Urgent help needed with printing!

[iamcapitano]

hey guys, i've been trying to print some renders but they all print out completely different to the screen, the colours are all "washed out" kind of thing.

Can someone please quickly do a print test of a render i did and tell me how it comes out compared to what you see on the screen? so i know if it's the render or my printer calibration.

Thanks

Render: http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/584...roomfinal3.png

[gallystops]

Re: Urgent help needed with printing!

story of my life!

Imagine what you see looks good on your screen but your clients screen makes it look like something completely different! and then THEY print it out and it is even worse!

Its a tough things to do successfully 100% of the time. You just have to make some adjustments in Photoshop or something. Or make sure your monitor is calibrated correctly as well as the printer.

-Gallystops-

[iamcapitano]

Re: Urgent help needed with printing!

what kind of adjustments do you mean? i'm sure my screens are properly calibrated, not sure about the printer. Thing is, when i print a photo from google images, the printed colours seem to match the screen, maybe slightly off, but in renders it's really bad.

I also printed a text file made in InDesign which just contains text in different greys, i export it to a pdf and print it and all the text comes out black....


can you do a quick print and tell me what it looks like please?

[thomthom]

Re: Urgent help needed with printing!

Getting screen-printer calibration working properly is a real pain. If it's really important work, send it to a printshop where they have proper calibrated equipment.

[iamcapitano]

Re: Urgent help needed with printing!

I see, but if i gave a printing shop the render attached for example, would they be able to print it as seen on screen?

As in, is it a problem the render has that needs fixing in photoshop before taking it to a shop?

The reason i ask this is because printing other images from the internet seem to print okay..ish.

[LookOut]

Re: Urgent help needed with printing!

This problem is as old as artwork reproduction itself, even before computers! The real thing looks different everywhere you look at it.

Images viewed on the web have a pallette range that makes them look good over the broadest range of viewing possibilities. When printed, the printers are outputting a less complicated range of hues and values than some artwork uses. It's possible that some image files may fall outside that range of websafe colors, that may explain the inconsistancies in your printing vs viewing experiences.

I've worked for large clients who get a different look from the screen and printed page on each of the different machines within their offices. Even if two computers were the same and had the same graphics card and the same type of monitors, if one monitor was older or had been more heavily used, the image might look different when printed or viewed. Therefore adjusting for any monitor can be a waste of time because you have no control over the outside variables.

With repeat clients, this can sort itself out but I always train my new clients so that these issues don't overwhelm the relationship even though they can cause consternation. Panic even, if you're on a delivery deadline and need to solve this immediately.

Thomthom is right, you can get your stytem calabrated and be sure your's is right first and keep it that way, then work with a reliable shop or help guide your client to the necesary calibrations for their system. If its a really big problem, you might just have to deal with hard copies back and forth.