Colour matching ?

[HAG]

Hi All
I am working on a scanned image of an old photo, the colours on the monitor match the original but when printed they are different.
I have checked the profiles on the monitor, scanner & printer and all are the same and match the monitor.
Any ideas ?
Hag

Monitor-Tatung C9R
Scanner-Snapscan 1212U
Printers-HP Deskjet 895Cxi & HP Photosmart 7150
System-800MHz, 40Gb, 640Mb

 

[SPYDERIX]

Hi,

The reason that the photos don't print the same is b/c you are looking at 2 completely different color wheel schemes. The printed version of your image uses the subtractive color wheel (CMYK or pigments) and your computer monitor uses the additive color wheel (RGB or light). Each color wheel scheme has different primaries and secondaries to make the colors that you see. Therefore when printing you need to make sure that the mode is set to CMYK and you also have to realize that not all colors that you see on your monitor can be printed.

You will have to do some tests and play around with color balance, hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, levels, etc to get your colors to match. I don't think that there is really a set way to do this. This is something that I have fought with alot of the years and there is a lot of trial and error involved with getting to look almost identical.

Perhaps someone else in this forum with alot of printing experience will be able to help you do certain techniques in certain orders to get better color matching.

Hope this helps!

NATE

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[HAG]

Thx 4 your prompt reply Spyderix
Kind of thought it would be a "suck it and See" process !
Cheers M8
Hag

 

[blueark]

You say you scanned a photo, and what you see on screen matches the original. That suggests that the weak link is between the monitor and the printer. Something is getting lost there. The obvious culprit is the printer itself: printed images have a smaller range of colors available than a monitor. However, as the original is a printed image, there shouldn't be much difference.

If you are just outputting directly to your printer, and if your color profiles are correct, then it shouldn't matter what color mode you are in, because the profile should translate your image properly. However, it can't work miracles. One thing to check is if your printer is capable of good prints in the first place. Second, make sure you are outputting on a suitable paper. A low-grade photocopy paper will output much duller prints than a high-grade photo gloss stock, and Photoshop has no way of telling what paper is in your machine.

If you haven't done so already, go to HP's website and download the most recent drivers for your printers. These will include the correct color profiles your devices. Be sure to use the right one with the right printer. Unfortunately, there are many variables involved in color management, and, as Spiderix said, your best bet is to become familiar with the color adjustment tools available in Photoshop itself.

You could create your own color settings, but it's very difficult, especially without the use of a colorimeter and densitometer. Basically, a test file is created with blocks of known colors, which are printed out and compared. Deviations are corrected (eg. If 50% cyan prints at 60%, the output profile for that ink is reduced at that point). The difficulty lies in the fact that the deviations aren't uniform. Some colors print perfectly, so these must be preserved, while others are off a bit, so they must be changed without affecting the others. If you're familiar with curves, you'll have some idea how it works. If you do want to go down this route, don't alter any existing color settings, but work from a duplicate.

hth

 

[BDNFLNC]

Hey blueark...

Do you know of a utility from Adobe for getting colors straight? I have a friend with issues of colors on the monitor not printing as they appear.

Personally I am of the opinion that they never match up...but I thought I saw a link to a utility here once that helps with that.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[blueark]

Are you thinking of the Adobe Gamma utility? It gets loaded into your control panels automatically when you install Photoshop. I don't think it'll help printing problems though. It's main use is for getting reasonably accurate color on your monitor, getting rid of color casts, making gray's neutral... that sort of thing.

 

[BDNFLNC]

Yeah...I already had her check that out. I thought for some strange reason there was some kind of calibration utility other than that.

No big deal I guess. She's gonna have to learn how to eyeball stuff. Easy once you get used to your machine I guess.

Thanks!

 

[blueark]

Hit the nail on the head there! You do get used to your own setup pretty quickly!

 

[HAG]

Hi All
Sorry to butt in on your conversation guys !
Guess I struck lucky, played around and made image darker and bingo got it ! Guess this counters the monitors backlighting as oppose to the photo's "frontlighting" !
Thanks for all your help and advice
Hag

 

[BDNFLNC]

Butt in? Didn't YOU start it!? heheh.

Glad it worked out well for you!

 

[jimoblak]

Does Adobe still make 'Press Ready'? I got the 'Basics' version last year with my HP inkjet printer. Press Ready is a software that manages color profiles so that my RGB, CMYK and Pantone colors come out near perfectly on my 4 color inkjet.

I think it retailed for $100 but the time it saved in calibration was well worth it.