[BruceBanner]

Heyho,

I have a IX6860 printer and have now acquired some A3 and A4 Canon Matte Photo Paper (MP-101). I've rarely printed, only using up some glossy paper from before. I'm just reaching out here to see if anyone has some advice regarding settings I should use and any specific software to print from (or just use LR?). I noticed for example LR has options like 'Sharpen for printing' etc, do we tick this, even if we have applied sharpness in part of the PP?

I mean... I have a 43 inch 4k monitor, I know what some of my work can look like blown up full size on that display, I've just never printed before. So yeh, just putting a shout out there to anyone who actually prints their work and has found a few things worth doing before actually sending to print.

Cheers,

Bruce

[Adam]

If you want "really good" print quality at close range, aim for 300 dpi. You'll generally want to upsample if there is insufficient resolution, also also brighten the image as it will look darker when printed.

There are plenty of monitor calibration tools out there, too, if you want the display colors to match the print.

If you're just starting, I'd recommend a little trial and error and you should be able to get some good prints.

[macman24054]

+1 for printing at 300 DPI. I used 4x6 prints and adjustment in the print driver to achieve results on paper that match my monitor. It took me about an hour to get this completed. I have found that high ISO noise is much more forgiving in print form than it appears on screen. In fact, I have printed 13x19 prints from shots on my K3 taken at 3200 with very little noise reduction that my clients loved.

[twilhelm]

A couple of things to remember. As stated, prints will be darker than the picture appears on screen. Use the histogram, soon you will know just by that how dark the print will be. You have the option to have the program (Lightroom in your case) control color output or let the printer do it. I’ve found the program does a better job than the printer. There are programs and tools to calibrate your monitor and they work well. I make final adjustments to my printer output, since every printer is a little different.
Finally, sharpen for print, just don’t overdo it. It really is trial and error to get the final image you want, but once you have it set, you will get consistent results.

[TonyW]

Ideal start with a correctly profiled monitor and ensure profile being used by OS.

Lightroom is probably the simplest software to print from and may be all you ever need. More specialised software such as Qimage exists with many more options, but you may want to do a little experimentation to see what you can get out of LR first.

A few generalised recommendations to get you started based on Canon printers and Matt paper:

1. Canon has two reported print resolutions 300 ppi and 600 ppi and it expects delivery of images with one or the other.

2. IF your image data is up to it and contains much detail it is usually best practice to upsample to the nearest ppi in LR rather than leave it to the printer driver. Therefore if at the size you want to print you only have 100 ppi let LR upsample to 300 ppi. For instance If you find that you have above 300 ppi LR to upsample to 600 ppi.

3. It may or may not make a difference but you are following good practice as you are treating your data in the best way to get the most out of it.

4. Sharpening for output follows a predictable standard for the amount based on sound knowledge of human vision and has been designed in LR to correct for the usual softening of image data that occurs in the print process and is global in nature. You will need to experiment a little to find the best result for your paper type and use your judgement on the amount of sharpening to apply.

5. Rather than waste a whole sheet of paper you may want to cut the stock down to the smallest size your printer will handle and run a couple of test prints to see how much sharpening to apply

Hope the attachment helps - wait a few seconds for image to change

[BarryE]

Also, don't forget that the paper's gamut is much smaller than a monitor, and papers differ a lot. So soft proofing & profiles are important.

There's been mention that the paper will print darker than the screen. I'd say be careful here. All my significant out is for print sales, so I've set my monitor up so with full colour management the prints look the same as my screen, except for a very small standard, calibrated final lift in brightness - done just before the final output sharpening. > edit should have said this lift is *only* done to compensate for the reduction in contrast of the glass.

Also, as I'm thinking of other stuff, when you try and compare the prints to the screen, it's essential you use standardised lighting - ideally, neutral coloured walls and surroundings, and importantly standard lighting eg 5500k lighting, or whatever you've set your monitor up for. Not a good idea to use natural light, as it varies a lot.

