Phot printing

Rickjs · Apr 16, 2015

Don't know if this is the right forum but I could not find one more suitable. When sending out for prints do you calibrate your monitor so the image on the screen will match s close as possible to the print? I've seen monitor calibrators that attach to your screen and it calibrates the screen automatically, which ones are the best?

KmH · Apr 16, 2015

I soft proof in my editing application to see a close approximation what the print will look like.
There is a soft proofing tutorial in this group of tutorials:
Tutorials on Color Management Printing

I calibrate my editing display at least monthly and use X-Rite calibration products.
I use the X-Rite spectrophotometer, because it can also calibrate my printers, projector, and scanner.
X-Rite CMUNPH ColorMunki Photo
For just a computer display a colorimeter is sufficient:
X-Rite CMUNDIS ColorMunki Display

You may also want to consider some additional resources:
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop (2nd Edition)

Color Management Training Workshops Courses Seminars X-Rite

TCampbell · Apr 17, 2015

I use a Colormunki Photo... but that's only half the problem. That'll fix the image so it will look correct on your display. But you're not intending to look at it on the display, you intend to look at it on a physical print. You also have to calibrate for the printer. This requires some knowledge of how the printer works because every different type of ink and paper will treat the color differently.

Colormunki has the ability to profile a printer (so that the computer can skew the saturation of colors on the exported image KNOWING that once it prints, the output will actually look correct based on the combination of printer, paper type, and ink type.

But that doesn't do you any good because you're sending the prints out -- so you cannot easily profile their printer.

Some labs make their printer profiles available for download. If so, you can download the profile for the specific printer you intend to use so that your computer software will produce an file which is specifically tuned for that unique printer/paper/ink combination (the image wouldn't look as good if printed on anything else, nor would it necessarily look good on a monitor, etc.)