will47 Loc: Indianapolis, IN

I am sure this has been discussed in the past but I didn't pay attention because at the time I didn't print. Now that I am printing more I need to ask this question. What product(s) would you suggest to calibrate my printer to what I see on my screen. My wish would be something that is affordable but does the job and is easy to use.The photo below is something I am talking about: although the bird colors are pretty accurate the background is way off from what I saw on my computer screen. I use Canon cameras and a Canon Pixma TR8520 printer. I probably paid $150.00 for the printer and it just drinks ink for some reason. I may replace the printer to something better so a printer suggestion may be in order also. I am not locked into Canon printers. Any suggestions would be helpful.

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Ourspolair

To do the job properly, you should get a monitor calibrator - I use a SpyderX. Set up your screen then use the ICM profile for your printer and paper. If done properly, what you see on screen will be what you see in the print (except that the colours should be richer in the print). There are some excellent web sites on the subject, also there is a print expert who posts here often (my memory for names sucks, so sorry). The key is in the profiles.
Stay well and keep up the good work.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

I am happy with my X-rite i1 Studio, which calibrates monitors, printers, scanners, and projectors. It can build a profile for your cameras as well, but I don't recommend it. So it handles just about anything.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

There are multiple devices involved in that. Rather than say “use this or that” I highly suggest you learn about the process first. “Color management” is the process of obtaining consistent and accurate color across different devices.

Here is a good place to start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq-kNtwifFk&t=2s

After that..
https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-management1.htm

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Proper color and density is part of a complete system. You set the right profile for your printer files. You use (download) the paper profiles for the paper you are using. You calibrate your monitors. You do some tests.
Cheaper, smaller printers can print just fine but tend to have tiny little ink cartridges. They don’t last long. My printer has big ink cartridges. They cost mucho bucks but per print are cheaper than the little ones. Buy the ink you need and don’t look at the price. It is what it is.
...Cam

tramsey Loc: Texas

Don't even talk about printer ink cost to me. A Canon 245XL cartridge holds approximately 12 ml and costs about 26 dollars. There are about 3785 ml in a gallon so that puts the price on Canon ink at $7560.00 a gallon, give or take a buck or two.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

Good call.

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

You will not likely get an exact match between screen and printer, even if you have the best tools and the best devices. Gamut mismatch, and how each device interprets out of gamut colors, will be the tail you will be chasing if you are looking for color fidelity between screen and print. So setting your expectations appropriately will be a first huge step.

I used to do the entire camera->print color management thing, using Hahnemühle, Canson, Moab, Epson and Canon fine art papers, using wide gamut displays (true 10 bit color with programmable LUTs) with their own calibration tools - from Eizo - and an Xrite Spectrophotometer-based color management system for display and printing when I worked in the corporate graphics department at an international food manufacturer. It still wasn't perfect.

Unfortunately affordability may not be part of this solution, but compromise certainly is.

You can get reasonably decent results if you stick with the printer manufacturer's inks and papers, and simply profile (calibrate) your display. If you have an 8 bit display with a 12 or 14 bit programmable LUT (look up table), the least expensive tool to measure color that can also program the display is the Xrite i1 Display Pro - which costs around $250. DataColor products cannot do hardware programming, so I leave those off the list. If you don't have such a display today, but might get one when your current display starts to dim or shift beyond adjustability, then go with the Xrite.

Epson and Canon have a wide variety of fine art papers, and their printer drivers provide the correct profiles for good color fidelity. You can get better results with better fine art papers, but the costs and work to get those results will be considerably higher.

But the key to all of this is to nail the color on the display set the brightness to around 80 cd/m³ (candelas per square meter) so that the image on the screen is approximately the same brightness as the printed version under average lighting, and pick papers that are as wide a gamut as possible.

Getting a real photo printer like a Canon Pixma Pro-100 which uses dye inks, will provide a vibrance and color depth that may exceed pigment based printers, clog less, and still give you a print life of 100 yrs when printing on Canon paper. If you want to use pigment-based inks and open up to a wider variety of papers, then you'll need to spend a bit more for a printer. Epson photo printers also make great prints, but nearly every Epson I've owned has had severe clogging problems, mostly because I have cut back considerably on printing. In fact, I have a 4880 sitting next to my desk totally clogged, waiting for me to spend a few days freeing it up. But the prospect of spending a fortune on ink has kept that on the back burner for me.

Lastly, buying a cheap printer is a false economy if you are planning on doing a lot of printing. More expensive printers usually have larger tanks - my Epson has 110 ml tanks and can take 220 ml tanks. The cost of ink goes down considerably with the huge tanks. A 220ml cartridge has over 18x more ink than a 12 ml cartridge, yet only costs a little over 4x as much.

GLSmith Loc: Tampa, Fl

Besides SpyderX, there is a product out there since printing & colors first popped up. It is Quick Gamma.....Quick Gamma should be used first I feel as it will actually calibrate your monitor(s). which is often overlooked.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Calibrate your monitor. Use a photo quality printer that has six or more cartridges. And set your computer to use the photo paper's color profile. And one more thing. A print may often come out a bit darker than what’s on the monitor because you’re looking at reflected lighting versus backlighting.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Do you calibrate your monitor. That is the first step. I use a x-rite i1display pro.. I also print with a Canon Pro 100 & the prints come out pretty close. There are also (should be) icc profiles for the printer/paper combo you are using(this is also very important). These 2 step will probably get you where you need to be. Note on some papers I have to add a little brightness /contrast depending on the photo (just above the print button in LR6).

I WOULD START WITH CALIBRATING YOUR MONITOR. & ICC PROFILES that should have came with printer driver software. Use canon papers to begin this addition to your hobby.

Calibration for your printer is actually going to be creating icc profiles for each of your different type of papers for your printer. If you get another printer , then you would need to make or use the manufacture icc profile for that printer /paper combo.

If you decide you want to go this route , there is the i1studio from x-rite that will calibrate your monitor , printer(make icc profiles) & , scanners. Data Color Spyder also has package that will do both. My suggestion is watch some vids & read some articles & then jump in.

Bison Bud

The simple and cheap way to get close is to print several pictures, then adjust your monitor to match them as closely as possible. This way what you edit will look right on the screen and be close in your printout. This is an oversimplication of the issue, but calibrating the monitor is the place to start. Good luck and good shooting to all.

rcarol

"DataColor products cannot do hardware programming, so I leave those off the list. Will you please explain what that means?

fehutch Loc: gulfport, ms

Regarding printer: I purchased a Canon Pixma IX 6820 (or 6800 series, etc) for $150 or thereabouts after Hurricane Katrina. 4 color ink set (CMYK) plus Black for document writing. Paper size up to 13x19”... with no operating issues. I use Canon or Red River paper. Prints made in 2008 look like they were printed yesterday.

As for ink, I used the setup cartridges that came with the printer and switched to LD inks or equivalent thereafter. OEM inks are a lot of hype in my opinion. Amazon and others carry aftermarket inks that are WAY cheaper. I have worn out two printers in going on 15 years. Print heads will wear out and you get an occasional (2x) error code that says fix me. Print head cheap (not from Canon) and as easy to change as ink. Repair cost for main board more expensive than just buy a new printer.

A set of aftermarket inks run $15 for 4 color inks. The document black outlasts the color inks by about 4 to 1.

Finally, this printer is supported by Windows, Apple, and Linux. I doubt I have spent $1,000 for printing over this time span. Maybe more including paper.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

I am currently using an x-Rite calibration tool and I print on an Epson P800. Best of luck.