Correct colour output when printing (calibrating for print)

[Blitterswitch]

Hi guys,

I am quite happy with my renders at the moment (although there is ALWAYS room for improvement! ) But I feel like I am just not doing justice to them when it comes down to printing the images out.

The two printers which I have access to in work are an A1 HP DesignJet 500 and A3 HP Colour laser 9500n.

When I print to the laser the quality is almost acceptable but has a slight green hue or cast to the image. When I print through the HP DesignJet 500 I get a severe green/brown tint/hue to the image.

My monitor is calibrated to 2.2 gamma and 6500k using a Spyder2.

My colour settings in Photoshop is set to Apple RGB (if I set it to any thing else the preview window alters to a green/brown cast which clearly is not acceptable) But when it is set to Apple RGB the image looks like it should do.

My print preview settings for colour management in photoshop are set to "printer colour managed"

Whether it is of interest, the source space says "Document: Untagged RGB"

I am working to LWF in 3ds with Vray and the image is a TIFF saved with an output of 2.2 gamma.

Has anyone has a similar problem when printing their images or does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can remedy this situation I am in.

Thanks!

[tct70]

It is my understanding that you would need to get the colour profile file for the particular printer you wish to use (.iee or similar I think)and calibrate your monitor/photoshop for that printer.

One of those things that has always been a proper pain in the arse and probably always will as every monitor is different. I have two identical 19" monitors purchsed at the same time that look different. That along with the whole software to hardware issue causes problems.

I think there are instructions in the Photoshop help section, but certaily loads on the old inter-web.

[Blitterswitch]

Sorry to bump this guys but I am still completely lost and I really need some advice.

Just been onto HP technical support for and hour and a half and we have managed to either get our HP DesignJet 500 to print a muddy green casted image or a virtually grey scale desaturated image.

He basically ran out of ideas and said it was now outside of his remit.

If I print the same images to our colour laser jet they come out fine.

Are there ANY colour managment resources which you could point me to, or ANY tips or tricks I could try to fix this, I swear it is driving me that bit closer to insanity.

Thanks,

Marcus.

[sea2stars]

Work from a CMYK color space instead when you print?

You say that when you set your profile to anything but AdobeRGB you get a green/brown cast to your screen image? And when you print you get a green/brown cast image?

Have you tried converting your image to CMYK and then printing, instead of letting the printer adjust the color gamut?

Oh yeah.. take a look here:
ICC/media profiles & Pantone tables for HP Designjets