Viewing images on PC help required

Hi all

I have a LCD monitor with my PC but find the images dont print like on the PC. Can anyone suggest a solution to viewing the images close to how they will print

Thanks Pete

I am afraid that only sure way is to get both Monitor and Printer calibrated properly.

Like Boxcam say's the only sure way is to purchase a Heuy (£65-70) or Spider (£130> monitor calibration tool, money well spent is my experience.

I gave up with home printing, to expensive, I'm waiting on my first batch of 8x10's from ProAm Imaging (Matt's recommendation), 40p a print, check them out as their pricing is very very competative.

...and get them calibrated to work together.

I am no expert, but I believe a major problem is that the monitor is back lit whilst prints are, of course, front lit. You will never get a print to look like the monitor, although you can get reasonably close allowing for the lighting constraints.

The problem is that so many factors affect the issue.
Type of printer
Type of Inks
Type of Paper
Background lighting around the monitor
Glossy or matt prints
Age/quality/stability of the monitor

Change any of these and you are back to recalibration.

You can spend a fortune on calibration equipment, or do it on the cheap but unless you are in this professionally then I suspect that you best bet is to tweak both monitor and printer to something acceptable and stick with it.

Remember, if you send your images to be printed elsewhere, they will probably come back looking different again.

And if you use non-manufacturers ink they will fade in a few weeks/months anyway.

There are plenty of sites on the internet giving advice - just google calibration.

Graham

Definitely need calibration. There used to be two options:
1) WiziWYG by Praxisoft - used to be a free software application you could roughly calibrate your monitor using just your eyes. Unfortunately Praxisoft disappeared into the ether... but if you search you can still find the applications hosted elsewhere.

2) A Spyder or similar. The Pantone Huey is the cheapest. I've used both the Spyder Pro and Spyder 2 Pro - excellent devices.

The colours should match, but the brightness (as Graham mentioned) will not. With a Spyder2 calibrated Lacie 120 LCD and prints from ProAm imaging I get absolute bang-on colour every time

Matt