monitor color and printed image not the same, what to do?

[Rick Radford]

<http://www.computer-darkroom.com/photoshop_6/ps6_1.htm>

How applicable is this site for new PSE2 users?

I'm trying to get my prints to closely resemble my Samsung 900nf monitor on a Canon i850 with 3rd party inks and different papers under Win XP.

I also have the Hidden Powers for Elements 2 book that I'm trying to work through.

[Beth Haney]

Rick, the site has excellent information, but that particular link is for Photoshop 6. If you're using PSE 2, you're going to want to go to Ian's section on color management for Photoshop 7, because that's the engine of Elements version 2.0. (Elements v 1.0 was based on PS 6.) There may not be a lot of difference, but since he's clearly broken it out into separate sections you might as well use the right one.

You say you're new to Elements. Have you already "mastered" good prints using Canon-recommended ink and paper? If not, I would strongly suggest you reverse your procedure and do your initial color management set up using Canon inks and whatever paper they recommend. In general an inkjet printer will produce the truest results using factory recommended paper and ink. Once you know exactly what settings you should be using to get nice prints with those, it will be much easier for you to tweak settings to correspond to third party supplies.

[Rick Radford]

Beth,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Nope, I haven't mastered much of anything yet in the digital darkroom, except I'm making progress in minimizing the cost of operation by using 3rd party supplies! I can piddle with an image and make it look better onscreen, but it's still largely hit and miss.

Good advice about going back to Canon supplies to give a starting point (except for the cost of doing so!).

I'll snag the PS7 article from that site and work at it for a while.

Thanks.

[Beth Haney]

I know from experience that different papers produce different results even though they appear identical to the (my!) naked eye. I've never used third party ink, but I do use Kodak paper for printing certain kinds of pictures on my HP inkjet. I have to adjust the printer settings according to which paper I use.

In addition to the issue of color management, there's also the issue of longevity. Prints made with third party supplies can't be relied upon to last as long as those made using supplies matched to a given printer. Plus, inkjet prints - at best - have a much shorter lifespan than prints generated using traditional photographic methods. Just another little detail to toss into the mix - so remember that if you're printing pics of the kid with his new puppy! :)

[Nancy S]

Rick and Dtex,

For a side by side comparison of your output using different printer settings try this. (This is also economical with regard to ink and paper)

* Create new document in PSE, 8x10 about 200 ppi. Check box transparent.
* Open an image you have. One with wide range of colors & tone. (maybe should duplicate it now) Image>Resize>Image Size to 200ppi.
* get Rectangular marquee, select area 2.5 x 10 inches (in varied area of image)
* Copy selection, paste 3 times (or many more) on new doc., use move tool to resposition the rectangles so there's no overlap. Make sure to write down settings used for each strip.
* Make two layers invisible, printer will only print the remaining one with the 'eye'.Print.
* Put the same piece of paper back in the printer
* Make that layer invisible, turn on one other layer and use different settings and print (noting your printer settings each time) make last layer only one visible and print on same paper.

[Dtex]

Hi Beth,

Have been away awhile and now returning. I went to the site you recommended and followed it verbatim. When I got to color settings in Elements, it's only options are no color managment, web management or full color management. This is where the trail ended. Because Elements does not have the color settings options as the article continues on in photoshop 6 with lots of other settings. I wish Elements did this. I set mine at Full management, for the other two not desirable. Shall I now make sure my canon printer i950, color management turned off? And if possible other instructions from here, would greatly appreciate your advice.

Thank you so much, dtex

[brent bertram]

Dtex,
Take a look at the Canon printer settings on Ian Lyons' site <http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7_print/ps7_print_win_2.htm> , and see if they look like possibilities for you. If so, use them in your Canon setup. Then use "Print Preview" to set up your print job. You must select "show more options" checkbox, then select "Color Management" in the dropdown box. For output space profile use "Printer Color Management". If all goes as planned, you'll turn out prints that are pretty close to what you see. Get back to us with your success story ( we don't really know this will work, but it should, I've got only Epson printers <G> ) .

:-)

Brent