Hi everybody,
I can see that this forum is quite advanced and my question is really a newbie question. Please be patients with me, or recommend me a forum, where I could get my question answered.
Recently I purchased a used i1Photo Pro spectrophotometer. My idea was that I will use it for my scanner, monitor and printer calibration and I get best results possible out of those three. I have spent over two weeks experimenting and I still cannot get the results. I use monitor DELL U2410, printer/scanner Canon MP510. I calibrated all of them. I also tested the I1 Gretagmacbeth device and the diagnostic program reports no issues. It seems to be difficult for me to see whether I calibrated scanner and monitor well, because I would be comparing paper print with screen picture. Because of that I thought that I will scan a photo and print it out using custom profiles and compare with the original as a test. I understand, there are limitations, but I expected to get quite close results. This is not happening. Scanned picture on the screen looks to me like a well color profiled (colors match as much I can say), but when I print it out using my custom built profile, it is horrible. It has very limited contrast (some details literary disappear in a dark areas) and blue background is not a same blue color as the original photo and skin tone is reddish or yellowish. I tried many different combinations with different results, but all of them were unsatisfactory. My profiles were created in I1 match3 and Profilemaker 5. I would like to understand whether this is something I do wrong, whether it is limitation of my cheap printer/scanner or it is an unrealistic expectation. Right now I feel frustrated, because the equipment I bought is not doing its magic.
Any help, comment or idea is welcome. I started to read a book about a color theory, which indicates that it is not as easy as it sounds, but it still doesnt give me an answer where the problem lies. I hope that somebody here can help.
You have quite a few variables between your scanner, monitor and printer, and jumping into color management with all three at the same time can make it more likely that you will make a mistake somewhere. I would recommend breaking it into smaller parts and working backwards - that is: start by getting your printer output to match your monitor. Once you’re satisfied that that’s happening with some degree of confidence, then you can add the scanner element to the mix.
The equipment you are using should give you good results. When you say your print has low contrast, I don’t know without seeing your print if this is the normal flat contrast we expect from printed work or not. Your Dell monitor has a very wide gamut and might be showing you more saturated colors than your printer can output.
The most common problem we find when users are working on this for the first time, is that their display is set brighter than it should be… considering the brightness of the lights illuminating your prints. There are a couple of articles from our newsletter that you should read on how to get a monitor and printer to match: colorwiki.com/wiki/Printer_t … _my_Screen colorwiki.com/wiki/My_Printer_Is_Too_Dark
Be sure to look at the “white paper test” and if necessary profile your monitor again at a brightness level that matches your viewing environment. You should be able to get most of your printed output to reasonably match what you see on the display. Once you’ve got that working, let’s talk more about the scanner profile you’re building.
And I don’t think of this forum as only for advanced users. We tend to be fairly specialized in some areas, but we’ll always welcome new questions and comments! Keep them coming!
Thank you for your help. It took me a while to get it right. First I replaced my Canon MP510 printer with Canon IPF5000, then I had issues with papers, so it took me some time to figure out what paper is compatible with the printer and inks and finally then I ordered third party inks from Hongsam which obviously added some variables to the process. After overcoming all the little issues on the way, finally I got it right by following your recommendations. Again thank you for your help.
