How to print with right lighiting

[391615]

This is really anoying me. I can't work out how to print at the right lighting levels. I've spent 20 hours editing photos and they look heaps bright on my monitor, so I adjust the levels a little bit. Then when I go to print out yes on my cheap epson cx3900 printer. They come out dark. How can I work out the right lighting for the printer?

 

[table1349]

If you have't calibrated you monitor then what you see IS NOT what you got. You need something like this to get you monitor calibrated.
http://www.colorvision.com/index_us.php
Then you can properly adjust you photos. Monitors are netoriously wrong in color, gama, contrast, etc because we all have differnt tastes.

They are not cheap and they need to be used every couple of weeks to maintain the proper monitor settings. If this is not something you want to invest in you would probably be better off going to a kiosk printer or using an online service.

 

[Alpha]

You may have mis-match between your monitor and printer.

However, contrary to the above advice (which, while calibrating your monitor is a good idea), your problem primarily requires print profiling, not monitor profiling.

 

[table1349]

You may have mis-match between your monitor and printer.

However, contrary to the above advice (which, while calibrating your monitor is a good idea), your problem primarily requires print profiling, not monitor profiling.

Now you have me curious. How do you match your monitor and printer profiling to print proper colors and levels when you monitor is not calibrated and you are making adjustments to the photos on that uncalibrated monitor? If there is an easier way, I would be interested.

I do use the Spyder2Pro to calibrate my monitor and create printer profiles. I get dead on results but it does take me an hours of time or so every two weeks to keep in dead on.