Calibration problem?

[BookMaker]

Hi Folks - I'm new to this forum so I hope you'll accept this budding photographer's question:

I use an iMac connected to a Canon i9900 printer. I also use a Canon Rebel XS DSLR. I've been having a frustrating time getting my prints to match the image I have on screen.

I understand there's a world of difference between ink and an LED monitor. But where the image is bright and colorful on the screen, it seems to come up "dirty" and dark when I print. I try to compensate by lightening up the image in Elements 8, but then I start losing detail.

Is this a calibration problem? Or am I being unrealistic in my expectations about the printer?

Thanks for any help or guidance!

- Jeff

[teaking]

Just to give a little information printers use CMY and K (black) inks some have more but to keep it simple we will say 4. A printer also handles a different Gamut (range of colours) than that of a monitor which is usualy only sRGB.

The two devices also create colour differently the monitor is additive and adds colours to get from black to white the more colour added the whiter it is, A printer is subtractive and adds colours to get from white to black the more colour added the blacker it gets.

SOooooooo..... to handle this we use colour management. Which means we profile our monitor so we now it displays a certain set of colours a certain way, we then set this profile in our editing software. We then set a working colour space this enables your software to display the colours correctly. Now to print we need a printer profile this means we know to a certain extent how the printer will print out our colour. At this point we can proof our image and it should look close to the screen. How ever some colours just cant be replicated the same in print as can be shown on screen.

A quick note we also have to tell the printer to let your editing software handle your colours this option can be set in your editor and in some cases it has to be set on your print driver to.

[BookMaker]

Thanks for your input!

Just to clarify a bit more - the Canon printer I use has 8 tanks so I am getting a broader range of color than if I was just printing in straight 4/C process. I understand the use of color management - but how do I set a proper profile on my monitor so it more closely matches what I print?

[crockny]

I calibrated my monitor with a Spyder Pro and let Photoshop do the color management -- still didn't work for me -- I had to download a set of instructions for my Epson printer before I finally got it all together -- perhaps your printer's website has step by step instructions for you ... and it will never match completely for the reasons given above ... I did lower the brightness on my monitor which helped some ...

[Photologyst]

Hi Jeff:


On a mac you can calibrate without a 3rd party program.

Go to “System Preferences” then click on the “displays” symbol. Click on “color” and then “calibrate.” Do this in a darkened room without light interference.

Follow the instructions. Save the calibration with your choice of name. If you hook up another monitor it may display differently and you must calibrate that profile. Don’t forget to save.

Mac screens can be adjusted to be very bright, symbols F1 & F2 on your keyboard. I find that I need to pull the lights down to about 1/2 for accurate photo display for print form.

Let Photoshop do the color management instead of letting the printer do it.

[BookMaker]

Excellent! I'll try recalibrating using your instruction!

I did lower the brightness on the monitor and this morning, discovered the option to let the software (Photoshop) handle color management. Still a bit more work to do then...

Thanks again!

- Jeff