Monitor Calibration

[Gwenhwyfar]

I know this was covered at the photography day, but there was some gadget I needed, but I can't remember the name of it, or how much it is, and how hard it is to do!!

Everything I print out, comes out much darker than what I see on the screen, but mostly the blues are affected - they come out pinky, which is really annoying. I thought it was a duff lot of ink, but it's still doing it.

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Lisa,

In order to see on the screen what you get out of your printer, you need a system that is calibrated end-to-end. This means calibrating both the monitor and the printer.

Both monitor and printer calibrations will result in a "colour profile" file that contains the mapping from the "proper" colours, to whatever your monitor or printer is churning out. The monitor profile is normally loaded when you startup your machine. The printer profile is used when you print.

The "colour profile" for a particular model of printer is normally available (free) from the printer provider (e.g. Epson) for a particular model and type of paper. If you use different grades of paper, you'll need different printer profiles. You specify which profile to use in your software application, such as PhotoShop.

The device I showed at the photography day is the ColorVision "Spyder 2" contraption - which even an idiot like me can use. I think I got mine for about £80 on eBay.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Gwenhwyfar]

Thanks Pete.