I’m going to assume that you’ve seen your photos on a different computer and that they don’t look butt ugly – that is, your monitor is giving you the same general image quality as other monitors.
1st – make sure you are using good paper – most store brands will yield color quite unlike what you see onscreen. And a mismatch between printer and paper brands will also disappoint. The best bet for dialing in the setup is to use the paper your printer manufacturer sells, and start with their best glossy.
2nd – you have 2 ways to adjust out the monitor/print difference – adjust the monitor to display what the printer produces, or adjust the printouts to match what you see on the monitor. Adjusting the printout is probably easier if the difference isn’t too great.
Select a photo with a good range of colors for testing. Don’t worry about printing large – getting color and contrast into the right ballpark is the first order of business and doesn’t require large prints to accomplish.
When you go to print, select the Properties or Preferences option, select the right paper type, and then go to the Custom print option. Using the Custom/Set button, select the highest quality available and then exit. Then select Manual for the Color Adjustment setting and then click the Set button. Here you need to get systematic about your experiments.
If your prints seem to be deficient in one color, increase the intensity of that color and print. If a color seems too strong, decrease it and print. You can increase or decrease the overall color level using Intensity, which also tends to increase/decrease contrast. The important part is to change only one characteristic for each test print. Otherwise, you’ll get lost in complimentary and competing effects of multiple changes in a single test.
If this method is going to work, you should see significant progress by the 4th or 5th print. If you don’t seem to be getting anywhere by the 5th print, then the idea of adjusting the monitor to match the print will probably do better. THAT set of adjutsments is most substantial. I suggest you do a Google search on "calibrate monitor" to find guidance.
Good luck.
Bob in Las Vegas
"DaveH" wrote in message
After adjusting my photos to where they really look great on my monitor they print out to a lesser quality and/or the contrast, brightness, etc is different than what my editing shows. Any suggestions to get my edited pics to come out as what my monitor showes wwwooould be
appreciated.
