Picture always comes out darker

I have a Canon Pixma MP530 printer, and it seems that whenever i go to print any image, either through Photoshop or Windows Image and Fax Viewer, it always comes out darker than what i see on my monitor. Do i have to brighten up the image on my computer to get this to work, get a new printer, or get one of those calibration packages?

This is the "classic" issue people encounter: Consumer monitors out of the box are set way too bright for photo editing and so printing them produces dark prints.

So for a photo person the answer is to dial down your monitor brightness. This can be done as part of a monitor "calibration" process where you can read out specific brightness levels, but for me a "first step" with a new monitor is to dial down the brightness to a level that is close to being "just bad", or to come close to matching a print when viewing the photo. Do that, adjust a photo accordingly, and print, viewing the print in good light and comparing to what your monitor now shows.

When I printed for the first time I took the output image held it up beside my screen and adjusted my screen til they were as close as possible. Too cool and too bright for me BTW. Then re edited the picture and reprinted. It's not a perfect solution but it's cheap and no waiting.

Buy a screen calibrator and go from there.

I use a Spyder 4 Pro on my machine, and even out of my crappy Epson 540 printer, the prints match the screen damn near perfectly. Before screen calibration, prints were yellow and dark in comparison.

va_rider wrote in post #16922840
Buy a screen calibrator and go from there.

I use a Spyder 4 Pro on my machine, and even out of my crappy Epson 540 printer, the prints match the screen damn near perfectly. Before screen calibration, prints were yellow and dark in comparison.

I have always wondered how this solution works, like what's involved? Is there a color range it chooses to align with like srgb, or do i manually choose what i want to see?

mknabster wrote in post #16922917
I have always wondered how this solution works, like what's involved? Is there a color range it chooses to align with like srgb, or do i manually choose what i want to see?

Most average monitors are not able to display all of the sRGB color space. What calibration does is characterize your monitor and then set brightness, color temperature, and several other parameters to your preferences. The calibration process maps the colors displayed on your monitor to a standard so that your displayed colors will look close to what other calibrated monitors will show and close to what a calibrated printer will print. What calibration doesn't and can't do is make your monitor display a wider gamut of colors -- just more accurate colors.

So, to answer your question, the calibration process generally enables the monitor to display the colors that it is capable of displaying as accurately as it can. The printer also is in most cases not able to display all of the sRGB color space unless it is one that has other colors besides the standard CMYK used in most inkjet printers. Typically, the gamut of printer colors fits withing the gamut of monitor colors, both of which are within the sRGB color space. Upper end monitors and printers can display or print most of the AdobeRGB color space.

Some monitors are designed to automatically work with certain calibrators which automates the entire process. Otherwise, you will have to manually make adjustments during the calibration process. At the end, the software creates a calibrated monitor profile that replaces the generic profile that comes with the monitor.

I should mention that when it comes to calibration (using a hardware/software setup) how those apps handle Brightness vary. Some don't even mess with Brightness, some will measure it and report back to you, suggesting a "value" for adjusting the monitor, and then others can throw you off because they "read" your ambient work-space lighting, and will either direct you to adjust relative to that ambient light or they may even do it automatically, and in that scenario it may not be a good level for prints!

I personally prefer to handle Brightness on my own, and then I'd let calibration stick to handling colors. It's OK if the calibrator reads and reports Brightness, but I don't want it bothering with the ambient, or especially automatically doing the adjustment whether I like it or not!

All that being said, though, it's been a while since I used a calibration "tool", although setting the Brightness down for me is something I'll do right off the bat...so take that into consideration, I don't get involved in serious calibrator/calibration discussions!

mknabster wrote in post #16922917
I have always wondered how this solution works, like what's involved? Is there a color range it chooses to align with like srgb, or do i manually choose what i want to see?

My Eye-One has a system of putting up on screen a lot of colours (and I do mean a lot!) one after the other. These are each measured by the sensor and the differences are compared. There is no choice, its an automated process.

More: Why Are My Prints Too Dark?

Is the histogram looking right before it's printed? Trust that over what your screen shows.