omg just got the printer out again,colours on screen not same as printed pic

iwols

iwols

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hi all just got my printer out again epson sx445w,to print a couple of pics off,but same as always colour not quite the same.now i know about screen calibration ,but do you guys who print there own pics out tend to use the same paper for your prints as i find that just altering the type of paper physically or in the printer properties with the same paper makes a big difference to the colours,where do you guys start to make the printed pic look the same as the pic on my laptop screen,any advice appreciated guys
 
lat pic i printed had a slight red tinge to it
 
can you download printer profiles for the paper you are using. Are you using genuine inks, a CISS, or compatible inks? Is your screen calibrated? You can calibrate your printer as well.
 
You need to calibrate your entire workflow, from start to finish. Including soft proofing to the specific paper and ink combination that you're using.
 
thanks for the reply andrew paper is not a known make,inks are not originals and my screen is not calibrated and its a laptop(doesnt sound good does it),thats why i wondered if its best to stick to a certain types of paper with the same profiles to start with,are there any papers that anyone could recommend where i can get the profiles as a starting point,and how do you calibrate your printer thanks again
 
CharlotteM said:
You need to calibrate your entire workflow, from start to finish. Including soft proofing to the specific paper and ink combination that you're using.
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thanks sorry to be dumb but what is soft proofing
 
iwols said:
thanks sorry to be dumb but what is soft proofing
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Softproofing is when you use the printer profile to view on your screen an approximation of how it will look when printed. Then you can adjust colour, contrast and so forth in order to make it print how you want.
 
iwols said:
thanks for the reply andrew paper is not a known make,inks are not originals and my screen is not calibrated and its a laptop(doesnt sound good does it)
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Then you have virtually no chance at getting repeatable results.

You don't even know if the colours are 'true' on your screen, so how can you know what to expect in the rest of the process?
 
cher
CharlotteM said:
Then you have virtually no chance at getting repeatable results.

You don't even know if the colours are 'true' on your screen, so how can you know what to expect in the rest of the process?
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thanks just calibrated my laptop with my spyder 4 elite what would you recommend next,after calibration my laptop seems to get a slight green tinge
 
iwols said:
cher

thanks just calibrated my laptop with my spyder 4 elite what would you recommend next,after calibration my laptop seems to get a slight green tinge
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Calibrate your printer to your laptop - I don't know how to do that since I don't own a printer myself. You'll have to look online.
 
I'm not sure the Spyder 4 Elite can calibrate a printer - you might need one of the other Spyder models to do that.
 
If you are using known inks and paper then "canned" profiles from the paper manufacturer can help. Ilford ones tend be be OK. ( that is provided they have ones for your printer. ) If you are using non standard inks and not using a branded paper you may ( will) have problems.

Now if the colour bias on the print is small, and you are using the printers own control software, you may be able to dial this out using the advanced setting tab in the printer dialogue box> It can be a bit hit and miss but may suffice. Now if you find that the colours are just not correct then you probably need to get a proper profile made for your printer/ink/ paper combination. These are not overly expensive and a number of companies offer this service.

Also depending on your supplier they may offer custom profiles for your consumables. However if you get them from different sources then that will be another problem so that'll be back to custom profiling.

The question is do you do enough printing to justify the expense of a custom profile ?
 
iwols said:
cher

thanks just calibrated my laptop with my spyder 4 elite what would you recommend next,after calibration my laptop seems to get a slight green tinge
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the tinge may be because your eyes were used to it with a slight magenta tinge ;)
 
CharlotteM said:
Calibrate your printer to your laptop - I don't know how to do that since I don't own a printer myself. You'll have to look online.
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That is incorrect anyway
 
iwols said:
cher

thanks just calibrated my laptop with my spyder 4 elite what would you recommend next,after calibration my laptop seems to get a slight green tinge
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Buy some paper (Fotospeed and Permajet are good places to go to). They will provide a free custom profile for your printer/ink/paper combo - so long as you buy their papers. They have a test print and you use that for each paper type you use. they will email back the profile.

In Photoshop, you set Photoshjop to manage the colour and use the profile for that paper.

If you want to do your ownprofiles, look at the Colormunki Photo. That's what I use and it works very well.
 
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Chappers said:
If you are using known inks and paper then "canned" profiles from the paper manufacturer can help. Ilford ones tend be be OK. ( that is provided they have ones for your printer. ) ?
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I thought Ilford had gone out of business? Fotospeed and Permajet now have their own versions of some Ilford papers like Smooth Pearl
 
Ilford Imaging Switzerland is totally separate from Ilford Photo which is based in the UK and is unaffected (Ilford Photo is the trading name of Cheshire-based Harman Technology which makes traditional b&w photographic papers and film). Ilford Imaging Switzerland served as the distributor for traditional Ilford Photo b&w products in Switzerland. This has forced Harman Technology to seek a German distributor for its traditional b&w products in Switzerland.
Read more at http://www.amateurphotographer.co.u...erland-shuts-down-factory#v5BMQZFYUwdDYe4u.99
 
Beat me to it Stevie - had just copied that same paragraph :)
 
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You have a choice. If you are using known paper and genuine inks for your printer, you can probably download a profile for your media from the manufacturer's website. This allows you to soft proof the image within the profiled colour space in Photoshop or Lightroom. You then make any necessary final adjustments to the image within that colourspace should any need to be made.

If you've no idea what your paper is, then you'll not be able to do this, and the only way to profile your workflow is by creating your own profile using something like the Color Munki Photo.

For both methods you will absolutely need to calibrate your monitor too. The Color Munki can also do that for you... but if you have a cheap laptop screen that's not ideal as colour can shift massively with viewing angle.

If you download a profile, you need to install it first by right clicking and installing it, or manually placing it in c:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color

You really do need to do some reading up on colour management though.... seriously... it's too complex a subject to be given such a simple answer... you really need to understand what's going on... and why.

Some people will no doubt say they've never had any trouble getting correct colours without all of this.. they're lucky... you're obviously not, so you need to solve the issue correctly.
 
Yip ^^
 
Check you arent double profiling. A magenta or cyan tinge is often a sign of that. If you have photoshop manage colour then make sure colour management is turned off in the printer dialogue
 
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