I have just bought and installed a new HP computer and 22" monitor. I also own an Epson R800 photo printer and process my photos with Photoshop CS3. The last time I had this done for me but I would like to get the colors correct and matched with everything I own and am looking for suggestions on how to do this with the least investment.
Thanks
Don
Posted by John Mumaw on August 15, 2008 at 9:29 PM
Using a monitor hardware calibration system and the correct ICC profiles for the paper you print on should do the trick.
For around $150, the Spyder3Pro will do the job quite well (see this review), while Epson paper profiles ship with the printer drivers. Many third party papers have downloadable profiles at their websites.
Others may recommend much more expensive calibration systems, but I've always gotten great results with the Spyder.
Don, I think the easiest way is to get a calibrator for your monitor. I use the X-rite Eye 1 and like it a lot. It is easy to use and the results are considered the best in the industry.
Once your monitor is calibrated you need to set your printer and CS3 to talk to each other correctly. Be sure your images are displayed in Adobe RGB or s RGB. Adobe RGB is better and is what you should be shooting with.
Set your printer driver (using the print dialogue box in CS3) to "Let Photoshop determine colors" and use "relative colorimetric" and "black point compensation".
After this when yo set up your page be sure to select the driver for the paper type - glossy, semi gloss, matt, etc. that the paper you use suggests. Then you need to be sure the paper profile is properly selected. Your printer comes with profiles for most Epson papers and the profiles for other papers can be downloaded from the manufacturer's sites. This is loaded in the same dialogue box as you selected "let Photoshop determine colors".
Once all this is done your monitor and printer should be calibrated to give you repeatable results.
You will always tradeoff something when you go cheap. In this case, the minimum entry point for what you are asking for is around $600 retail, and it would be the Datacolor Spyder3 Studio. While the advice above is right on the money for what it says, it only addresses half your question. These are all monitor calibration systems and do not address the basic question of calibrating the printer to the monitor. Depending on how critical your eye and how involved you want to get, this may suffice.
Calibrating the monitor to a universal standard is certainly the first step. If you are using OEM paper and ink, and you use the printer mfgr's ICC profiles, you are likely to be in good shape. If you are using other paper (most do) and different ink (many do, but it is not recommended) then you will never get the results you are looking for without calibrating your printer as well.
If you are sending your files out for printing, then calibrating the monitor is all you need to do, since the printing services you are likely to use will use printer calibration.
If you are using an LCD monitor that is less than 8 bits, then you will never see on the screen what you will see in print. A 6 bit monitor does not have the physical ability to display all the colors tonal range that a decent printer can, so it will approximate (fudge) the colors. It may be close on occasion, when the image has a limited range of tones and colors, but if your pictures have many subtle gradiations, then you will see a difference.
The $600 solution will include both monitor and printer calibration. The tradeoff I mentioned, in this case, is mainly convenience. You have to manually measure 150, 225 or 729 printed color patches. It includes a guide so that you can more easily center the spectrocolorimeter on the patch, but it is time consuming. More expensive systems will mechanically automate this for you. In either case the end result is a print that will match a calibrated monitor, as closely as possible, given the inherent differences between color monitors and reflected color (on a print).
The Spyder Studio will poduce both a monitor profile and a printer/paper profile. If you use different papers you will have to generate an individual profile for each paper.
To use a quote from above - this goes beyond a little mild insanity, but the alternative of having to deal with mismatched printer/monitor is most certainly worse.
As Gene said the above post are correct and Gene takes it to the max and explains it great. I just added the system that he talks about (from an explanation from Gene) and is very easy to use and still doesn't take too long but what you get is great. Now my wife's expert eye that she seems to have even likes the prints when they come off the printer.
Posted by John Mumaw on August 16, 2008 at 10:12 AM
You will always tradeoff something when you go cheap. In this case, the minimum entry point for what you are asking for is around $600 retail...
Wish I could figure out what that tradeoff is, as my prints match my monitor as closely as a reflective image can match a transmissive image.
Posted by David Bostedo on August 16, 2008 at 10:57 AM
I agree John - for most people (75%? 95%?) something like you mentioned - Spyder, or Colormunki, or Eye One - is good enough. The profiles take care of the rest. However, there are probably some images on some paper that you won't be able to get a match on. I don't care to spend the extra money and time to actually profile and calibrate my printer myself. (Actually, I'm probably a little less critical about color matching than most - I use software calibration on a laptop...although I have an excellent laptop screen for photos.) I have found a few images where I've had a tough time getting the shadow detail I see on screen, or the exact tones I expect. However, this is pretty rare.
Anyway, if you aren't quite getting what you want after monitor profiling and using factory ICC profiles, custom profiles are fairly cheap and can make a big difference.
