Have you calibrated your monitor/printer?

[Charade]

I recently bought the Pantone Huey (got a great price of $65!) and it's a neat little device. It also measures the ambient light and adjusts for changes. Now when I send something to an online printer, I know I'm pretty darn close. If I use their printer profiles, it should be a good match.

What I can't seem to do (without spending a lot of $$) is calibrate my Epson printer.

 

[Furgus]

What type of Epson Printer do you have? You should be able to download the icc profiles from their site if they have one available. Also remember it is not the printer that needs calibrating it is the paper. I have just switched over to Illford paper, they have icc's on their website, and the results are awesome!

I also got a Colorvision Spyder2Express for Christmas. I was hoping to get that one of the Huey.

Another thing is, if you use photoshop use this method to help with your printing needs.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps9_print/ps9_print_1.htm

 

[Charade]

What type of Epson Printer do you have? You should be able to download the icc profiles from their site if they have one available. Also remember it is not the printer that needs calibrating it is the paper. I have just switched over to Illford paper, they have icc's on their website, and the results are awesome!

I also got a Colorvision Spyder2Express for Christmas. I was hoping to get that one of the Huey.

Another thing is, if you use photoshop use this method to help with your printing needs.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps9_print/ps9_print_1.htm

That's what I meant. I have an R300. I know that you can get some profiles from paper manufacturers but not all are available. I usually buy Office Depot brand premium glossy but I don't know who makes it. I might try some Illford paper. Sams club sells one of their line. Galleria I believe.

 

[Furgus]

I have the R340, there were no profiles at Epson for this printer. Try out the Ilford, you will love it. THis is the type I use most often, and it is cheaper then the Epson paper.

http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/prod_html/galerie/htm/prod/spp.htm

 

[0bli0]

i calibrate/profile my two screens about every 3 weeks or so using the pantone Spyder 2 on both my Macs and PCs.

as has been said, generally if printer profiles are available - they are generally pretty easy to find online. otherwise you can have a specific profile for your printer created - and yes this process is expensive and the output changes depending on the paper and inks.

 

[boBQuincy]

I usually buy Office Depot brand premium glossy but I don't know who makes it. I might try some Illford paper.

From what I could find OD Premium paper is made by Konica/Minolta. Their profile works pretty well so I suppose it really is K/M paper. Once you have the image ready for printing it is important to press CTRL-Y (in Photoshop) to "soft proof" the image. This shows what the image will look like on the paper and it is not very close to what is currently on the screen. At a minimum I have to increase brightness and contrast, and reduce some magenta for the OD paper (Canon i9900 printer).

The Ilford profiles are a lot better and all their paper usually requires is a little contrast & brightness increase.

 

[Cheeky in TN]

I am still new and learning, is there a huge difference once it is calibrated? I guess I have not printed enough photos to really note the differenc yet or something, but having to calibrate has never come up.

 

[Charade]

I am still new and learning, is there a huge difference once it is calibrated? I guess I have not printed enough photos to really note the differenc yet or something, but having to calibrate has never come up.

I think it's important to have it pretty close if not dead on. Most problems people have with color inaccuracies IS the monitor. They wonder why their prints are too dark or too light but look ok on their monitor. There are a few websites out their that can put up a calibration image (usually a grayscale test pattern) to adjust for brightness and contrast. Some will provide a color image as well. But that's a little harder because of the individual perception of color.

 

[Charade]

From what I could find OD Premium paper is made by Konica/Minolta. Their profile works pretty well so I suppose it really is K/M paper. Once you have the image ready for printing it is important to press CTRL-Y (in Photoshop) to "soft proof" the image. This shows what the image will look like on the paper and it is not very close to what is currently on the screen. At a minimum I have to increase brightness and contrast, and reduce some magenta for the OD paper (Canon i9900 printer).

The Ilford profiles are a lot better and all their paper usually requires is a little contrast & brightness increase.

Thanks. I looked for the Konica profiles but couldn't find them. I'll pick up a box of Ilford paper and try their profiles.

 

[boBQuincy]

Thanks. I looked for the Konica profiles but couldn't find them. I'll pick up a box of Ilford paper and try their profiles.

Wow, K/M is really going downhill! Their website:

http://ca.konicaminolta.com/products/inkjetpaper/index.html

states that their paper profile download service was discontinued as of May 2006.
I have the profile for Canon's i9900 and will email it to anyone who is interested. The file is about 492KB.