Color Photo Printing

[wdEvA]

hey guys, i just did my first photo printer from my home printer - Canon Pixma MP160

Here's the problem,

The picture looks fine on my calibrated monitor - Dell 2407-WFP-HC
but the result from the printing, the colour looks different..

Has it got something to do with some colour profile?

How do i get the printed colours looks the same as what i see on screen?

Thanks

 

[wdEvA]

anyone can help?

 

[bahibo]

i think u calibrate the monitor but not the printer profile and paper ?

 

[wdEvA]

how to go about doing the printer profile and paper?

 

[theRBK]

what program did you use to print?

 

[wdEvA]

Canon's easyprint EX

 

[chanxj]

U need a profiling tool to profile your paper and printer. Just calibrating your monitor would not work as even if your monitor is calibrated to specification, your printer isn't.

 

[theRBK]

first off, make sure you applied the correct paper profile in the program (not trying to insult your intelligence but just to make sure everything is covered)... next thing, how different are the colours?... is it overall different, like overall too bright or too dark or is there an overall tint, or are there some colours that are different and others that are fine?...

 

[lightbrush]

hey guys, i just did my first photo printer from my home printer - Canon Pixma MP160

Here's the problem,

The picture looks fine on my calibrated monitor - Dell 2407-WFP-HC
but the result from the printing, the colour looks different..

Has it got something to do with some colour profile?

How do i get the printed colours looks the same as what i see on screen?

Thanks

I used and Epson printer but the concept is basically the same:

1) At the point of printing, you would probably be prompted for the type of paper you are using. This is the point where you select the paper (the profile). So make sure you have the profiles. It may not be necessary to create your own. If you use canon papers, you can probably already find it in your printer software CD. If not, go to the Canon website. For a start these canned profile shld be good enuff.

As an added step (but try the above first), you may also want to do a softproof before you print out. I'm not sure if your printing software allows this but you can do this using Photoshop CS. A softproof is the process where the monitor simulates the paper you are going to print on. Because the contrast range of the monitor is much higher than photo paper, you will find the simulated image less vibrant. You will need to do adj to try to get as close to the monitor image as possible.

 

[wdEvA]

i chose the correct paper when printer..
as for the difference between whats on the screen and whats on the printing..
The photo printed is quite abit darker..

 

[lightbrush]

i chose the correct paper when printer..
as for the difference between whats on the screen and whats on the printing..
The photo printed is quite abit darker..

yes, the printed photo tend to be a bit darker unless you do a final soft-proofing as the monitor is a light emitting device whereas the photo paper is light reflecting. Soft-proofing can involve increasing the light intensity or color saturation (usually red) or both.

 

[theRBK]

if it is quite a bit darker, is it due to the lighting conditions where the image is seen... but take in consideration, like lightbrush mentioned, that prints due to their nature of being dependent on reflected light would tend to be darker than what you would see on monitors, which produces light... if it is significantly darker, you can try to adjust the brightness of the image before you print or in the print dialogue of your software (and remember the values you adjusted for subsequent prints)...

 

[jssales]

You might also want to check if you have disabled the option where your printer manages the images color (thereby letting your application handle the profile).

If both are enabled, both the application and the printer will attempt to manage the color output and the resulting print will have off-colors.