printing from ps with the right colours?

[Noa K]

hiya guys!

listen i need some advice, and the problem goes like this:

i need to print good quality images done with phtoshop at our school's printers. the thing is that the print always comes out more contrasted, a bit more saturated and always more yellow. it happens to everyone who tries to use those printers, and it's driving us all crazy!

the printer is using cmyk ink. we tried to convert the files from rgb to cmyk but that didn't do anything either. after that we were told the printer is already callibrated to photoshop so there is no need to convert from rgb to cmyk at all (is that possible?)
i also tried to fix the colour management and to callibrate the ps colour to the monitor. that didn't help either.

thing is i can understand contrast, i can understand saturation but why OH WHY the yellow?? it's killing me...so... frustrated.... :(

anyway,
have any of u guys come across a similliar problem and can giv any suggestions about fixing it?

[Elwell]

First of all, calibrate you monitor. Even eyeballed calibration is better than nothing. Next, follow the directions here (http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps10_print/ps10_print_1.htm), making sure you use the proper profile for your printer/media combination.

[Noa K]

tnx Elwell!
i'll try this on monday when i get to school
god bless!
ty

[Metsys]

Yeah, Adobe Gamma actually does a pretty good job at calibrating your monitor; just make sure that when you do the calibration to adjust the gamma for each channel individually. The result isn't perfect like using a Spyder, but it's pretty darn close and removes the blue tint I see on most uncalibrated monitors, which may be why everything is printing yellow by comparison.

However, I have used some printers that really are too strong on one or more colors, and no monitor calibration can fix that. What you have to do is convert your image to CMYK, and then use the channel mixer to push and pull each color until you get it right. The quickest way to do this is to create an image with thumbnails of what you want to print, so that you can test multiple adjustments at once. When you find the magic combination of levels and channel mixing settings, write that down and tape it to the printer so you can get the colors right every time.

[Noa K]

Yeah, Adobe Gamma actually does a pretty good job at calibrating your monitor; just make sure that when you do the calibration to adjust the gamma for each channel individually. The result isn't perfect like using a Spyder, but it's pretty darn close and removes the blue tint I see on most uncalibrated monitors, which may be why everything is printing yellow by comparison.

However, I have used some printers that really are too strong on one or more colors, and no monitor calibration can fix that. What you have to do is convert your image to CMYK, and then use the channel mixer to push and pull each color until you get it right. The quickest way to do this is to create an image with thumbnails of what you want to print, so that you can test multiple adjustments at once. When you find the magic combination of levels and channel mixing settings, write that down and tape it to the printer so you can get the colors right every time.


tnx metsys!
what is Spyder? i don't know that one...
on what u said of the CMYK and the channel mixer - we already tried that and although the result was a bit better, it still distorted too much of the colours..
actually, we contacted the printer technitian with this problem, and he said to us we souldn't convert to CMYK because the printer is set to the RGB's (actually i checked the link Elwell posted earlier, and it says something about that - but i'll look more into it when i'm actually near the printer) and also he said that printing is a speciallty for it's own and if we want to print the best way we have to take courses for that (nevermind that they are unavailble for our department due to schedual situations). i guess he is right, but still we want to try and get best results and since the printer is so off with the colours it's very annoying..

thankes for the advice anways and i'll try it as soon as i get to school!

[Elwell]

If its an inkjet printer, especially one that uses more than four colors (most photo printers use six), then it's designed to use RGB files, and does the conversions/separations itself.

[Metsys]

what is Spyder?

Spyder is a colorimeter that you put on your monitor that accurately detects what colors your monitor is displaying, and then creates an ICC profile for it. It's a hardware based solution to calibrating displays so that the colors, white point, and gamma are accurate. They cost anywhere between $80 and $300.