CS3 — prints too dark

RM
Posted By
Robert_Mussey
Nov 30, 2008
Views
407
Replies
6
Status
Closed
In CS3, I’m having trouble getting my prints to match the appearance on monitor — my prints are uniformly 1-2 stops too dark, color otherwise is very good. I have calibrated my Dell monitor with Colorvision’s Spyder2 colorimeter. Prints are also a hair too dark in CS2, but not as dark.

Photos and Photoshop are in RGB color space. Printer is Epson R2400 with updated drivers I just downloaded and updated into Photoshop. I also downloaded updated ICC color profiles for the Epson Premium Glossy Paper I use.

Printer settings in Photoshop are: Photoshop manages color; Adobe RGB printer profile; perceptual rendering intent; black point compensation "on"; ICM color management; color management set to "Off". I’m using North American Prepress 2 color setting. These are the exact settings Scott Kelby recommends in his "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers" for getting calibrated prints.

I’ve tried playing with all these settings with no luck. Am beginning to suspect the Spyder 2 colorimeter may not be giving me a truly calibrated monitor.

Any experience of yours or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Robert
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M
Monty
Nov 30, 2008
wrote:
In CS3, I’m having trouble getting my prints to match the appearance on monitor — my prints are uniformly 1-2 stops too dark, color otherwise is very good. I have calibrated my Dell monitor with Colorvision’s Spyder2 colorimeter. Prints are also a hair too dark in CS2, but not as dark.

Photos and Photoshop are in RGB color space. Printer is Epson R2400 with updated drivers I just downloaded and updated into Photoshop. I also downloaded updated ICC color profiles for the Epson Premium Glossy Paper I use.

Printer settings in Photoshop are: Photoshop manages color; Adobe RGB printer profile; perceptual rendering intent; black point compensation "on"; ICM color management; color management set to "Off". I’m using North American Prepress 2 color setting. These are the exact settings Scott Kelby recommends in his "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers" for getting calibrated prints.

I’ve tried playing with all these settings with no luck. Am beginning to suspect the Spyder 2 colorimeter may not be giving me a truly calibrated monitor.

Any experience of yours or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Robert

Are you setting the printer profile to the correct paper that you are using? Use soft proof in photoshop. Make a dup copy of your image, then switch on soft proof using the printer profile for the paper that you want to print too. Then adjust the proof image to the unproofed image.

You may need to adjust your monitor,calibrate to a lower level of brightness. You do not say what your settings are once you have calibrated.
J
Jim
Nov 30, 2008
wrote in message
In CS3, I’m having trouble getting my prints to match the appearance on monitor — my prints are uniformly 1-2 stops too dark, color otherwise is very good. I have calibrated my Dell monitor with Colorvision’s Spyder2 colorimeter. Prints are also a hair too dark in CS2, but not as dark.
Photos and Photoshop are in RGB color space. Printer is Epson R2400 with updated drivers I just downloaded and updated into Photoshop. I also downloaded updated ICC color profiles for the Epson Premium Glossy Paper I use.

Printer settings in Photoshop are: Photoshop manages color; Adobe RGB printer profile; perceptual rendering intent; black point compensation "on"; ICM color management; color management set to "Off". I’m using North American Prepress 2 color setting. These are the exact settings Scott Kelby recommends in his "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers" for getting calibrated prints.

I’ve tried playing with all these settings with no luck. Am beginning to suspect the Spyder 2 colorimeter may not be giving me a truly calibrated monitor.

Any experience of yours or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Robert

How about trying the printer profiles which Epson provides? I usually specify the printer paper profile instead of your specification of "Adobe RGB printer profile".
It is also possible that your monitor profiles are wrong. Jim
G
GAnderson
Dec 1, 2008
Just some general thoughts on things that generate "dark prints".

– Monitor brightness set too high giving an inaccurate visualization at to what a comparable print will be printed at.

– Dot gain. Even with Epson premium glossy paper, all paper will get dot gain to some degree. Any dot gain will make images print out darker.

– Also it seems that you’re using a "canned" profile from Epson. Although this is better than nothing a true calibration of your printer would be much more accurate.
C
Curvemeister
Dec 1, 2008
Adobe RGB printer profile;

That could be your problem right there. Set the printer profile to the appropriate Epson profile.
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Dec 3, 2008
I agree. An Adobe RGB printer profile would send ARGB data to the printer, not data set for the printer/ink/paper. With printer ICM color management turned off, you are getting no appropriate color management. You need to select the right profile for the printer/ink/paper.
RM
Robert_Mussey
Dec 3, 2008
Thank all three of you for your suggestions and taking the time — you were of course right. I selected the Epson profile and my color is now very very close. Thanks.

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