Renewed Member and PS Question

I haven't been active for quite a while, but just rejoined NPN and hope to start posting again.

My question regarding PS is in relation to an image as viewed on a LCD screen and the resulting print. Whenever I print to matt paper, the print is darker and flatter than the LCD. I have profiled my monitor with the Spyder II Pro. Finally, getting to the actual question, do you need to add contrast and brightness to the image to get it to print correctly, or is my calibration off?

Different papers will print up differently. I've seen the same image printed on 3-4 different type papers and all were different...some darker, some lighter, some 'softer'... So, your monitor is probably fine if you've calibrated it correctly. It could just be the paper that's picking up extra ink and making the image darker.

Hopefully I've learned enough in the last year to answer your question. Are you soft-proofing the image using an ICC profile for the matt paper & printer you are using? If you're only getting this problem with matt prints, this could be the problem. Just calibrating your monitor won't always be sufficient if you're not also soft proofing. Also, LCD screens are not ideal, as the apparent darkness / brightness of a viewed image can vary depending on the angle you're viewing them at and the ambient light. If you have a CRT monitor that you can use as a second monitor, it might be better. And Spyder isn't the greatest monitor profiling program, though it should still work okay and I doubt that's your problem.

What Grant said.... Profiling your monitor is only half the equation. The second half is simulating the output of your printer (or any other printer, including professional lab printers). This is where the 'soft proofing' and ICC profiles come into play. Different papers, even on the same printer, will obviously produce different results. Therefore, you'll need a different ICC profile for each printer and paper combination. If your using a popular printer and paper, you can download the ICC profiles.

As an example, HERE is a link to the ICC profiles for the Epson R2400. Once you have the profiles installed, you can soft proof your photo by selecting the View > Proof Colors from the photoshop menu. (You may have to select View > Custom... to set up which profile to use).

This subject can get a little complicated, but if you have you monitor profiled, you're off to a good start.

Ian Lyons has a good summary tutorial on color management. Section 3 is on soft proofing.

Thanks for the input. Soft proofing definately helped the output.