Thursday, June 26, 2008

i can't get no .... calibration!


image courtasy of David Ziser Master Class

I am all about calibration.  I have a calibrated monitor using the Spyder 2 Pro system and I rely on the fact that if I design / edit something on my computer and upload it online I see the same color on my prints and on my website.  Color is HUGELY important to me.  For 99.9% of all my client work I use a local lab in town who does a great job.  However, for smaller 4x6 prints and the occasional 8x10 I like to use my small Epson RX580.  It uses the Claria 6 ink system which has some amazing quality.  However, my problem is that I always seem to be hit-or-miss with image quality.  For one photo the prints come out GREAT.  On the next photo it looks dark or washed out.  Same printer, same computer, same profile.  Doesn't make sense to me.  I am very green when it comes to professional printing - an area I am wanting to brush up on.  David Ziser's solution is the print the photo above from your computer and then hold it next to the computer monitor until it matches what you see.  I know that will work.  However, since my monitor is correctly calibrated for everything else - I am reluctant to change the calibration to address one issue.  I really feel that what I need are some custom profiles for the printer.  I am sending this one out to you - the readers.  If anyone knows where I can find some custom profiles for the RX580 or has any best practices around printer calibration shoot me an email or drop something in the comments.  Thanks so much!

1 comment:

Mike Nalley said...

You may have already done this, but I just use the profiles available from the paper manufacturer. I use an Epson R2400 and this works fine. I print mostly with Epson paper, but I have recently purchased some Ilford Gold Fibre Silk and used their profile and it worked really well also. Don't know if this helps or not. Great blog, hope mine gets this good one day.

Mike Nalley