Monitor Calibration

[Steven]

When I print photos using the cannon IP5000, the photos always appear darker than what I see on my LCD monitor. Will calibrating my monitor helps to solve the problem? Anyone have experience using the Spyder to calibrate their monitor?

[tunster]

Do you have Adobe Photoshop? If so, use the Adobe Gamma in your control panel and tune it manually with your print.

[zod]

Originally Posted by Steven When I print photos using the cannon IP5000, the photos always appear darker than what I see on my LCD monitor. Will calibrating my monitor helps to solve the problem? Anyone have experience using the Spyder to calibrate their monitor?

u need this
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=100544

[Neo]

I'm using the Spyder to calibrate my CRT monitor for printing on my Canon. Works pretty well...

It's a common assumption that a calibration device will give you "what you see is what you get" on your printer. Not totally true... bear in mind that you're looking at a transmitive device while your print is a reflective medium. So what the device does is to get you a close match as much as possible...

Also, depends on your monitor quality. The calibration works best for screens built to higher quality and control. CRT monitors using Trinitron or Diamondtron tubes usually work very well, while experts claim that for LCDs you'd need the very best ones (such as Apple displays or Eizo) to match the best of CRTs. Personnally I can't justify spending $3k on a nice Apple LCD, so I'm using a Samsung 959NF with Diamondtron tube. Working very nicely with my Spyder...

Hope this helps!

[Zerstorer]

Calibrating the monitor only ensures that images are displayed correctly on your monitor.
It will not get you accurate prints if your printer does not have a set of accurate profiles for the printer+paper+ink combination you are using.

And even then, it will be a close match but never perfect, as they are 2 different mediums.

Lastly, do not reverse calibrate your moniter to match ur prints.

[erwinx]

when automatic print controls are turned off, my prints also appear darker than the screen. When I leave automatic print controls on (which basically restricts Gamut to sRGB), the prints are the 'correct' brightness. The conclusion i draw from this is that the profiles the manufacturer supplies are designed to work best with 'auto-everything'. If you want a wider gamut profile, you have to look at buying the profile or the appropriate calibration tools.

Myself, I just stick to sRGB for printing

On the other hand, maybe your LCD monitor is set too bright (a common thing with LCDs)

[Steviemac]

I use an MSI FX5950 Ultra-VTD 256 DDR graphics card it has its own setup disc with full internet upgradable card and monitor colour calibration setup built in.

http://msicomputer.co.uk/products.as...3431&cat_id=78

Ive noticed a few of the higher end cards are bundling monitor callibration software with their products , info might be usefull to anyone going for an upgrade and kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak .

[Zerstorer]

Originally Posted by erwinx when automatic print controls are turned off, my prints also appear darker than the screen. When I leave automatic print controls on (which basically restricts Gamut to sRGB), the prints are the 'correct' brightness. The conclusion i draw from this is that the profiles the manufacturer supplies are designed to work best with 'auto-everything'. If you want a wider gamut profile, you have to look at buying the profile or the appropriate calibration tools. Myself, I just stick to sRGB for printing

Depends on what you are describing here. If you turn all colour controls off in driver level, you must specify a printer+paper profile in your printing software, else what you get is the RAW numeric data sent to your printer, usually resulting in very dark, greenish/yellow prints.

On the other hand, if you enable printer profiles in print software and still leave the default manufacturer profiles active in driver level, it will result in double translation of the data and end up with washed out pinkish prints.

Both are due to mistakes in the workflow as the differing gamuts are not properly mapped. If it was properly specified, there won't be much of an issue printing from any colourspace.

The HP and Epson printers I've tried have give decent output using the driver level profiles and colour controls with just minor adjustments. However Ilford provides free downloadable profiles for its papers for most printer models and I've found them to be very close match to what I see.

