johnpolizzi

Perhaps some one can help solve a problem. I have a decent budget printer, an Epson XP830 5 color, and my prints are not matching my laptop. I edit in Photoshop using pro photo color profile and have saved both as jpegs and tiffs. My jpegs come out way too dark and when I print from a tiff the density is ok but the colors are unsaturated. I tried reducing the brightness on my laptop before editing and the problem persists. I can't afford at this time an expensive calibration device. Any suggestions?

charles tabb Loc: Richmond VA.

Look into getting a Spyder 5 Pro.
This little item will take of your problems.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

Your profile does not indicate where or in what region you are located, so it’s difficult to respond. There is no magic answer to your printer problem short of calibration (for both the printer and your monitor). I suggest you find a good commercial photo printer and work with them to achieve better, more consistant results. Google “photo labs”.

spaceylb Loc: Long Beach, N.Y.

Are you using the correct ICC profiles for the paper you're using? Are you using epson ink?

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Keep in mind that your screen is backlit and your printed photo is reflective. I have to push my printer 1 to 2 stops to brighten them up and compensate for the backlit screen. Experiment with it a little.

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

There is a Printing section to UHH. Use that.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Your printer is a 4-in-1 with 5 cartridges and not a dedicated photo printer that has 7 or more, so no amount of twiddling will yield the quality you can get from a dedicated photo model. You might consider upgrading your printer and spending a lot more on ink and paper or use a professional service to print high quality of a few of your best.

zoomphoto Loc: Seattle, WA USA

Need more information.
Using Photoshop?
When you setup do you have profile options?

DaveD65 Loc: Queen City, Ohio

I have the same printer and saw similar issues. My monitor was aging and needed replacement. I bought new AOC monitor and saw very little change. I was a printing ink chemist for 37 years and was very familiar with X-Rite/Pantone color systems. I bought an X-Rite/Pantone Color Munki Smile and calibrated my new monitor and now my prints closely match what I see on my screen, it really made a tremendous difference. I also calibrated all of our TV's and that made a great difference as well.

Skiextreme2 Loc: Northwest MA

It sounds a lot like your monitor is not calibrated to the same color profile as your printer. Go into your printer settings and see what they are calibrated to, then do the same for your monitor. If they aren't the same, change one to match the other. If you can't match, use Adobe rgb on both. That will help.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Sorry, but calibration is BY FAR your best solution. In fact it will pay for itself over time, with less wasted ink, paper and time.

And a calibration device isn't necessarily "expensive". An X-Rite ColorMunki "Smile" costs less than $100. A Datacolor Spyder 5 EXPRESS costs about $130.

You still have a problem trying to work with a laptop, because the computer screen gets moved around and used in various lighting conditions that influence what you see on the screen. Opening and closing it to different angles also changes the perceived brightness of the screen. There are possible solutions: The most inconvenient is to use a device to re-calibrate the screen every time you set the computer up. Another is to use a "real time" calibration device that's constantly updating and correcting the display (NOTE: devices that automatically adjust tend to cost more). Some folks also make a simple guide that can be used to insure the screen is set to the same angle every time it's used and/or a "tent" to work within, to shade the screen from most ambient light (that still can't correct for your eyes being adapted to different lighting conditions).

The best and easiest, though, is probably to get a separate monitor to use specifically for image editing, set it up and maintain it in one location where lighting and viewing angles remain consistent. When you want to finish some images, plug in the laptop and only do your image finishing at that calibrated work station. (You can still do other things with your photos while "on the road" with your laptop.)

Almost certainly your screen is way too bright for image editing. They nearly always are and that's causing you to adjust the images too dark, which shows up in your prints. There are probably some subtle color shifts too. The only way to correct for this is proper calibration. And because screens lose brightness gradually and shift color rendition over time, occasional re-calibration is important. While it's possible to make adjustments "by eye", it's a really difficult thing and involves a lot of guessing, as well as a lot of time and waste. It's much more efficient and accurate to simply get a calibration device and use it.

As to the difference you are seeing between the color rendition of 8-bit JPEGs versus 16-bit TIFF.... Apparently your printer cannot handle the TIFF files. Simplest solution would be to only print JPEGs. Keep the TIFF if you wish, but convert to a JPEG for printing. While it's certainly good to "work" images in 16-bit (or sometimes even higher) formats... There's little to no benefit to print from that format. Many print services reject 16-bit files. And some inkjets just can't handle them...Or the printer will run a lot slower and use more ink to print a 16-bit file. And there's almost never any improvement in the appearance of standard photo prints from 16-bit versus 8-bit. (16-bit can be wanted for commercial printing processes or for image that will be seeing further work before printing.)

EDIT: I DON'T AGREE with earlier response that you need a different printer. While it's not a "high end" photo printer... your Epxon XP-850 should be fine for a lot of things. It has 6 separate ink tanks (5 colors and black) which allows it to be more efficient, plus gives you the light magenta and light magenta that photos often require. Spend a little on proper calibration and perhaps a bit more on a dedicated, fixed monitor work-station and you should see major improvements in your prints.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

One of the best labs in the country is www.nationsphotolab.com. Excellent quality,
fast and surprisingly inexpensive, plus they have frequent sales up to 50% or more.
(I have no financial interest in their business. Just a very happy customer.)

Murray Loc: New Westminster

Certainly took care of mine.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Monitor calibration will pay for itself rather quickly in paper/ink/lab bill savings

Color management is a system. Every part must play its role properly.