capt2575 Loc: New York City

The color reproduction from an IPS monitor allegedly reproduces better colors. Are these colors then produced any better on an inkjet printer?

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Well obviously the monitor itself has no direct bearing on the colors you get in prints. I assume that if you have a printer that supports a wider gamut than was available on you old monitor then working in that wider gamut could benefit the prints.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Custom calibration and ICC Profiling with a hardware device and software is the primary secret to “what you see is what prints” color. Datacolor and X-Rite make such kits.

Also important is using a monitor designed specifically for photography and the graphic arts. BenQ makes affordable ones.

Higher bit depths also help. 10-bit color is better than 8-bit.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

An IPS display provides more consistent image tone and color over a wider viewing angle and many have greater color depth, represented as "bit depth" - when compared to older tech like TN and VA style displays.

However, using any display that has not been properly profiled will not help in color reproduction in a print. Creating a color profile will help ensure that the image of a green pepper on a screen resembles the real-life green pepper. This is irrespective of your personal visual color response. In other words, even if you are color blind, the color of the pepper you see in real life should resemble the one on the profiled screen.

If you have a fully color managed workflow, the camera, display and printer will each have it's own profile, so that there is a degree of accuracy that is carried from one device to another. Naturally each device has it's own color response profile, and not all colors captured by the camera can be reproduced on a display, and not all prints can show the colors of a display, and to make things interesting, a print may be able to show colors captured by the camera that cannot be displayed on a monitor. Using a profiled wide gamut display with good bit depth - greater than 8 bit per color - will help ensure color integrity from camera to print.

So to answer your question, using an IPS display "can" help produce more accurate prints, provided all the other pieces to the puzzle are in place.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

My new monitor states 128 percent of the rgb gamut. It's made by msi. I'm thinking that is good.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Quick question related to this info. Would it still be worth getting a 10 bit color depth monitor if you only have a video card that only supports 8 bit?

tcthome Loc: NJ

Sounds like a wide color gamut to me.

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

The short answer is no. A monitor and a printer are both separate output devices which are not connected. Both are controlled by the image editing software output using "drivers" in the software. In theory you could use a cheap B&W monitor to view the image and interface with the program and the exact same print would be produced by the printer. The only thing you can do is get a monitor capable of displaying the same range of colors as your printer is capable of printing and calibrate the monitor so what you see on the monitor matches what your printer prints. Then you have a chance of editing the image to look the way you want and possibly see it in a print.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Probably not. Some cards like the latest Nvidia cards do support 10 bit. And the only application I know of to support 10 bit is Photoshop, which you have to turn on in Preferences, otherwise it defaults to 8 bit.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

The industry process is to profile both the printer and the display to a known standard. Using your advice you'd probably arrive at decent color on your printer but it will not be correct on any other printer or monitor. This is why color calibration and profiling tools exist.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Short answer... Yes, definitely!

Longer answer...

What you see on the screen directly effects how you tweak and adjust the image. If the monitor isn't accurate in color or brightness, it will cause you to mis-adjust your images, which will in turn cause prints to be incorrect.

IPS potentially have the best color rendition and even illumination. However, you also need to maintain the monitor calibration. For photo editing, most monitors are overly bright and not all that accurate, even brand new, right out of the box. Plus, monitors gradually lose brightness and shift color rendition over time, as they age with regular use. So some sort of calibration is important. This is usually best done with a calibration device and software, such as Datacolor Spyder, and similar.

It's also important what software you use to view images and to install "profiles" that emulate how a print will look as best possible. When you set up a printer, there is usually a "driver" that you install on your computer. Some of those install profiles too, usually for the printer manufacturer's own papers and inks. If you use other brands of inks and/or paper, you may need to install a different profile if the rendition of prints are different. A common use for these is "soft proofing" the image in your photo editing software. With most monitors it's not perfect... most monitors cannot display the full color gamut or the full dynamic range that are possible in a print. As a result, I often see more detail in the shadow and highlight areas of prints, than I saw on my computer monitor. How close a "soft proof" is to an actual print varies depending upon the quality of the monitor (one that's 10-bit or higher render the best color), as well as the rest of your computer system hardware and software (as noted in other responses, a 10-bit monitor requires a 10-bit capable graphics card AND software that's 10-bit capable). It can be close to how the print will ultimately look. But is probably never going to be 100%. With experience you can come to know what to expect.

So, there's a lot more to it than just whether or not an IPS monitor is used. But, it is definitely an important starting point.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Only if you update the video card.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

And you are using Photoshop or other program that specifically outputs 10 bit color.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC