of jpg.files on a cd and took them round to a couple of colleagues with some photo paper, had a look on their screens to see what they looked like and got them to print a copy. It was amazing the variations but it certainly helped in resolving the problem and a lot cheaper than paying out for a pro.print.

Gerry

[SteveHL]

Hi Tobyh.
It would mean that the printed image would be 20% more saturated that the image that appeared on the monitor. Its best you have your monitor running for an hour before you calirated it and it should also be done ina room that's dark or as dark as you can make it. Once you've calibrated putting the lights on is OK.
Regards