Printing images and getting the colour set up

[Tom OD]

Hi all,

I want to ask about printers / printing images, and technically the laptop and printer are all part of the imaging process, if you print anyway.

I just bought a printer today and I was wondering of anyone knew how to set it up correctly so the image on the screen is what gets printed. So far I've used the Adobe RGB settings for the print settings, but the image comes out a bit saturated. Then there is the lack of the dim areas in the print.

Does anyone know of a tutorial on how to do this for a generic printer.

Thanks Tom.

[brympton]

Colour Management is a huge subject covered in big books and various training courses so I can only give some basic answers here and pointers to further information. Firstly, the image you see on screen is made up from Red, Green and Blue (RGB) whereas the printer has to cope with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black so straight away there's a difference which will prevent you from getting an exact colour match. That's not to say you can't get closer, try researching ICC Profiles if you have plenty of spare time! A good starting point with links is:

Making prints match your screen

I rarely print my own photo's because i simply cannot achieve the same results as many on-line photo printing services can. I did purchase a monitor calibration device (Spyder) which has dramatically improved the situation and the prints i get from my own printer and on line are much closer to what I see on screen.

Finally accurate colour profiling affects the hardware (monitor), software, printer ink and paper. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[Tom OD]

Thanks Brympton,

The research has begun. So far the prints long close, and have come out well. Getting the red correct seems to be the hardest part.

Tom.