[erwinx]

Originally Posted by Steviemac I use an MSI FX5950 Ultra-VTD 256 DDR graphics card it has its own setup disc with full internet upgradable card and monitor colour calibration setup built in. http://msicomputer.co.uk/products.as...3431&cat_id=78 Ive noticed a few of the higher end cards are bundling monitor callibration software with their products , info might be usefull to anyone going for an upgrade and kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak .

that is merely software based monitor colour calibration, hardly any different from Adobe Gamma (Adobe Gamma is probably better).

[Steven]

Hi guys, thanks for all the advice and comments.

I have the PS6 and I have also used the Adobe Gamma to calibrate my LCD monitor. For colour space I used Adobe RGB. Am I doing it right if I were to convert every photo I loaded in PS6 to the Adobe RGB colour space?

If I use PS6 to print, how do I set the print options namely;
Output or Colour Management?
Source Space?
Print Space?

[Zerstorer]

Originally Posted by Steven Hi guys, thanks for all the advice and comments. I have the PS6 and I have also used the Adobe Gamma to calibrate my LCD monitor. For colour space I used Adobe RGB. Am I doing it right if I were to convert every photo I loaded in PS6 to the Adobe RGB colour space?

Doesn't really matter if the following part is setup correctly.

Quote: If I use PS6 to print, how do I set the print options namely; Output or Colour Management? Source Space? Print Space?

Proceed only if you have a ready icc profile for your specific printer model and paper. Else don't mess with this setting.

Set source space to document
Print space to the icc profile for your specific printer+paper.
Rendering intent: Relative colormetric(if your source image doesn't contain wildly saturated colours), Perceptual if saturation is very high.
Check black point compensation.

After this, go into your printer driver options and make sure ICM support is enabled and all colour controls are disabled. The actual settings vary from brand to brand. If you using Epson, the settings should be:
Colour Management->ICM
No colour adjustment->checked.

Next you need to goto view->proof setup->custom and set it to your printer profile as well to get an approximation of what your print would be like.
Leave paperwhite and inkblack unchecked if you are printing on relatively contrasty glossy/lustre paper.

[ThomT]

Hi Zerstorer,

Where do you set Colour Management->ICM? For my Epson, I can choose 1 of 5 settings, 'ICM' OR 'NO COLOR ADJ', but not BOTH. So I am confused with your comment below in RED. which to set? it's 1 or the other, not both.

Originally Posted by Zerstorer Doesn't really matter if the following part is setup correctly. Proceed only if you have a ready icc profile for your specific printer model and paper. Else don't mess with this setting. Set source space to document Print space to the icc profile for your specific printer+paper. Rendering intent: Relative colormetric(if your source image doesn't contain wildly saturated colours), Perceptual if saturation is very high. Check black point compensation. After this, go into your printer driver options and make sure ICM support is enabled and all colour controls are disabled. The actual settings vary from brand to brand. If you using Epson, the settings should be: Colour Management->ICM No colour adjustment->checked. Next you need to goto view->proof setup->custom and set it to your printer profile as well to get an approximation of what your print would be like. Leave paperwhite and inkblack unchecked if you are printing on relatively contrasty glossy/lustre paper.

[hwchoy]

Originally Posted by Steven Hi guys, thanks for all the advice and comments. I have the PS6 and I have also used the Adobe Gamma to calibrate my LCD monitor. For colour space I used Adobe RGB. Am I doing it right if I were to convert every photo I loaded in PS6 to the Adobe RGB colour space?

I also used Adobe Gamme for my LCD until I got the Eye-1 Display. There is now a huge difference, but you need to remember to remove Adobe Gamma from auto start after the Eye-1 calibration otherwise you end up loading the wrong profile still.

[Zerstorer]

If your driver can only select either then just select "No Colour Adjustment"
As for mine, this is how it should look:

[tokieda]

can show example again? image broken

[MCS]

Any suggestion on Dual Monitors' profiles with Dual head VGA card, I use Matrox G450 dual head for 2 Triniton monitors - one old and one new. I configurate 2 profiles for different monitors, but I could not user individual profiles for different monitor, I tested with the latest software and bios still only allow me to set one profile for both monitor.... Any idea which VGA card allows two profiles for two monitors.