Images print darker than displayed on the screen

AT
Posted By
Allen_Tippetts
Oct 9, 2003
Views
604
Replies
1
Status
Closed
System Specs: Toshiba Satellite P25 Laptop, HP1220C Printer, Win XP home, Photoshop 7.0

When I print an image taken with a digital camera, the printed image is considerably darker than the image displayed on the monitor. I have to adjust the brightness of the image about 30% in order to produce a printed image that is equivalent to what I’m viewing on the screen. I have run Adobe Gamma, and still get this same result.

My previous laptop, also a Toshiba, did not do this. The printed image was virtually identical to the monotir image.

Can anyone help me with this? Email:
Related Tags
dark display image print screen

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

Y
YrbkMgr
Oct 9, 2003
You were lucky with your previous laptop. Getting good screen to print matching from most LCD’s is a daunting challenge, even for the most experienced of people.

First, make sure you have read and understand the information at Computer Darkroom <http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7-colour/ps7_1.htm>. It should take you about 15 minutes to read.

That means, you believe your monitor is as calibrated as it can be, and you are using the correct color space and print destination, along with the correct driver settings. The site above focuses on Epson printers, but it should still help a great deal.

If you are still not satisfied after that, there are a couple of workarounds.

You can create a generic adjustment layer that compensates for your monitor brightness – this is done by trial an error. You make this adjustment layer, and save it as a separate file. You can then drag it onto any image you have to produce the desired effect. It’s kludgey but it works well for some folks.

Also note. I don’t know about HP printers, but Epson asks you what kind of media you print on. The media you choose drives dot gain (spread). In other words, more ink is laid down for plain paper than say, glossy paper. On Epson printers you can choose a glossy film to lighten up the image significantly – I got that from the site I posted above. I know you use HP, but maybe some of this may apply to your printer.

All in all, personally, I’ve resolved to not expect much from most laptops without painstaking tweaking.

Peace,
Tony

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections