Printing Experts – Help Please!

A
Posted By
andrewowens
Sep 25, 2006
Views
247
Replies
3
Status
Closed
All right, guys – I went from PSP X to PSCS2 this past week. I love it. But now printing is a chore. I get dark prints. The colors are spot on, but it looks like the printer or software has incorporated a "multiply" layer, if you know what I mean. I have tried all four print options with the same photo (absolute, relative, perceptual, and the other one)and they are all coming out dark. I let photoshop manage the colors, and am printing with the Adobe 1998 color space embedded. Black point compensation is checked. What else? I didn’t have this problem with PSPX, so I know it’s something I’m doing (or not doing) in PSCS2, and I’m using the exact same paper and ink, and ICC profile. My monitor is calibrated using GretagMacbeth. Again, all settings in regards to workspace color and printing preferences inherent to the printer itself have remained the same, so I think I’m messing up something in PSCS2. Oh, I have a book by the PS expert Scott Kelby, and according to his direction I’ve set the top print preference in print with preview dialogue to "prepress" (don’t remember the whole name). Do you guys have any suggestions?

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B
bmoag
Sep 26, 2006
What printer are you using?
If the printer driver is not set up correctly prints can appear dark. Nozzle check?
What kind of monitor? How do you calibrate your monitor? If it is an LCD prints can look dark because an LCD image is very bright compared to a CRT, image brightness varies depending on your angle of view, etc. You may have to do some fine tuning of your printer driver or your monitor to get a better match.
JD
Jimmy_Day
Oct 4, 2006
In the printer dialogue, did you check both the ICM radio button and the No Color Adjustment? Remember you have checked Let Photoshop Manage Color, so you don’t want to add printer control.
Oct 4, 2006
You’ve got to tell Photoshop how the printer understand (ie: prints) colours.

Otherwise, you’ve got an excellent shotgun, with its aim perfectly calibrated but you are shooting with your eyes closed.

You’ve got to find some printer profile that describes how the printer ‘sees’ colours, so that Photoshop can convey that particular vision to your system.

If the printer is not too off in a very general sense, you might find some profile out there (ahem…) that ‘might’ fall close that.

However, nothing describes colour in a printer as a printer profile made for its inks and the paper you use with them.

There are services out there that make that by a reasonable fee.

If you are trying to use your printer as a in-house sort of proofing machine (ie: You’ll print them in a magazine and you want your prints to be a ‘workable’ proof), I think you really need to profile the printer.

But I might be overstating and everything could be simpler. It depends on what you need.

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