You can order custom profiles for the specific papers/inks you use for around $25-35. If you only plan to use 2-3 types of papers, it may be a much cheaper to just get a monitor calibration device and order a couple of custom profiles.
Thanks gang. As I said, I am not looking to spend megabucks so I am leaning towards the $150 options. And John from Colorado I hope you are correct. By the way, I usually only use a couple different kinds of paper. I think I have an idea why that is important but somebody tell me anyway. Does the ink transfer differently on different kinds of papers?
To reply to John M - the tradeoff, as I mentioned in my post, is not quality. In this case, its convenience - in that the systems costing 3-5x more are mechanically automated. Or, as in the high end production printers, the option to manage color can be ordered as a built in option for an extra couple of thousand dollars.
If you use one ink and two papers - glossy and matte - then order the printer profiles (small charge) or use the manufacturer's paper and the corresponding settings (free). It will be pretty close and certainly cheap and easy. If you want a more accurate match, then the $500-$600 solution will work and give you truly intense results - as good as the pricey ones.
An excellent thread. Don's getting some great advice here.
One caveat to mention: There is a quality element. To get the most out of some matte papers and canvas mediums, measurements should be done with a polarizing filter. This brings out more shadow detail in the profile than you would get otherwise. There aren't too many measurement devices that include polarizing filters, so you will only find them on expensive high end machines or profiling services that have them.
But as has already been mentioned, it all depends on how particular you are.
Discussion
10 repliesThanks
Don
For around $150, the Spyder3Pro will do the job quite well (see this review), while Epson paper profiles ship with the printer drivers. Many third party papers have downloadable profiles at their websites.
Others may recommend much more expensive calibration systems, but I've always gotten great results with the Spyder.
Once your monitor is calibrated you need to set your printer and CS3 to talk to each other correctly. Be sure your images are displayed in Adobe RGB or s RGB. Adobe RGB is better and is what you should be shooting with.
Set your printer driver (using the print dialogue box in CS3) to "Let Photoshop determine colors" and use "relative colorimetric" and "black point compensation".
After this when yo set up your page be sure to select the driver for the paper type - glossy, semi gloss, matt, etc. that the paper you use suggests. Then you need to be sure the paper profile is properly selected. Your printer comes with profiles for most Epson papers and the profiles for other papers can be downloaded from the manufacturer's sites. This is loaded in the same dialogue box as you selected "let Photoshop determine colors".
Once all this is done your monitor and printer should be calibrated to give you repeatable results.
Good luck and keep us posted on how you do.
Calibrating the monitor to a universal standard is certainly the first step. If you are using OEM paper and ink, and you use the printer mfgr's ICC profiles, you are likely to be in good shape. If you are using other paper (most do) and different ink (many do, but it is not recommended) then you will never get the results you are looking for without calibrating your printer as well.
If you are sending your files out for printing, then calibrating the monitor is all you need to do, since the printing services you are likely to use will use printer calibration.
If you are using an LCD monitor that is less than 8 bits, then you will never see on the screen what you will see in print. A 6 bit monitor does not have the physical ability to display all the colors tonal range that a decent printer can, so it will approximate (fudge) the colors. It may be close on occasion, when the image has a limited range of tones and colors, but if your pictures have many subtle gradiations, then you will see a difference.
The $600 solution will include both monitor and printer calibration. The tradeoff I mentioned, in this case, is mainly convenience. You have to manually measure 150, 225 or 729 printed color patches. It includes a guide so that you can more easily center the spectrocolorimeter on the patch, but it is time consuming. More expensive systems will mechanically automate this for you. In either case the end result is a print that will match a calibrated monitor, as closely as possible, given the inherent differences between color monitors and reflected color (on a print).
The Spyder Studio will poduce both a monitor profile and a printer/paper profile. If you use different papers you will have to generate an individual profile for each paper.
To use a quote from above - this goes beyond a little mild insanity, but the alternative of having to deal with mismatched printer/monitor is most certainly worse.
Wish I could figure out what that tradeoff is, as my prints match my monitor as closely as a reflective image can match a transmissive image.
Anyway, if you aren't quite getting what you want after monitor profiling and using factory ICC profiles, custom profiles are fairly cheap and can make a big difference.
Guy
Thanks again.
Don
If you use one ink and two papers - glossy and matte - then order the printer profiles (small charge) or use the manufacturer's paper and the corresponding settings (free). It will be pretty close and certainly cheap and easy. If you want a more accurate match, then the $500-$600 solution will work and give you truly intense results - as good as the pricey ones.
One caveat to mention: There is a quality element. To get the most out of some matte papers and canvas mediums, measurements should be done with a polarizing filter. This brings out more shadow detail in the profile than you would get otherwise. There aren't too many measurement devices that include polarizing filters, so you will only find them on expensive high end machines or profiling services that have them.
But as has already been mentioned, it all depends on how particular you are.