martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Every Time I use a local store to print my photos out They Never match colors. I want what I see. It's not me. I can take their print, pull up the photo on the store monitor and you can see the difference. So I guess and I've read on here that it's possible to adjust your computer to match their printer.. Please help as I want them to be the same as I send in.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Anybody out there? Not everyone has a mac I guess.

3Dean Loc: Southern California

It a complicated subject, in which I'm not fully knowledgeable.

I've only printed my digital files myself, to my own printer. So I've had complete control of the entire process.

The way I understand it, if your computer's monitor is calibrated, and your printing system is calibrated, you should get printed colors close to what you see on the monitor.

The Mac OS uses "ColorSync" profiles for color management.

In my case, I use an NEC monitor connected to a Mac Pro. In the "Displays" preferences, under "Color", I have chosen a display profile that matches the model of my NEC monitor. Alternatively, you can manually run through the "Calibrate" steps in the same preference panel.

For printing, I use Photoshop and a Xerox color printer. In Photoshop's print dialog there is a section for color management. I have selected "Photoshop Manages Colors" and have chosen the correct printer profile for the printer that I use (I had to download and install this profile from the printer's manufacturer).

It seems to me that once your monitor is properly calibrated, it would be up to the printing service to ensure that their printing system is also correctly calibrated.

I do not believe that you should have to calibrate your monitor to match the printer. Rather, both monitor and printer should be calibrated to an industry standard such as ColorSync.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Thanks for responding. I'm glad to hear it's possible to enter the printers specs and my computer copy them. I'm only using the local Walgreens, and Walmart. At Walgreens I take the camera card in, download and make any changes and then print, they come out with a heavy yellow cast, that I see and the salesperson can see. I show them what's on Their monitor and show them their print and they say no one else complains. At Walmart they have the Fuji Monitors, fuji computer and a Dell?? Printer, two different systems and they never match either. Guess I need to use a Real printing company all together to get the same results as my computer. PS I have gone on several different web sites to check calibration and I can see all tones, shades and colors. I can't see the difference in last two shades of black is my only problem be that shouldn't make a difference. I didn't want to mess with my calibration for that small of a tweak.

swamiji

First, you don't calibrate your computer to you printer, you calibrate your computer through your printer to your paper. It's the printed image that needs calibration. Many paper companies provide icc profiles for it's paper via different printers. Ilford is one, Canon and Epson are others. Printer makers provide profiles for each of their paper. High end paper companies provide on their website profiles.

However there is a device that will produce a profile for most printers on any paper. That is the Colormunki Photo. The caveat is that not all printers can use icc profiles in their driver. However Aperture, iPhoto can incorporate these profiles in their process (see the help about preview profiles).

Erv Loc: Medina Ohio

Here is a site that you might be able to get your answer from. They are a welth of info on Mac's
http://forums.macrumors.com/index.php
Erv

Flact George Loc: SE FL & SE CT

Another good source are the columns and Q&A by David Brooks in Shutterbug. See http://www.shutterbug.com/content/qa-digital-photography-8

He has several books that he sells and though he can be snarky in his answers, he is very reliable esp on color management.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Appreciate your help

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Thanks for the mac info. I still have my option to call for a tech. I guess I can call if I run into problems

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Thank you much

Deaconess Loc: New Hampshire

Not sure if this is what you were asking
yes I have a MAC computer and when I do artistic things with the color and take it to let's say a CVS to print them I tell the person there, who is in charge of printing pictures, I tell them to print them as the colors that I made them.
its been good for me.

swamiji

If you are print at a print house, say Kinkos, costco, cvs, etc. There really is little you can do to calibrate your system, generally select sRGB for your preview, and hope for the best. You can ask them what generic profile they use, but it's unlikely they will know. No amount of colorsync adjustments will help, as the likelihood of them using Macs are slim. Normally that information is lost, better to use no custom profiles.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

Is your issue color, lightness/darkness, or both?

In your System Preferences, click on Displays. You'll see a window where your display is already probably selected correctly. There is a Color button at the top of the window. You can select a different standard color profile there, or calibrate your monitor. I've been told that the default brightness setting on the monitor is usually too bright, so when your photos are printed out, they come out darker. A lot of printers use an sRGB profile, which is pretty standard.

Calibrating your monitor can get very complicated. Calibrating to someone else's printer is worse. Usually, you're calibrating to your own equipment. If you use different commercial printers, you might need a different profile for each one!

Good luck.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Thanks RMM, think I've got this figured out. I have my camera set on RGB profile and not Srgb. I can change when I export to print, just have to pay attention to all my settings. Have been working on different export profiles last couple of days. Will call a tec where I order my prints and have him or her walk me thru the first time. Thanks again. P.S. By the way, Love your B&W conversions.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

Contacting their techs is a good idea. If they are able to help you, you should post here, or create a new topic. I'm sure that you're not alone in this, and I've got to believe it's a PC problem as well, not just a Mac problem.

You may not want to work all the time with the profile you get from your printers. But don't be surprised at the apparent changes to your image when you change the profile before saving the print version of your image. If you're using Photoshop, go to View-> Proof Setup -> and make note of your current setting. Then, with an image open, just wander through some of the alternative settings, particularly some of the custom settings. Watch how your image changes, lightening, darkening, or shifting in color balance. That's what you're up against.

Thank you for the P.S.