How do I match printed photos to screen using Photoshop?

The Subject line actually means this:

How do I set up Photoshop so that I can preview images
on my screen so that the screen view actually looks like
what the cheapie printer company I use (read: the
local Walgreens) actually prints?

I would like this so that I could reliably adjust
photos so that they look right as printed, using my
screen.

Photoshop has this "View Proof Colors" thing. I would think that
there would be some way to set this up so that it automatically
does what I want. However, there seems no mechanism to do
so, except selecting one of their canned profiles ... none of
which are anywhere close to right.

This is never explained and what docs they have are terminally
confusing. Our usual friend Google have not resulted in any
discussuion I can understand.

One cannot just adjust the monitor so things look right,
because there are things in the needed adjustments which are
not in the RGB domain that is all that a monitor supports.
In specifics, the printer increases the saturation of yellows,
moves greens towards yellow, and desaturates reds.

Can somebody tell me what I need to do, exactly?

I would ASSUME ... probably wrongly, that what one should do is
find some tool such that you get a bunch of files typical to
your work, and print them. You then compare the files on the screen
to the prints and play with the Photoshop adjustments so that
the screen looks like the print. You enter the adjustments, numerically,
into a program that looks at the photo and the numbers and
decides what the profile should be. It gives you a file that you tell
Photoshop about. Perhaps the program would
look at several different photos. Or there would be standard
files that you print that the program knows about.

The images I work on are either downloaded from a Canon 30D
as raw and converted to tif or jpeg using the plug-in convertor in
Photoshop, or are scanned on a Nikon Coolscan IV scanner from
negatives. Or are taken from some random file I get somewhere,
so all I have in this is just what I see on the screen.

In other words, I just want what I see on the screen to match
what I see on the prints.

Finally .... ideally, of course, what I would like to do is
set up picture so that they look right on the screen and have
an AUTOMATIC conversion do so that I save two files, one for the screen,
which makes photos appear in Photoshop just as they would
if I used them in a web page, and one for the printer.

I'm terminally confused. Is there are a book "Color Conversion
Issues for Dummy PhD's"?

Doug McDonald

Doug McDonald wrote:
The Subject line actually means this:

How do I set up Photoshop so that I can preview images
on my screen so that the screen view actually looks like
what the cheapie printer company I use (read: the
local Walgreens) actually prints?


First I would suggest taking several images (different ones like sun
light summer day, flash and a sunset) have them each printed. Next a week
or two later have the same images printed. I suspect you will find a
difference between the two prints. If the printer is not consistent, you
will be shooting a moving target blindfolded.


--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

Using Photoshop to make prints at Walgreens?
LOL.

Joseph Meehan wrote:
Doug McDonald wrote:
The Subject line actually means this:

How do I set up Photoshop so that I can preview images
on my screen so that the screen view actually looks like
what the cheapie printer company I use (read: the
local Walgreens) actually prints?


First I would suggest taking several images (different ones like sun
light summer day, flash and a sunset) have them each printed. Next a week
or two later have the same images printed. I suspect you will find a
difference between the two prints. If the printer is not consistent, you
will be shooting a moving target blindfolded.



As it turns out, the printer is quite consistent, at least over a period
of weeks. In any case ... if they WERE inconsistent, then the procedure
I describe would be even MORE valuable: I could simply print up
a test print .... which costs $0.19 .... and do my calibration
as needed. Thus I would be shooting a moving target with the
exact correct tools to make it work.

Doug McDonald

Doug McDonald wrote:

....

I'm terminally confused. Is there are a book "Color Conversion
Issues for Dummy PhD's"?

Doug McDonald

Just get Martin Evening's book on Photoshop for Photographers.

Essentially you just calibrate your screen with a hardware device such
as Gretagmacbeth's eye-one. From then on what you see on the screen
should match your prints if the printer (either your own or a print
shop) is callibrated with an ICC profile.

Every image you manipulate in Photoshop can be saved with an embeded
profile which tells any other device (screen or printer) how the colours
should appear. You shouldn't 'soft-proof' with a printer profile on your
own screen as this can only confuse things, especially you!!!

The hard part is callibrating your own printer. Printers can come
supplied with a generic ICC profile which you can use to get going, but
if you are serious you need to get an ICC profile for your own
partiicular printer and paper combination.

You could buy your own spectrometer thinghy - but these are very
expensive and a bit over the top for home use with only one printer -
it's cheaper to pay someone to do this for you by sending them a test
print, lots of companies offer this service.

Keith wrote:
Doug McDonald wrote:

...

I'm terminally confused. Is there are a book "Color Conversion
Issues for Dummy PhD's"?

Doug McDonald

Just get Martin Evening's book on Photoshop for Photographers.

Essentially you just calibrate your screen with a hardware device such
as Gretagmacbeth's eye-one.

