DARK PRINTS

[Flash2Bang]

I use a Sony VAIO Laptop/CS3/Epson R1800 setup for printing but cannot for the life of me match my prints to the screen image. Every print I make comes out much darker than the screen image. I have calibrated the screen with a Spyder2 and ticked all the relevant boxes when printing (Photoshop to manage colour, no colour management at printer, select printer/paper profile etc). I have read most posts and several CS3 books but just cannot get them to match. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Mr. Pickles]

Just for fun, do you have any odd Proof Setup in PSCS3 set (view - proof setup)?

[Flash2Bang]

It is a recently installed copy of CS3 (also new to me, big jump up from Elements5). I haven't touched proof setup. I am at work at the moment, will check when I get back.

[Flash2Bang]

Mr Pickles,
Sorry for the delay, just got up from a long night shift.

Opened Proof Setup and it is custom set to my latest screen calibration.

[JoeRutsky]

I had the same problem. I let the driver print the photo and got the results I wanted. I will be printing a test pattern and adjusting the monitor to match color and I don't think I will have a problem. I haven't found a way to use color profile effectively. If you get a color cast, you can adjust the colors through the driver. I know it sounds like there should be more, but this is the only thing I have found that works.

[Flash2Bang]

Thanks for that Joe. After becoming obsessed with the advice given in all the books on the subject I was begining to thinking along that line.

[POAH]

turn your screen back a bit

[zero rc]

im not too familular with the spyder2 but does it allow you to set luminace when profileing your monitor? like POAH said, yuo may have your screen dialed up too bright.
"Opened Proof Setup and it is custom set to my latest screen calibration" here you want to set your proof setup to match your paper/ ink profile. i have the same printer as you, so lets also assume you are using epson inks too. the printer ships with tons of profiles for epson ink/paper combos. go into your proof setup and select the paper that matches what you are using. if you are using 3rd party papers/inks you will need to go to their web-sites and download the profiles for these. the other opiton would be to make custom profiles for your particular ink/ papers, but this can take time and often,i only see a small improvement over the manufactures paper profiles. also be sure you are printing using the same settings as the profile you downlaod.

[jbimages]

@zero rc The spyder2 lets one set a luminance value or measure and use whatever the screen can do.
Following poah's idea defeats the purpose of calibration.
I had similar issues with my IP4200 before I calibrated my monitors, now I can soft proof in Photoshop and what I see on the screen is what I get when I print from either Photoshop or Lightroom (handy as Lightroom does not do soft proofing). An added bonus is that photos printed at the two labs I use look like what I see on the screen.

I don't know what adjustments are available on the Sony VAIO so I'll detail my procedure.

The monitor driven off the DVI output has no adjusments other than colour temperature. I set that to 6500K and run the Spyder2. When it finishes I note the black and white levels and use those to set up the second monitor, connected to a VGA output on the video card. As far as I can tell it has contrast and brightness controls and no backlight control. They are close but not identical . The VGA one is a touch brighter.

[jbimages]

Something I should add. Make sure that Adobe Gamma is NOT running, otherwise it will load another profile and stuff everything up.

[zero rc]

thanks for the info john. i use eye1 products myself, so its good to learn about other brands. you are correct sir, what i was getting at was when calibrating, you have the option of setting a desired lumens or going with "brightness optimised" in the software i use. i found that by setting my lumens at about 80cd/m2 i got the best results. i am sorry if i gave the impression that i was advocating actually changing the monitors brightness manualy. good call

[Flash2Bang]

Thanks for all the replies friends. Sorry to be so long in replying but I have just had two fantastic weeks in SW Ireland. Fantastic landscapes only spoilt by flat grey overcast skies. As for the !@*.."!. printer I have got so that I don't want to touch the thing. At the moment I am waiting for a new desktop and screen (HO. HO. HO. Happy Xmas to myself) to be delivered so once they are here I will take a deep breath and try again.

[jnsuffolk]

I had the same problem with my r200 its a conflict with eithe epson and cs3 or epson and one of the security updates for windows. I ended up buying a new printer. But then again mine wasn't as expensive as yours. I couldn't find a fix for it. Good luck

[gallen11]

I have an Epson R1800 and also found prints to be darker than what I saw on the screen. I now soft proof a dup of the image and lighten it up and it now prints good. Since I have to lighten up all the dup images I made an action that I run on them. This has corrected the problem I had with images being darker than what I saw on the screen and I am happy with the final prints now. Took me a few times to determine just how much I had to lighten the image up. hope this helps.

Gallen11