Photo printer and monitor suggestions

[photoj87]

Hello all!

I'm new to the forum and one of my first threads is an important question - so please, if you have a suggestion or comment let me know!

I'm researching a new monitor and photo printer. Both are to be used in sych for making quality, large scale prints (8x10 and larger) to custom matte and frame for sale. I'm at the in between stage of hobbiest and professional. My budget for the monitor is around $500 and the printer is the same. I've spent the past month or two googling products and the Dell U2410 and Epson R2880 are the best monitor/printer combo I can find. Does anyone own either of these products and do they hold up to the reviews? If anyone has a monitor or printer within my price range and suggests it, please let me know. I want the brightest, color accurate monitor over 21" and a printer that can make a quality, long-lasting print (both within the price range).

One more quick question... should I rely on the monitor's factory color settings or is there an inexpensive tool one can buy to correctly callobrate a monitor and printer to work together?

Thank you for reading,
Nik

 

[Bossy]

IME you'll need to calibrate your monitor, and then you can download the papers specific color profile. In photoshop use the View- Proof Setup "selected color profile" to view what it will look like on your chosen paper, then make sure the printer is set to the same profile. You'll need to buy a calibrator, I've used both a Spyder Pro (I forget what model) and Color Munki with success.

ETA I've also used a Epson 2880 and am happy with the results from it

 

[Tony S]

It's much more economical and time saving to get prints done from a lab. The cost of ink alone makes it very expensive to print yourself, then add in the time to set up, calibrate and actually do the printing. Since it looks like you don't know much about calibration and color profiling, it's going to be real learning curve and more costly to print your own with learning to get it right.

Perhaps one of the few exceptions is if you are doing fine art on specialty papers looking for a particular result.

Find a good lab you can work with for printing.

 

[KmH]

Monitor calibration and printer profiling is not a one time proposition.

Both have to be re-calibrated periodically. I re-calibrate my Dell IPS display 13 times a year. I have outside labs do all my printing, even my printing on fine art papers.

To be able to both calibrate your display and profile the printer you will need a spectrophotometer, not a much less expensive colorimeter.

For display calibration I recommend the discontinued X-Rite i1Display 2 Color Calibrator for LCD, CRT, and Laptop Displays or it's replacement the Xrite EODIS3 i1Display Pro

To calibrate a display and printer, scanner, or projector I recommend the ColorMunki Photo - Monitor, Printer & Projector Profiler