how to make my printing bright

I am using Photoshop 6 in my Dell computer running Win XP Pro. I have scanned some photographs from my school year book. The pictures shown in Photoshop looks great and bright.
But when I tried to print the picture, the prints look dull and dark. I am using Canon i850 and HP 970CXi deskjet printers.
I print in the highest color quality setting.
I have to use HammerMill Color Copy Papers(Photo White 28lbs, 96 brightness).

What can I do to improve the printing brightness? Thank you.

"Armstrong" wrote in message

I am using Photoshop 6 in my Dell computer running Win XP Pro. I have scanned some photographs from my school year book. The pictures shown in Photoshop looks great and bright.
But when I tried to print the picture, the prints look dull and dark. I am using Canon i850 and HP 970CXi deskjet printers.
I print in the highest color quality setting.
I have to use HammerMill Color Copy Papers(Photo White 28lbs, 96 brightness).

What can I do to improve the printing brightness? Thank you.

So, what you see is not what you get? Profile the scanner, the monitor, and the printer. Do all of the image manipulations in PS (turn off color management in both the printer and the scanner).
Associate the scanner profile with the scanner output file. Set the PS working space to Adobe RGB. When you go to print, select the printer profile in PS.
Jim+-

Armstrong wrote:

I am using Photoshop 6 in my Dell computer running Win XP Pro. I have scanned some photographs from my school year book. The pictures shown in Photoshop looks great and bright.
But when I tried to print the picture, the prints look dull and dark. I am using Canon i850 and HP 970CXi deskjet printers.
I print in the highest color quality setting.
I have to use HammerMill Color Copy Papers(Photo White 28lbs, 96 brightness).

What can I do to improve the printing brightness? Thank you.

I am sure there will be a more specific response along soon (if not already there)

The contribution I wish to make is that there are 2 forms of display on the go.

A monitor shines light so for example mixing primary colours will (or should) give white light

A printer on the other hand uses inks If the same inks are blended a grungy dark color will be obtained

Now that may not explain exactly what is happening in this case but it demonstrates or should demonstrate the complexities of matching colors between monitors and printers

If you manage to get the chance to visit a professional print house ask to see the color calibration equipment used to make sure colors agree. And the quality controls put in place to keep it so

Aerticeus

"Armstrong" wrote in message

I am using Photoshop 6 in my Dell computer running Win XP Pro. I have scanned some photographs from my school year book. The pictures shown in Photoshop looks great and bright.
But when I tried to print the picture, the prints look dull and dark. I am using Canon i850 and HP 970CXi deskjet printers.
I print in the highest color quality setting.
I have to use HammerMill Color Copy Papers(Photo White 28lbs, 96 brightness).

What can I do to improve the printing brightness? Thank you.

Simply put...
You can't print photographs on copy paper with an inkjet and expect them to look as bright as photographs.

OK, let me ask this question differently.

Given a photograph photoshop .psb file and its printout on the Canon i860 printer.
How can I improve and brighten the printout?

Simply put...
You can't print photographs on copy paper with an inkjet and expect them

to

look as bright as photographs.

Try going to image adjust hue saturation brightness and adjust the saturation up a bit and the brightness up a bit.

Try going to image adjust levels and bring in the end points to where the ends of the curve are. Try moving the middle slider a bit to make it brighter or darker.

You might also try using filter sharpen unsharp mask to sharpen the image a bit.

Be sure to save as to a new file so that you can still keep your image in case you need to start over.

On Sun, 5 Dec 2004 19:00:02 -0800, "Armstrong" wrote:

OK, let me ask this question differently.

Given a photograph photoshop .psb file and its printout on the Canon i860 printer.
How can I improve and brighten the printout?

Simply put...
You can't print photographs on copy paper with an inkjet and expect them

to

look as bright as photographs.

Go to brightness and contrast. Add brightness then add contrast as much as you can.
"Armstrong" wrote in message

I am using Photoshop 6 in my Dell computer running Win XP Pro. I have scanned some photographs from my school year book. The pictures shown in Photoshop looks great and bright.
But when I tried to print the picture, the prints look dull and dark. I am using Canon i850 and HP 970CXi deskjet printers.
I print in the highest color quality setting.
I have to use HammerMill Color Copy Papers(Photo White 28lbs, 96 brightness).

What can I do to improve the printing brightness? Thank you.

