Posted by Dottie Short on August 20, 2010 at 7:56 AM
I have an almost five year old iMac and the monitor has never been calibrated. I've always been pleased with "what I see is what I get". During the past year I've switched from editing my images in iPhoto to Photoshop CS4, Adobe Camera Raw, and Photoshop plugins. Sometimes the printed image is not quite what I see on the monitor. I should probably calibrate my monitor. I also hear that the printer should be calibrated too. Is this correct?
Anyway, can the NPN audience recommend some good software/hardware, and share their experiences with calibrating their monitors? Thanks to all who reply
Posted by Keith Bauer on August 20, 2010 at 10:06 AM
There are many good solutions available today. Here's a link to the i1 display 2 which is one very good option. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=i1+display+2&N=0&InitialSearch=yes. Once you get your monitor properly calibrated, download the paper manufacturers ICC profiles for the paper(s) that you are printing on for the printer you are using. Since you are printing from Photoshop, you can follow a proper color workflow to use the ICC profile. In the printer driver dialog box, you'll want to disable Color Management so the printer driver is not trying to "help" you with colors. The ICC profile provides the translation service to get the right colors on paper for your printer from the image. There are many places on the web to detail the steps for a proper color managed workflow using ICC profiles. Do a Google search and I'm sure you'll find several. If you follow that process, you should not have to worry about calibrating your printer as well. Most of the paper manufacturers ICC profiles are pretty accurate.
The IOne Display-2 is an excellent tool, and the X-rite software is easy to use. I have heard that some Mac screens have very high luminance (brightness) that can be difficult to adjust downward to the level required for a good Screen/Paper match. You might want to poke around some of the Mac user groups, or other forums related to color management to verify this. It may, or may not be an issue for you, but it's worth checking out.
You might at some point consider custom made printer profiles. While the paper manufacturer's profiles are pretty good (and getting better) a custom profile will give you better results. Here are three excellent sources...
Posted by conrad Rowe on August 20, 2010 at 12:33 PM
Conrad Rowe here, I have used mac for about 4-5 years and I use The ColorMunki. I have tried 3 different ones to calibrate my Monitors and printers and this is the one I found to work the best. Go to X-Rite web site and check it out. You will learn a lot there about color calibration. Good Luck
Posted by Dan Borzynski on August 20, 2010 at 6:01 PM
All of the advice above on calibration is good and should be followed, but... Let's back up a step for a moment.
You stated that you were satisfied with the color that was coming out of your printer before the switch to Adobe products. That would suggest that maybe not all of the print settings are correct. Go into Photoshop, with an image open, and goto file/print. What are the settings there, especially the paper profile? Go a bit further in - on the screen that came up, click on "Print settings" What are all of the settings there?
Things to check, in particular:
- the paper profile - does it match your paper
- the paper selected - does it match your paper and the profile selected
- Mode, custom, no color adjustment
- color handling - photoshop manages colors (on the original popup)
What I am trying to do here is take your Photoshop settings out of the equation. If these are not correct, any color calibration attempts are doomed to failure. You be making changes to a correct system to fix a non-issue. Since you were satisfied with the prints before the changes, I am guessing that your system wasn't too far off in the first place.
The rest of the comments on color management are spot on.
I'd like to add the following setting to check in the Print or Print with Preview dialog box in Photo Shop. I get the best match when I select 'Relative Colormetric', and check 'Black Point Compensation' after setting "Let Photo Shop Determine Colors", and selecting the paper profile for the paper I am using.
You can also select 'Perceptual' with 'Black Point Compensation', which may give you a better match.
"What I am trying to do here is take your Photoshop settings out of the equation. If these are not correct, any color calibration attempts are doomed to failure."
In the context of your reply above, this is a very good point, Dan! We have to check all the areas of the system from the bottom, up; proceeding to the next piece when we're sure the ones before are OK.
--P
Posted by Dottie Short on December 7, 2010 at 12:52 PM
As it turned out, my printer was about to croak! Bought a new Canon Pro 9500 and the image prints are awsome. Especially B&W.
Discussion
6 repliesAnyway, can the NPN audience recommend some good software/hardware, and share their experiences with calibrating their monitors? Thanks to all who reply
The IOne Display-2 is an excellent tool, and the X-rite software is easy to use. I have heard that some Mac screens have very high luminance (brightness) that can be difficult to adjust downward to the level required for a good Screen/Paper match. You might want to poke around some of the Mac user groups, or other forums related to color management to verify this. It may, or may not be an issue for you, but it's worth checking out.
You might at some point consider custom made printer profiles. While the paper manufacturer's profiles are pretty good (and getting better) a custom profile will give you better results. Here are three excellent sources...
Great Printer Profiles
Chromix
Inkjet Art
--P
You stated that you were satisfied with the color that was coming out of your printer before the switch to Adobe products. That would suggest that maybe not all of the print settings are correct. Go into Photoshop, with an image open, and goto file/print. What are the settings there, especially the paper profile? Go a bit further in - on the screen that came up, click on "Print settings" What are all of the settings there?
Things to check, in particular:
- the paper profile - does it match your paper
- the paper selected - does it match your paper and the profile selected
- Mode, custom, no color adjustment
- color handling - photoshop manages colors (on the original popup)
What I am trying to do here is take your Photoshop settings out of the equation. If these are not correct, any color calibration attempts are doomed to failure. You be making changes to a correct system to fix a non-issue. Since you were satisfied with the prints before the changes, I am guessing that your system wasn't too far off in the first place.
The rest of the comments on color management are spot on.
You can also select 'Perceptual' with 'Black Point Compensation', which may give you a better match.
"What I am trying to do here is take your Photoshop settings out of the equation. If these are not correct, any color calibration attempts are doomed to failure."
In the context of your reply above, this is a very good point, Dan! We have to check all the areas of the system from the bottom, up; proceeding to the next piece when we're sure the ones before are OK.
--P