Printer and Monitor calibration

[karissa]

I have a pretty nice printer and I love my monitor also. However, I'm struggling with making the two match. Does anyone have any tips to adjusting your monitor to make it display close to what your printer is going to print?

 

[markc]

Throw them into the trash. I've seen grown men cry like a baby when it comes to this stuff.

Okay, maybe not that bad, but it can be very frustrating. The simple/cheap way to do it is to play with your monitor settings, like brightness, contrast, and RGB balance (if it has it). The more accurate and expensive way is to make ICC profiles with a device that you put on the monitor that measures it's color output and adjusts it accordingly. I borrowed my friend's Pantone Colorvision Spyder and it made a huge difference in how accurately my monitor sees color.

No matter how well calibrated you are, they will never prefectly match, though. Monitors and printers have different color gamuts (ranges). The monitor is RGB and a light source whereas the paper is CMYK and showing reflected light.

It's one of the reasons I went with B&W digital prints instead of color. I just didn't have the patience for it.

Here's some more info:
http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html
http://desktoppub.about.com/library/weekly/aa070102a.htm

If you have Adobe Photoshop, make sure you run through the Adobe Gamma set-up. This is a basic color-calibration that will help, and if you have Photoshop you already own it.

 

[terri]

I pull up my images and print everything now through PS. Ever since I installed it I have noticed a significant improvement. Adobe PS and Epson sure do seem to like each other. I was on the verge of dropping the $500 for the Spyder but now I can pause and hold off.

 

[drlynn]

My photos all look better printed in photoshop, also.

But if you want true color matching, Markc is right, you have to use the Pantone thingie or some such critter that profiles your setup.

 

[karissa]

Adobe PS and Epson sure do seem to like each other.

Yay.. I have an epson.

Thanks Mark, I'll work with the gamma thing first. I'm not at home at the moment but I can't wait to get home and see what can be done. I have a pretty close match as is but I seemed to kind of go a ghetto way of doing it. I just went into Photoshop and made a pict with 100% of each C M and Y and then printed it... used that to get as close as I could.

I understand the difference between the output device and frankly my printer prints darker than I would ever care for my monitor to be. That is just the difference between light and ink.

Thanks so much for your help. I'll try and let you know how things go.

As far as crying about it.... I'm not quite that intent on it being exact.. I just want close.