printing colours are coming out wrong.

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Bolerus

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Name
Mike
Edit My Images
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Hello all

I wasnt sure if this was the right place to ask this, but though some of you wizzards might have an idea.

at work I am using CS2 and a hp color laserprinter 4500N

the problem I have is that the colours arent quite right, if I was goign to try and desribe it I would say that they were too vibrant, or perhaps too saturated.

flesh / skin is the worst a lovely looking face is coming out red and blotchy.

the first obvious answer is the monitor is tired, but I have used a coupel of monitors (one being the lap top the images are edited on and the other being a CRT) and they are still very different.

I have even tried letting CS2 do an auto levels on the image and still its the same.

I am guessing it is probably somethign to do with colour profiles, but i really dont have a clue except there is an option to use ICC profile on the printer (is there an ICC option in photoshop so they are at least the same profile ? )

any advice. pointers or random rants sayign im stupid and jhust need to click an option somewhere would be apreciated

Edit

the printer is set to screen match (srgb) and photoshop is set to monitor rgb - srgb

if that helps
 
Have you used the Laser printer before with colour prints and had them out ok? I've never ever printing anything that I wanted to be 'photo quality' on a laser...
 
nope this is the first time we have really used it, we are creating calendars, so need to print lots of pages, and the printer company wanted more than we wanted to spend (£400 for 100 calendar pages and we still had to bind ourselves)
 
I'd be very suprised if the printer could replicate what you'd get from a professional printer - even that of an average priced inkjet printer.

We use Dye-Sub and Inkjet here which are fabulous.

You would need to download the correct ICC profile from the vendor of the material you're printing onto - and load that profile to your printer. This would give optimum results.

How is the print quality? Has the paper curled due to the heat?
 
print quality is ok, yeah the paper is curling a little (it is 160 g)

dotn get me wrong, the prints are acceptable for the project, but i was hoping to improve the colour matching a bit to do a private one off calendar of family photos as a present for my mother.

If I have to I can get them printed on our ink jet, but it would be benificial to myself (and the company) if there was a way to get the laser prints more acurate

when i say company its only a 3 man band, and the boss wouldnt spend any more money on this at the moment
 
Firstly you need to get your monitor calibrated. Once that's done you can then print using the correct profiles and everything will match.

In photoshop your working space should be sRGB, if you're using MonitorRGB for proofing colours then the results won't match because you're basically telling CS2 to show you how the colours will look on your display without any colour management.

Does your printer have an option for ICM mode, if not the sRGB setting is probably the one to use but this just highlights the need to get your monitor calibrated as the chances are the prints you're getting are already fairly close to what the image would look like on a calibrated display - and that means they'll need some more editing to get them looking right before you print them.

If you don't have access to h/w calibration then use AdobeGamma to profile your display and set the working space to sRGB, not MonitorRGB.
 
thanks px

I think i need to invest in a monitor caibrator, to at least get it soemwhere near
 
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