Geoff45
07-02-2007, 07:13 PM
I've finally got my prints to come out looking like they do on my monitor. After a lot of messing around, I finally nailed what is a fairly simple 3 step process.
1. Calibrate your monitor. This is the expensive bit, because you really need a hardware solution, rather than something like Adobe Gamma. Colorvision's Spyder 2 Pro is simple to use and costs about $200 in the States, so you need to go there or know someone going there. It's about 3 X that cost in Oz. Basically this tells Photoshop what a particular RGB display on the monitor means in something called Lab colour (Google this).
2. Profile your printer. The expensive ($US600+) way is to buy hardware. The cheap way is to decide what printer and what paper you are going to use. Don't use generic inks (they vary) and don't just buy whatever paper is on special. You then download some test sheets from one of our Oz company's website, print them off under specified conditions using your printer and paper and mail them to the guys with a cheque for $75 (+ $60 for each additional paper type). Within 24 hours they email you the printer profile. This is software that converts the Lab info in step 1 to the correct RGB settings for the printer to use. (I can let people have the name of the company I used if they contact me privately, but if you Google "printer profiles" and select the company with initials IS, you'll get there. They also have a good explanation sheet)
3. Make sure you have the right settings in Photoshop when you print. (Just about any Photoshop book will give these).
It's really great to spend hours processing your image knowing that you can print it off and get a very close approximation to your monitor display. You can even use Photoshop's soft proof option to give you a preview of what the printed image will look like.
1. Calibrate your monitor. This is the expensive bit, because you really need a hardware solution, rather than something like Adobe Gamma. Colorvision's Spyder 2 Pro is simple to use and costs about $200 in the States, so you need to go there or know someone going there. It's about 3 X that cost in Oz. Basically this tells Photoshop what a particular RGB display on the monitor means in something called Lab colour (Google this).
2. Profile your printer. The expensive ($US600+) way is to buy hardware. The cheap way is to decide what printer and what paper you are going to use. Don't use generic inks (they vary) and don't just buy whatever paper is on special. You then download some test sheets from one of our Oz company's website, print them off under specified conditions using your printer and paper and mail them to the guys with a cheque for $75 (+ $60 for each additional paper type). Within 24 hours they email you the printer profile. This is software that converts the Lab info in step 1 to the correct RGB settings for the printer to use. (I can let people have the name of the company I used if they contact me privately, but if you Google "printer profiles" and select the company with initials IS, you'll get there. They also have a good explanation sheet)
3. Make sure you have the right settings in Photoshop when you print. (Just about any Photoshop book will give these).
It's really great to spend hours processing your image knowing that you can print it off and get a very close approximation to your monitor display. You can even use Photoshop's soft proof option to give you a preview of what the printed image will look like.