[stevebrot]

Ideal start with a correctly profiled monitor and ensure profile being used by OS.

Lightroom is probably the simplest software to print from and may be all you ever need. More specialised software such as Qimage exists with many more options, but you may want to do a little experimentation to see what you can get out of LR first.

A few generalised recommendations to get you started based on Canon printers and Matt paper:

1. Canon has two reported print resolutions 300 ppi and 600 ppi and it expects delivery of images with one or the other.

2. IF your image data is up to it and contains much detail it is usually best practice to upsample to the nearest ppi in LR rather than leave it to the printer driver. Therefore if at the size you want to print you only have 100 ppi let LR upsample to 300 ppi. For instance If you find that you have above 300 ppi LR to upsample to 600 ppi.

3. It may or may not make a difference but you are following good practice as you are treating your data in the best way to get the most out of it.

4. Sharpening for output follows a predictable standard for the amount based on sound knowledge of human vision and has been designed in LR to correct for the usual softening of image data that occurs in the print process and is global in nature. You will need to experiment a little to find the best result for your paper type and use your judgement on the amount of sharpening to apply.

5. Rather than waste a whole sheet of paper you may want to cut the stock down to the smallest size your printer will handle and run a couple of test prints to see how much sharpening to apply

Hope the attachment helps - wait a few seconds for image to change

What they said ^ ^ ^, though the the important part with Lightroom as far as I am concerned was not emphasized. @BarryE mentioned it in his post and that is the matter of proper printer/paper profile and soft-proofing. In short, the intent is to do a full color-managed workflow with the addition of soft-proofing to allow print-specific edits appropriate for the printer/paper profile*. If done properly, the need to do multiple test prints is virtually eliminated and user satisfaction is much improved.

There are detailed instructions in resources such as Martin Evening's Lightroom book (highly recommended) and also online.


Steve

*Note that one may need to double check that the proper profile is applied for both the soft-proof and print steps.

[BruceBanner]

Thanks for feedback, I knew there'd be more to this than meets the eye.

Ok, so let's start with monitor calibration, how does one tackle this? I have two monitors, my actually primary is a gaming monitor (144hz), AOC G2460P), it's only 24 inches and 1080p but I find editing better on this monitor (and of course gaming) due to the 144hz refresh rate. If you've never used a refresh rate like this, it's quite something, I can even tell now when moving the mouse cursor around a desktop environment which screen is 144hz and which is 60hz, 60hz feels a laggy and a little painful to put up with now.

The second monitor I have is a humongous 43 inch 4k monitor, the Philips BDM4350UC_75. This monitor serves two purposes, one to see the final edits of pictures on, and also as a 'tv' (as it's mounted on an arm that can swing around and face the couch/sofa area).

I have never monitor calibrated, I toggle the presets of the monitor towards the applications I am using, for example 'Gaming' preset for games (usually higher Gamma, see more in the shadows), and perhaps 'Theatre' for when using the 4k as a tv (similar thing, lowers contrast, makes dark places easier to see etc).

I run current up to date win 10.

With both monitors I actually have one set to looking a little warmer than the other, I haven't tried to purposefully match them both to being the same when editing. I try and get the contrast approximately the same, but really I like to see how the pic will look on cooler and warmer screens. I guess it's time to get serious now tho if I am printing right? Try to get this monitor calibration thing done. So how does one start this process?

TIA!

Bruce

[stevebrot]

Ok, so let's start with monitor calibration, how does one tackle this?

The most convenient answer is to tell you to get one of the monitor calibration tools available on the market. Those read the monitor screen with the result being a custom ICC display profile that should be superior to that supplied by the manufacturer or the default in Windows.

