I am calibrating my monitor (with a Pantone HueyPro) and I got some custom printer profiles made, but the monitor and the printer still don't agree. Better said, I'm unhappy with the prints I get. My guess is that the monitor calibration is not right, but I'd like to test this. I assume there are standard images to print that will/might give me an idea of how the printer is doing. Ie, load up this image, print it out without any adjustment and I know if printer was ok?
Could you list all of your printer settings? Go to "Print" and list all of the settings you have there. Also, go to "Print Settings" and list everything there.
There are enough little things that can be easily overlooked or mis-set that will cause print color issues that it helps for us to see what you have things set as.
With these settings prints appear darker than the monitor. The color also looks different, but hard to tell with the 0.5-0.75 too dark print.
Color Settings in Print Menu:
Color Management
Document
Color Handling:
Adobe Manages Colors
Printer Profile:
R1800_Polarsatin_2009 (this is custom profile)
Rendering Intent:
Preceptual
(check) Black Point Compensation
Settings in Print Settings...
Color Management
ICM
(check) Off (no Color Adjustment)
Any thoughts suggestions appreciated. Haven't been happy with prints for quite a while.
Pete, what is the paper setting in the printer? And have you tired different paper settings in the print settings. I have a R1900 and most of my prints do print a little darker than shown on my monitor. I think that is the case with most prints.
Posted by David Bostedo on July 25, 2010 at 10:33 PM
Prints appearing darker is often caused by your monitor being too bright. When you calibrate, do you get an option to set the brightness? Most people suggest targeting something around 120 cd/m^2. Most monitors will be much brighter than that and need to be turned down to acheive anywhere near it.
Hi Mark - I'm using the paper settings recommended by the manufacturer. I also used those settings when I made the test sheets for printer calibration. That process should be independent of monitor appearance. So, I think my monitor calibration must be the problem. I'm just trying to figure out how to test it - and more important, how to correct it.
Pete D.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on July 25, 2010 at 10:52 PM
How do your prints look in full daylight?
While the rooms I've done most of my printing in have always been well lit, the rooms have also not been anywhere near a "standard" lighting condition. Over time, I've learned to evaluate prints based on lower light levels. Also, a print is not going to look as bright as a monitor, even when things are perfectly calibrated. None of which is to say that there isn't a problem - it is just harder to evaluate the situation without visible reference point.
Pete - you are actually not that far from me distance-wise. I'd be happy to meet up with you or let you sit down at my machine and do a couple of test prints to compare with your results. .
With these settings prints appear darker than the monitor.
David is right on (..as usual).
This is a common complaint from folks here and the simple answer is that your monitor is too bright. LCD monitors come from the factory dialed up way too bright in order to appeal to every consumer except photographers trying to make a successful monitor->print match.
Dial down the brightness to match those dark prints and then adjust your onscreen images accordingly.
It's almost guaranteed that the next set you print out will be much better.
Pete, you've received some good advice regarding monitor brightness, but I'll also add that your monitor model itself may be the cause. I tried using a cheap Dell LCD a couple of years back and could never get a print to screen match. After upgrading to an NEC 90 series, properly calibrated and profiled, I get perfect matches.
I need to chime in here in agreement with John and David. We have found this issue of prints being too dark so common that we wrote an article for one of our newsletters specifically about this topic: http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/My_Printer_Is_Too_Dark
The best place to start, rather than with a test image, is with an open, blank white document on your screen - and compare that with a blank sheet of your printer paper. If the white screen is brighter than your printer paper looks, then your prints are necessarily going to be darker by comparison.
Posted by Bill Brennan on July 26, 2010 at 5:23 PM
Thanks Patrick for the tip on white paper. Also, Pete, as in the days of the wet darkroom so with the digital darkroom, a proof print needs to be in your workflow. If the proof print is darker than desired, try John's approach or go back into PS and lighten the output image in Levels until you get the print that you desire.
As I was thinking about the issue last night the thought occurred to me: are you 100% certain that it is a printer problem rather than a monitor problem?
I know that you have calibrated the monitor which, in theory, means that the issue should be in the printer. However, as someone above pointed out, there are some monitor setups that are notoriously difficult to to calibrate. Have you viewed your images vs prints on a completely different system? Have you made prints on a completely different system (even Walmart ) to compare with your prints?
If everything is set up correctly, you shouldn't have to be making proof prints or using levels to tweak the output. That it is necessary points to an issue with the printing workflow.
Discussion
13 repliesPete D.
Are the prints simply too dark or is there a color shift?
There are enough little things that can be easily overlooked or mis-set that will cause print color issues that it helps for us to see what you have things set as.
Color Settings in Print Menu:
Color Management
Document
Color Handling:
Adobe Manages Colors
Printer Profile:
R1800_Polarsatin_2009 (this is custom profile)
Rendering Intent:
Preceptual
(check) Black Point Compensation
Settings in Print Settings...
Color Management
ICM
(check) Off (no Color Adjustment)
Any thoughts suggestions appreciated. Haven't been happy with prints for quite a while.
Pete D.
Pete D.
While the rooms I've done most of my printing in have always been well lit, the rooms have also not been anywhere near a "standard" lighting condition. Over time, I've learned to evaluate prints based on lower light levels. Also, a print is not going to look as bright as a monitor, even when things are perfectly calibrated. None of which is to say that there isn't a problem - it is just harder to evaluate the situation without visible reference point.
Pete - you are actually not that far from me distance-wise. I'd be happy to meet up with you or let you sit down at my machine and do a couple of test prints to compare with your results. .
This is a common complaint from folks here and the simple answer is that your monitor is too bright. LCD monitors come from the factory dialed up way too bright in order to appeal to every consumer except photographers trying to make a successful monitor->print match.
Dial down the brightness to match those dark prints and then adjust your onscreen images accordingly.
It's almost guaranteed that the next set you print out will be much better.
http://www.normankoren.com/printer_calibration.html
http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/My_Printer_Is_Too_Dark
The best place to start, rather than with a test image, is with an open, blank white document on your screen - and compare that with a blank sheet of your printer paper. If the white screen is brighter than your printer paper looks, then your prints are necessarily going to be darker by comparison.
Patrick Herold
Tech Support
www.chromix.com
Message: don't let a dark print spoil your day.
Bill Brennan
As I was thinking about the issue last night the thought occurred to me: are you 100% certain that it is a printer problem rather than a monitor problem?
I know that you have calibrated the monitor which, in theory, means that the issue should be in the printer. However, as someone above pointed out, there are some monitor setups that are notoriously difficult to to calibrate. Have you viewed your images vs prints on a completely different system? Have you made prints on a completely different system (even Walmart
If everything is set up correctly, you shouldn't have to be making proof prints or using levels to tweak the output. That it is necessary points to an issue with the printing workflow.