This can be a nasty problem involving the printer/paper and the monitor upon which you view the images.

I would suggest that you obtain a copy of "The Digital Printing Handbook" which, I have just checked, is available from Amazon "secondhand" from $9.00.

It is full of good advice and tips.

Best of Luck

Peter May

Hello,
Well this is a problem that WILL NOT go away. Photoshop uses RGB color, among others, printers use CMYK. To briefly explain, not accurately, RGB has 5 million colors to choose form and CMYK has500 colors to shoose form. The numbers are incorrect but the concept should come accross.You cannot get an accurate print from your printer. most especially if it is an inkjet printer. You will need to get athermal dye printer, such as Kodak uses for their protable photo printers, they run about $150. us this printer as your default printer whne working in photoshop, and your photos will lok like photos with all the colors intact, for the most part.
Good luck
coz
"Armstrong" wrote in message

I am using Photoshop 6 in my Dell computer running Win XP Pro. I have scanned some photographs from my school year book. The pictures shown in Photoshop looks great and bright.
But when I tried to print the picture, the prints look dull and dark. I am using Canon i850 and HP 970CXi deskjet printers.
I print in the highest color quality setting.
I have to use HammerMill Color Copy Papers(Photo White 28lbs, 96 brightness).

What can I do to improve the printing brightness? Thank you.

Well you can tweak the problem by changing your color setting so it will be WYSIWYG but it's lots of time to find the ideal configuration of your photoshop and your printer. And second of all you should calibrate you pic first before do any printing if you need a perfect printing. happy setting

"coz" a

"Armstrong" wrote in message

I am using Photoshop 6 in my Dell computer running Win XP Pro. I have scanned some photographs from my school year book. The pictures shown in Photoshop looks great and bright.
But when I tried to print the picture, the prints look dull and dark. I am using Canon i850 and HP 970CXi deskjet printers.
I print in the highest color quality setting.
I have to use HammerMill Color Copy Papers(Photo White 28lbs, 96 brightness).

What can I do to improve the printing brightness? Thank you.

The problem, as others have mentioned, is almost certainly with the paper. Try using either an inkjet photo paper - which is considerably brighter than any copy paper, or better yet a glossy photo paper, which should give you the same result as a normal photograph.

If you need to use your copy paper, for example if you are printing a newsletter or otherwise using large amounts of paper stock, you can get a better result by lightening the mid tones before printing. You are essentially solving the same problem that newspapers must solve to get good looking images: dot gain. Your printer driver settings will do this to some extent, and that is probably the best place to adjust things. But you can probably improve things by lightening the image temporarily with curves before printing. But the best solution, by far, is to switch papers. --

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
www.geigy.2y.net

In response to COZ;

I would like to check out the Kodak printers you recommended. Do you have a model number?
I don't like inkjets because the inks are so expensive and they dry up before I am finished with them.

Also, you seem to suggest that Kodak printers use RGB.
I was taught that all of the "home printers", need RGB images in order to function properly. It is only the "print shops" that need to convert to CMYK.
What gives?

William Kazak

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 18:57:27 GMT, "William Kazak" wrote:

In response to COZ;

I would like to check out the Kodak printers you recommended. Do you have a model number?
I don't like inkjets because the inks are so expensive and they dry up before I am finished with them.

Also, you seem to suggest that Kodak printers use RGB.
I was taught that all of the "home printers", need RGB images in order to function properly. It is only the "print shops" that need to convert to CMYK.
What gives?

William Kazak

All printers print using CMYK inks. The only difference is whether you send the printer an RGB file or a CMYK file.

--

Hecate - The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 18:57:27 GMT, "William Kazak" wrote:

In response to COZ;

I would like to check out the Kodak printers you recommended. Do you have a model number?
I don't like inkjets because the inks are so expensive and they dry up before I am finished with them.

Also, you seem to suggest that Kodak printers use RGB.
I was taught that all of the "home printers", need RGB images in order to function properly. It is only the "print shops" that need to convert to CMYK.
What gives?

William Kazak

RGB color is "additive", in other words you add more red, green, or blue to get the effect. Only things that light up or have some source of illumination can be RGB (things like a television or monitor or movie projector).

CYMK is "subtractive" you start with light color elements and anything you add then reduces the light that reflects from the image. An example of this would be prints on paper.

Drifter
"I've been here, I've been there..."