monitor calibration - I suggest you all read this.

[Peter Anson]

Having a consistent process enables you to concentrate on achieving your artistic objectives. You can make adjustments for artistic effect knowing that those adjustments will be present and as expected in your prints.

This sums it up perfectly. Thanks Nick. And thanks for the link to the book Colin.

[Macmahon]

I have exactly this problem! I have calibrated my Acer H243HX with a Spyder (Don't know the model) and this made a huge difference but my images still come back way too dark from the printers.

For instance, in this image I can see some detail (on my calibrated home Acer monitor and work Asus laptop, and my uncalibrated LG W2253TQ monitor at work) inside the arch in the background and leaf litter on the ledge in the foreground, LH lower corner. These areas are black when printed.

I'd be disappointed if my printer didn't reproduce the shadow detail in this photograph. If the detail under the bridge that I can see on my monitor is clugged in when you print, I'd suspect the print profile.

In my experience (admittedly relatively limited compared to others here) monitor brightness is an issue in display-print matching, but only as far as the percieved darkness' or 'lightness' of the print is concerned. As Colin points out matching viewing conditions to display brightness is necessary.

But tonal separation in a print seems to be strongly influenced by the print profile. In my case, I always got relatively poor matching using Ilford's Gallerie Smooth Pearl profile for my Canon Pro9000. Only after a huge amount of work, first with a Spyder 3 Print (inconsistent) and latterly with a Colormunki (good, out of the box) have I managed to create a profile, for my printer and this paper, that gives me very good, consistent, and reproducible colour matching. Your mileage may differ. QA in colorimeter/spectrophotometer production is an issue all of its own, it seems.

Given the inevitable variability between individual printers, within quality assurance limits, custom profiles are the only way to go IMHO. Sadly, here in New Zealand there's no paper manufacturer who will create a profile us at any price, let alone free, and no other easily accessible profiling service. Sigh....

Tim

[Colin Southern]

and no other easily accessible profiling service. Sigh....

Tim

Hi Tim,

There's always Linda www.colourmanagement.co.nz, but I prefer to just do my own profiles these days.

[Ashwin]

Hi Tim,

There's always Linda www.colourmanagement.co.nz, but I prefer to just do my own profiles these days.

This is what I am doing since last so many years without any problem

[arith]

I always got relatively poor matching using Ilford's Gallerie Smooth Pearl profile for my Canon Pro9000

I've got one of those and was given an Ilford profile that they suggested worked on HP premium plus, but it didn't. I found just using aRGB and letting the printer manage colour was best, although I do not understand what I'm doing.

By contrast Jessops own paper works on the Canon photo paper pro II.

[Kiwigrest]

As far as monitor calibration is concerned -- and matching monitor-2-print too -- there is quite an informative discussion on this subject in the Spyder 3 Pro and iMac thread on a Photo.net forum (most of the info is applicable to any platform / monitor, not just Apple).

[Macmahon]

Hi Tim,

There's always Linda www.colourmanagement.co.nz, but I prefer to just do my own profiles these days.

Colin
I dealt with Linda a bit in my early days at this. She has given up the profiling service, I believe. Her spectro died, I think.
Tim

[Colin Southern]

Colin
I dealt with Linda a bit in my early days at this. She has given up the profiling service, I believe. Her spectro died, I think.
Tim

Last time I spoke to her she was heading back to university, but keeping the business going in a limited capacity. If it's the spectrophotometer that did my first canvas profile then it's death is a good thing! She did have more than one though.

[OldFrank]

If I left a partial reply ignore it. I'm new to the forum and apparently clicked something that dumped the reply box.
This is a subject that was driving me up the wall until I discovered the problem of color change with viewing angle on my Samsung 245BW monitor. I use a Pantone Huey Pro calibrator. I also calibrate the printer using an online service. To make it simple I found that a low intensity gray patch will change not only brightness, but color with vertical viewing angle. The Huey calibrates for a straight on screen angle, but at a viewing distance of about 18" images at the top and bottom are not straight on. To make matters worse the angle at which rapid changes happen is about straight on.

My solution was to make up a test image where the same file was repeated at 1/4 scale in the 4 corners of the test image. I took this around to a number electronic retailers and talked them into showing my test image on the demo displays. I found one Dell 22" that was pretty good and insisted on buying the demo off the shelf. I now seem to get much more repeatable results.

Hope all this makes sense.

OldFrank