Another answer is to suggest the monitor calibration wizard built into Windows 10. It will also generate a custom ICC profile only using your eyes instead of a gadget. The wizard is easy to use and fairly quick too. The main caveat is that one should calibrate the monitor with the room light being similar to what you would normally use for editing. Yes, it makes a difference and no, one should not be editing in the dark. Consider mildly subdued lighting with close to daylight balance. Graphics pros have color-balanced room lighting for both editing and print evaluation. With that aside, the wizard may be found using the path below. Although settings are user-specific, you will need administrator privilege to run the calibration tool. This is how it works on my Win10 Pro laptop:

1. Ask Cortana "Control Panel" and select Control Panel to open the app
2. Select "Color Management" to launch that widget
3. Click the "Advanced" tab and note the section toward the bottom for Display Calibration
4. Click the "Calibrate display" button to launch the wizard
5. When finished a new profile will have been created with a descriptive name
6. To see your new profile, return to the Color Management app, devices tab, and check "Use my settings for this device". The new profile should be visible in the table.

The Color Management interface is a little (very?) confusing, but the basic task is fairly easy to accomplish and works remarkably well. Note that the profile is for the sRGB colorspace, though wide-gamut tools like Lightroom will happily use what you have done.

I will confess to using the Windows wizard for my display calibration. It is tons better than the profile provided by the manufacturer (Samsung). One of these days, I should get a ColorMunki or Spyder5 or whatever...


Steve

[TonyW]

Thanks for feedback, I knew there'd be more to this than meets the eye.

Ok, so let's start with monitor calibration, how does one tackle this? I have two monitors, my actually primary is a gaming monitor (144hz), AOC G2460P), it's only 24 inches and 1080p but I find editing better on this monitor (and of course gaming) due to the 144hz refresh rate. If you've never used a refresh rate like this, it's quite something, I can even tell now when moving the mouse cursor around a desktop environment which screen is 144hz and which is 60hz, 60hz feels a laggy and a little painful to put up with now.

The second monitor I have is a humongous 43 inch 4k monitor, the Philips BDM4350UC_75. This monitor serves two purposes, one to see the final edits of pictures on, and also as a 'tv' (as it's mounted on an arm that can swing around and face the couch/sofa area).

I have never monitor calibrated, I toggle the presets of the monitor towards the applications I am using, for example 'Gaming' preset for games (usually higher Gamma, see more in the shadows), and perhaps 'Theatre' for when using the 4k as a tv (similar thing, lowers contrast, makes dark places easier to see etc).

I run current up to date win 10.

With both monitors I actually have one set to looking a little warmer than the other, I haven't tried to purposefully match them both to being the same when editing. I try and get the contrast approximately the same, but really I like to see how the pic will look on cooler and warmer screens. I guess it's time to get serious now tho if I am printing right? Try to get this monitor calibration thing done. So how does one start this process?

TIA!

Bruce

You may want to start gently and it is worth noting that with only minimum tweaking of settings you should be able to get pleasing and acceptable results with only a scant nod to Colour Management

Assuming that you may wish to delve a little deeper with perhaps the ultimate aim to get print and monitor match I would suggest considering the following:

1. It is important to get a feel for how your monitor should look and its limitations so have a look at the monitor test images at LCD monitor test images

2. Look at menu and click on each box paying particular attention to Contrast, Gamma, Black Level, White Saturation. For each test read the description of how the test image should look then scroll down for suggestions how to maximise your screen.

3. With this information you should be able to set your monitor visually to a reasonable state for photo editing but this is still not ideal because this state is not recorded in any profile.

4. Windows color management is better than nothing, but it cannot set your monitor to known standards and build an accurate profile of your monitors condition which allow colour savvy apps such as LR and PS to display correct colour data. For this you will need a calibration device and if you wish to go down this route in order of preference for accuracy/repeatability (disregarding cost) i1 Display Pro, ColorMunki Display or Spyder 5

5. Your monitor manufacturer may supply a generic profile for your monitor but once again it does not represent the actual condition of your particular unit
How to find the right color profile for your monitor using Windows 10 | Windows Central

6. It is unlikely that you will get two screens to match exactly therefore you may want to use one as your main editing screen and the other for menus etc in PS

[BruceBanner]

The most convenient answer is to tell you to get one of the monitor calibration tools available on the market. Those read the monitor screen with the result being a custom ICC display profile that should be superior to that supplied by the manufacturer or the default in Windows.

