good colour but difference in brightness

[martcol]

So, I have 2 Epson printers (2100 & 950). I have just about got to grips with colour management (including Gretag Macbeth and a LaCie monitor) but now notice that brightness is way off on print-outs. What am I doing wrong?

The prints are often much darker than the screen although as I say, the colour looks OK. I suppose that I would be able to say the colour is perfect (or not) if the brightness thingy wasn't going wonky.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Regards

Martin

[John_T]

Dunno, but I would suggest your monitor black point is off. Try using the following technique to set your monitor's brightness and contrast and skip that part in the calibration process when you redo tthe calibration.

http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/calibration/blackpoint/crt_brightness_and_contrast.htm

If, after doing this, your print and monitor still don't agree, on the assumption that your monitor is telling you the truth about your image, start a process of elimination through the rest of your color management.

If you then want to go further here, please tell us if you are using Photoshop or whatever, what papers/inks you are using and anything else that might be relevant. It's probably something simple.

[ohenry]

Are you using ICC profiles for your printers?

[John_T]

Mostly not, though that may change when my EZcolor/Optix XR Pro bundle gets here. I have an excellent monitor/print match now using Printer Color Management in PS and selecting the appropriate paper in the printer driver dialog. I doubt I will get better results by profiling the standard Canon papers, but I do want to profile some more exotic papers.

What I am suggesting to you is to make sure your monitor is telling you the truth, then independent of that, to print out a professional test target and see how that comes out. This will establish baselines from which you can work.

The most important thing is to use a known quantity image and not your own images that can contain many misleading factors.

I would suggest using the 2200 with the latest Epson drivers.

Download PDI Target(AdobeRGB)ONLY.zip from here (lower part of the page):

http://www.gballard.net/psd/srgbforwww.html


Extract PDI-Target.jpg from the PhotoDiscOriginalLicense directory in the zip file.

And download the CTI Target from here (14MB but worth it):

http://69.95.120.64/hd/default.html

You now have two of the best test images around.

Open them in PS in their embedded color space, Adobe RGB.

View them at Actual Pixels but make no adjustments, just note how they look.

Now print them on your best Epson paper at absolutely default settings.

In PS go File > Print with Preview

- Show More Options

- Source Space > Document: Adobe RGB (1998)

- Print Space: > Profile: Printer Color Management

- Page Setup > Paper Size: A4 or Letter > Orientation Landscape

- Printer > Properties >
- set Media Type to the best Epson paper you use
- Ink: Color
- Mode: Automatic

Make sure all other settings are set to default, no adjustments, no ICM, no profiles, no nothing.

Click OK in the printer dialog and adjust the image to page in the PS print dialog.

Print

Allow the print to "cure", perhaps an hour, before looking at it.

Your print should reflect what your printer driver and printer produce dead sober. This is your baseline and from where you want to work on the printing side. Image correction in PS should have nothing to do with printing. Printing's only function is to reflect on paper what you have on a perfectly calibrated screen. If you get these two aspects of imaging mixed up, you will chase your tail for ever.

How does it look?