Frustrated with monitor/printer color discrepancies

Moggman · 08-14-2008, 03:09 PM

I was just curious about calibrating my monitor and printer. I have noticed that after pp, my pictures look good on my monitor, but when I print them, the colors look flat (mostly red deficient, making everything kind of muddy looking and cold). I have looked for monitor calibration tools, but I just want to make sure the problem would be resolved by that rather than a printer calibration tool. The printer tools are much more expensive and I will not be able to afford one, so I'm hoping a Huey Pro can help me with this. I have a Canon MP500 printer and a Dell 1708FP monitor. Are there profiles somewhere I can download without having to buy a calibration tool? I've tried printing through different programs such as Photoshop CS3, the Canon software that came with the printer, and the default Windows picture printing wizard. The color problem seems to occur no matter which method I use. Any help is appreciated.

*chrisman* · 08-14-2008, 04:34 PM

Assuming your hardware (printer, that is) is all working properly then you really need to calibrate the whole chain - software, monitor and printer. Companies such as ColorVision - they make the Spyder range - have the tools to do this. Their sites usually supply some good reference material as well.

To keep the price down you need to find out which component is causing the problem. I would get a print done at a photo lab to see how it compares with yours. You could also try another printer - maybe a friend or work.

Moggman · 08-14-2008, 05:27 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Chris. I'll be taking some of my files to the local camera shop to have them printed and see what the differences are. Anyone else have some suggestions for printer calibration that don't involve buying a $500 calibration unit?

*Damn Brit* · 08-14-2008, 08:11 PM

I just found this. Looks informative. I,m nearly at the same stage as you, I'm just about to start printing.
Gary

Moggman · 09-12-2008, 01:56 PM

I know this has kind of gone cold now, but I finally got around to doing some more comparisons. When I print from photoshop, the color is much better than using the software that came with my printer. I still haven't had anything printed by the local shop. I'll check in when I get some time to take some shots up there.

alfdog · 09-18-2008, 01:21 PM

I just got a spyder2express from amazon, I think it was around $65.

I'm so glad I got this, pictures in lightroom actually look like I would expect them to look.

Before I was afraid to mess with color temp settings, or just about anything else.

GregK8 · 09-19-2008, 08:50 PM

You can just get an icc profile made of your printer using a service for about $40. You print out a series of color patches that they provide, mail them in, then they send you the icc profile for your printer/ink/paper combination. No $500 investment required.

*FHPhotographer* · 09-21-2008, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by Moggman

I was just curious about calibrating my monitor and printer. I have noticed that after pp, my pictures look good on my monitor, but when I print them, the colors look flat (mostly red deficient, making everything kind of muddy looking and cold). I have looked for monitor calibration tools, but I just want to make sure the problem would be resolved by that rather than a printer calibration tool. The printer tools are much more expensive and I will not be able to afford one, so I'm hoping a Huey Pro can help me with this. I have a Canon MP500 printer and a Dell 1708FP monitor. Are there profiles somewhere I can download without having to buy a calibration tool? I've tried printing through different programs such as Photoshop CS3, the Canon software that came with the printer, and the default Windows picture printing wizard. The color problem seems to occur no matter which method I use. Any help is appreciated.

I was pokling around in PS3 and found this, try it and see what happens:
1.Open an8-bit RGB file
2. Go to View>Proof Colors>select
3. View>Proof Setup>Adobe RGB
4. Cut n' paste into a new file
5. File>Revert to clear the decks and then do the same and this time use View>Proof Setup>Monitor RGB
6. Window>Arrange>Tile Vertically and compare the two images at same size
Are they the same or different? I'm guessing they'll be different but they should be the same and the monitor needs to brought into "compliance" with Adobe RGB... this is a wild guess, I just found this so don't know what it means but maybe somebody on the Forum can explain it, dismiss it or tell me to shut and stop confusing everyone,
FHPhotogapher

gamgee · 09-22-2008, 12:49 AM

Moggman, when you take a file to your local printer you have to tell them to print the file with all automatic corrections turned off. Printers allways have those turned on by default because majority of their bussines is printing vacation photos and auto levels and similar look like a good idea, but those will just eliminate any chance for you to conclude anything from the their print. If printed without any corrections on their side such photo should provide good reference for you to compare with your monitor/print.
It is very helpfull to get them to print test file, for example, test picture for Fuji Frontier printing machines (you can download it from Fuji webpage). In my experience those are really good printing machines and Fuji Crystal Archive photo paper is said to have good longevity.

Photo Tramp · 09-22-2008, 05:53 AM

I don't know if this will help much but I do know from printing 100% of my shots on my Epson RX680 and other Epson printers I have a choice to either let the printer software control the color or I have the choice to have Photoshop control the printing in three categories CMYK, RGB, and SRGB I also have the same choices with the printer software. I will always let the Photoshop software control the printing. this way if you have your color management set right, and your monitor calibrated (this is a must). Your printing will match the monitor. Again with this said it also depends on your ink and if you have color enhancement turned on in the print device.
Remember there will always be differences in printing from computer to print device, but with the right settings in both computer, and printer software, the ink being used, and the type of printer you have, all have a-lot to do with the results.
Another thing to think of is The quality range of the print device. (I'm not saying the price has much to do with the way the device prints, But remember You only get what you pay for.) with buying printers over the past few years I found a cheaper priced printer will not print the quality photos, they will print consumer grade.

Good luck and let us know what you find with some minor changes.

marcdsgn · 09-22-2008, 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by Moggman

my pictures look good on my monitor, but when I print them, the colors look flat (mostly red deficient, making everything kind of muddy looking and cold).

Something most people don't take into consideration: Printers always translate an image to its CMYK pigment values, while the monitor translates an image to its RGB light values. It's impossible to exactly replicate the vibrancy of onscreen colours, because of physics:

1) Pigment upon pigment makes the image darker (print)
2) Light upon light makes the image brighter (monitor)

In other words, monitor colour and print colour act in opposing ways.

When post-processing, keep in mind that the more vibrant you make your image, the more chance there is of your printout mismatching.

HINT: If you're able to convert your onscreen image to CMYK mode, then this will give you a better idea of how your image will print. You'll notice that greens in particular appear muddy. This is because green light is notoriously hard to translate to print.

I usually edit in CMYK - because any changes will reflect more closely what the printer will reproduce - then revert to RGB prior to printout.

Wheatfield · 10-07-2008, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by Moggman

I was just curious about calibrating my monitor and printer. I have noticed that after pp, my pictures look good on my monitor, but when I print them, the colors look flat (mostly red deficient, making everything kind of muddy looking and cold). I have looked for monitor calibration tools, but I just want to make sure the problem would be resolved by that rather than a printer calibration tool. The printer tools are much more expensive and I will not be able to afford one, so I'm hoping a Huey Pro can help me with this. I have a Canon MP500 printer and a Dell 1708FP monitor. Are there profiles somewhere I can download without having to buy a calibration tool? I've tried printing through different programs such as Photoshop CS3, the Canon software that came with the printer, and the default Windows picture printing wizard. The color problem seems to occur no matter which method I use. Any help is appreciated.

Profiles are your friend.
You can do a rough monitor calibration with Adobe Gamma, and you can view yor image as a soft proof in Photoshop: View/proof setup/ Custom , and use the drop down to find your paper.