Another answer is to suggest the monitor calibration wizard built into Windows 10. It will also generate a custom ICC profile only using your eyes instead of a gadget. The wizard is easy to use and fairly quick too. The main caveat is that one should calibrate the monitor with the room light being similar to what you would normally use for editing. Yes, it makes a difference and no, one should not be editing in the dark. Consider mildly subdued lighting with close to daylight balance. Graphics pros have color-balanced room lighting for both editing and print evaluation. With that aside, the wizard may be found using the path below. Although settings are user-specific, you will need administrator privilege to run the calibration tool. This is how it works on my Win10 Pro laptop:[LIST = 1][*]Ask Cortana "Control Panel" and select Control Panel to open the app[*]Select "Color Management" to launch that widget[*]Click the "Advanced" tab and note the section toward the bottom for Display Calibration[*]Click the "Calibrate display" button to launch the wizard[*]When finished a new profile will have been created with a descriptive name[*]To see your new profile, return to the Color Management app, devices tab, and check "Use my settings for this device". The new profile should be visible in the table.[/LIST]The Color Management interface is a little (very?) confusing, but the basic task is fairly easy to accomplish and works remarkably well. Note that the profile is for the sRGB colorspace, though wide-gamut tools like Lightroom will happily use what you have done.

I will confess to using the Windows wizard for my display calibration. It is tons better than the profile provided by the manufacturer (Samsung). One of these days, I should get a ColorMunki or Spyder5 or whatever...


Steve

Thanks Steve, I'll give that a go over the holidays, will report back.

You may want to start gently and it is worth noting that with only minimum tweaking of settings you should be able to get pleasing and acceptable results with only a scant nod to Colour Management

Assuming that you may wish to delve a little deeper with perhaps the ultimate aim to get print and monitor match I would suggest considering the following:

1. It is important to get a feel for how your monitor should look and its limitations so have a look at the monitor test images at LCD monitor test images

2. Look at menu and click on each box paying particular attention to Contrast, Gamma, Black Level, White Saturation. For each test read the description of how the test image should look then scroll down for suggestions how to maximise your screen.

3. With this information you should be able to set your monitor visually to a reasonable state for photo editing but this is still not ideal because this state is not recorded in any profile.

4. Windows color management is better than nothing, but it cannot set your monitor to known standards and build an accurate profile of your monitors condition which allow colour savvy apps such as LR and PS to display correct colour data. For this you will need a calibration device and if you wish to go down this route in order of preference for accuracy/repeatability (disregarding cost) i1 Display Pro, ColorMunki Display or Spyder 5

5. Your monitor manufacturer may supply a generic profile for your monitor but once again it does not represent the actual condition of your particular unit
How to find the right color profile for your monitor using Windows 10 | Windows Central

6. It is unlikely that you will get two screens to match exactly therefore you may want to use one as your main editing screen and the other for menus etc in PS

Thanks too Tony, will have a look at those steps also. One step stuck out at me, the last with the idea of having menu items on another screen. I was aware that in PS a lot of the menus could pop out, however the majority of my editing consists in LR and Topaz. To my knowledge you can't pop out the menus in LR like you can PS can you?

[TonyW]

Bruce, I only meant PS. As you say LR does not allow this which upsets some users as it has been a feature request for some time

[BruceBanner]

Bruce, I only meant PS. As you say LR does not allow this which upsets some users as it has been a feature request for some time

Yeh I thought so, just double checking. 'Tis a shame, as it is I tend to use the arrows to hide all the menus and what not away that I'm not currently using, it would be really nice to fill one screen up entirely with the image and the other to have the tools at the side.

FWIW I did a print out yesterday, it looked ok to me, not much differently varied from what I see on the monitors, certainly nothing that made me shriek lol.