The only possible adjustments on screens are setting the relative
black levels and gains of the three colors RGB. I have done this
so that white on the prints is matched by the screen, black is
matched by black, and gray is matched by gray. This is easy.

The hard part is getting colors correct.



From then on what you see on the screen
should match your prints if the printer (either your own or a print
shop) is callibrated with an ICC profile.

I'm asking how to MAKE it match.



Every image you manipulate in Photoshop can be saved with an embeded
profile which tells any other device (screen or printer) how the colours
should appear.

How is this communicated?


Doug McDonald

Doug McDonald wrote:

Keith wrote:
Doug McDonald wrote:

...

I'm terminally confused. Is there are a book "Color Conversion
Issues for Dummy PhD's"?

Doug McDonald

Just get Martin Evening's book on Photoshop for Photographers.

Essentially you just calibrate your screen with a hardware device such
as Gretagmacbeth's eye-one.

The only possible adjustments on screens are setting the relative
black levels and gains of the three colors RGB. I have done this
so that white on the prints is matched by the screen, black is
matched by black, and gray is matched by gray. This is easy.

The hard part is getting colors correct.

The hardware device does this for you - it reads the screen and adjusts
you monitor card internaly - it is the industy standard way of doing
things. You do not adjust anything yourself.

From then on what you see on the screen
should match your prints if the printer (either your own or a print
shop) is callibrated with an ICC profile.

I'm asking how to MAKE it match.

Once your screen is calibrated you adjust the levels, contrast,
highlight / shadows, etc to whatever you want so you are happy with the
image as it is on the screen, printing to another callibrated device is
then taken care of for you - you don't have to do anything else apart
from make sure your printer uses ICC profiles.

Every image you manipulate in Photoshop can be saved with an embeded
profile which tells any other device (screen or printer) how the colours
should appear.

How is this communicated?

The profile for the individual image is stored in the image file
automatically by Photoshop and readable by other systems.

Again - read the book, or Google the subject, it's really quite simple
once you have hardware callibrated your screen. If you try and
callibrate your screen by eye - then you are guessing and will probably
never get your prints quite right.

About all you can do is to make sure your monitor is correctly
calibrated so that you are seeing the colors as they actually are.
After that, it's up to the monkey running the printer to make sure the
colors print correctly.

Why not take them a file of a test pattern such as a Macbeth
Colorchecker and have them print that? The problem is that you need
to profile the printer they are using. There used to be an outfit
online that would create printer profiles for printers like that,
using test prints that people sent in.
I'd suggest finding out the exact make and model of printer the local
Walgreens is using and search for some canned profiles for it. Then
you could use the soft-proofing feature of Photoshop to accomplish
what you seek.

"Doug McDonald" wrote in message
...
The Subject line actually means this:


Hi.

What you are asking about is called Colour Management, (or for those poor
souls West of the Atlantic who cannot spell - Color Management).

As you have already heard the very first thing you need to do is get your
screen showing the correct colours, by having it Calibrated or by doing it
yourself.

Once that is done, then you need an ICC Profile for the Walgreens machine.
Try asking them for one? If they can't supply it, then contact a Profiling
service like Cathies (Google), get their Printer Test Patch File, and send
it for printing at 10 x 8 to Wallgreens. Post the resulting Photo off to the
profiler, and they will send you an ICC Profile.

Set up Ps's Soft Proof to use that Profile.

You will then be able to see in advance how Walgreens would print them, and
make any adjustments you need to get the photos correct. What comes back
from Wallgereens should be almost identical to what you saw on Screen

You will then know what alterations you need to make to ensure correct.

Of course if you were to start using a Quality Lab, they would be able to
supply a Profile, or apply their own Profile before printing, so that you
would get what you saw on your corrected Monitor.

Roy G

On Sat, 27 Jan 2007 16:36:39 +0000, (Keith) wrote:

Doug McDonald wrote:

...

I'm terminally confused. Is there are a book "Color Conversion
Issues for Dummy PhD's"?

Doug McDonald

Just get Martin Evening's book on Photoshop for Photographers.

Essentially you just calibrate your screen with a hardware device such
as Gretagmacbeth's eye-one. From then on what you see on the screen
should match your prints if the printer (either your own or a print
shop) is callibrated with an ICC profile.

Every image you manipulate in Photoshop can be saved with an embeded
profile which tells any other device (screen or printer) how the colours
should appear. You shouldn't 'soft-proof' with a printer profile on your
own screen as this can only confuse things, especially you!!!

The hard part is callibrating your own printer. Printers can come
supplied with a generic ICC profile which you can use to get going, but
if you are serious you need to get an ICC profile for your own
partiicular printer and paper combination.

You could buy your own spectrometer thinghy - but these are very
expensive and a bit over the top for home use with only one printer -
it's cheaper to pay someone to do this for you by sending them a test
print, lots of companies offer this service.

This one is good http://www.cathysprofiles.com/