Questions about photo printing from Designer Pro

[DaveC]

I haven't done much printing from Designer. When I did print some photos I wasn't pleased with the results: the photos seemed flat and sort of muddy. I am aware of the differences between the screen and paper and the fact that the many ways we manipulate images can have a degrading effect. BUT they looked quite reasonable on screen.

My question is: Does the RBG-CMYK-etc choice play a role here? What is the best procedure to get the best image to the printer? I am using an Epson 1800. Searching the forums didn't offer much advice and neither did the manual.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[James Allen]

Hi Dave,

CMYK is for colour separation, used in commercial printing. Your inkjet uses the RGB format, and I think you should convert any CMYK photos to RGB before printing. I’ve found that once they are saved in CMYK format though, they often look different, even when converted back to RGB, so if possible they should be RGB from the beginning.

They may look okay on screen because pixels are pure light, as opposed to ink on paper which only reflects some light back at you.

Also, you might want to check the inks and calibrate the printer, to make sure everything is aligned properly.

[gwpriester]

Hi Dave

The problem could be your monitor calibration vs the reality of printing. Obviously the 1800 is a high quality photo printer, what is it 8 colors? and should be able to print really great color. But most monitors are set very bright and so the colors are almost unrealistic. There are hardware/software solutions for calibrating your monitor and co-ordinating the monitor to your printer.

I wrote a review several years ago for one of the Pantone professional monitor calibration products. I was stunned to see the result of the calibration. My bright white page after calibration looked dull and dingy. But one of the techs who was helping me said most monitor manufacturers set their brightness way too high to make the screen and colors look brighter.

The true test is to find something to compare the printed output with. Like one of those color cards used to calibrate scanners.

But the bigger question is, is the photo convincing? If you show it to someone who has not seen the version on your monitor will it look good? Sometimes this is the best test.