OMG! My Prints are Darker Than My Monitor YET AGAIN!

This is the never ending and most common condition encountered by all who begin to Photo Print At Home.
No Body does what they need to do upon the initial setup of the printer.
Print a Standard Reference WITHOUT Editing simply using the printer driver at its default settings for the paper you choose to print it on.
Unless there is something wrong with the printer. You should be able produce a near perfect print. Not too light. Not too Dark and correct color.
The you begin to print your own images and BINGO. Dark prints!
WHY?
Because you Monitor is TOO BRIGHT!!!!!!!!!
You are editing down your images and basically sending a dark image to the printer. So the printer produces a dark print that does not match your monitor's display of that image.
The Solution. Spend some money and buy a good monitor calibrator and best ones come from X-Rite.
After the color is nailed down, then comes the monitor luminance.
You will be shocked just how low it has to be to be "Correct" for your editing rooms ambient lighting!
Your mind will argue silently with you and you not accept it, nut trust me it has to be brought down
The best way is through the calibration software itself and NOT, no NEVER with the monitor's buttons.
I give more information and advice in the video.
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[@MilanRegec]

Most people might not realize, but this is one of the most important videos on this channel and must see for everyone trying print photos or art.

[@cheo1949]

Thanks!

[@MTBTrades]

home printing is way more complicated than i thought lol. this is such useful info!

[@StevieBrown-qs6xq]

loved this video. I'm just a student trying to print off her weekly class schedule. I worked really hard on it to make it super pretty but then when it printed...…I was looking up why my printer printed a cyan blue as a cobalt blue and went down a rabbit hole of information. this is really neat stuff. I love hearing you explain it. I learned a lot and you made me feel reassured instead of stupid.

[@DogWasher-lk9nn]

My 5 year old Pro 100 had been printing dark from day 1 by about a half stop and prints had a slight magenta cast. I'm sure room brightness is an issue but doesn't totally fix the problem. I tried your evaluation test print and confirms the printing is dark with a magenta cast. I recently acquired a second Pro 100 which was fairly new (setup carts still installed) and it printed at normal brightness. The evaluation test print looks really good. Same inks and paper and ICC profiles were used with both the older and newer printers. On the older printer in the print dialog I tried setting Brightness to "light" (there are only three choices -- light, normal, dark) and that fixed all the problems with the older printer. Even the magenta cast disappeared. I'm guessing maybe Canon had a quality control issue with that printer.

[@mazennabulsi7246]

JOSE ..Your'e good .. way too good in this field .. your videos are the best videos I ever saw here on KZbin ... Thank you for sharing your great experience ...

[@cheo1949]

Thank you Mazen!!

[@rkdazet]

Thank you Jose, for another great tutorial! Does anyone here remember David Brooks? "Prints too Dark" was a topic he wrote about often. When calibrating the monitor, as I recall, he recommended a brightness level of 80 cd/m2. I think the general recommendation is 80 to 120 cd/M2. Back in the day, not all monitors could be adjusted so low. Of course these days, good monitors for photo editing are more common. I'm using a couple Asus ProArt monitors and still using an old Epson R1900. Listen to Jose's advise, calibrate, have proper lighting, use the right ink, and don't be a fool like me and let your printer sit for long periods without printing! 😉

[@ryancee7]

I just got some prints from an online service and while they look ok for the price, they're definitely way darker than I'd hoped. I'm definitely going to try the advice here

[@cheo1949]

Remember that an over bright monitor will end up producing darker than you expect prints. Why? Because the images are actually edited to be darker.

[@OC3707]

I have had my LCD brightness turned down to 2 in a darkened room and it's still FAR brighter than my prints from Miller's. It's mainly in the shadow areas.

[@bywayz]

My monitor is set to 1. The room is illuminated by two 15w shaded bulbs that are well away from the monitor. I add a small amount of exposure to every image before printing, in the hope of compensating for print darkening. Still, prints come back from a well-regarded printing service darker than intended, enough to routinely warrant adding even more exposure and sending the image off the printer yet again. I often first have test prints made at Walgreens, which seems to do better.

[@bloffi]

No, no, no not again! 😂 You are so patient - i get a nervous breakdown everytime I hear this question 😉

[@cheo1949]

I just count to ten and......BREATHE!

[@williamoneill5498]

Well, I have an epson R3000 that works perfectly and was printing perfectly on am iMac 27 (last version) until Mac OSX 10.13. Problem? All prints now come out waaaaay too dark. Darkening the screen down or selecting different printer settings, make no difference, because as you explained the monitor profile needs to be reset. To me, this seems suspicious that you cant simply adjust the baked in profile, to lighten/darken, as there are no setting to do so (that I can find) so guess what? I have only one option. Buy an expensive calibration/software tool that does its thing and creates a new software profile for your computer. I like the vast majority of people are casual printers of photos and thus, should not be "corralled" into buying semi pro/pro equipment because there is no way to lighten a print profile gong to a printer. If I can find a way to alter settings or lighten the profile I will. otherwise the constant wasting of expensive photo paper will force me to either switch back the OS to the previous version or buy a calibration product that I don't want, because I have been getting wonderful pints out of 6 different epsom printers, over the last 24 years and I never came remotely close to feeling that I need a screen calibration tool, hmmmm.

[@tee-botheewok716]

Then answer me this. Even the images I bought at dreamstime and adobestock are printed way too dark on my Canon 5151. Are you saying all those professional photographers are all doing it wrong? I'd like to send you examples. I have three pictures with a grass green background (from Dreamstime) that are printing way too dark.

[@robertkimble7961]

This video is excellent! Thank you!

[@harryberry474]

I'm watching this to learn why the digital art I bought online are much to dark, much darker than what was shown on the site where I purchased them so dark in fact there is no detail in some of the shadow areas, areas of the sky instead of light blue are grey like diesel exhaust/smoke I use my computer in a relatively dimly lit room the monitor brightness is set at #3 out of #16 all the time. When I viewed the images online they looked wonderful. when I received the prints I could not believe how dark the prints were, totally unusable. even in bright light. I'm learning now that what you see (on your computer) is not what you get when it comes to digital art. The company I purchased from claims to have the "worlds largest" collection of digital art for sale. What I've learned is...digital art isn't for me.

[@cdmikelis]

Thank u.

[@dantecirelli310]

There is something I would like to share with you, and would appreciate any direction or comments you may have. I have been struggling with trying to get my EIZO monitor Color Edge CG2730 to produce an accurate print for the printer. I purchased it October of 2021. I also purchased a Canon printer Pro 300. I use photoshop and or Lightroom Classic. Most of my photography work is headshots, and baby photography. The problem I am having is when I edit, then print, the color red is very light, which effects pink, and facial tones. I follow color management closely. The room I work in has a light fixture with color corrected tubes, I print on photo paper that I have downloaded the ICC profiles from the manufacture. I work with adobe RGB color space. I have done many monitor calibrations with the EIZO tech support, and still no change. I have talked to the canon tech support for help in setting things up correctly, and have done nozzle cleaning to unclog any clogs. An example of the color red problem is, I have an image of people standing around a red sports car. They have various colored shirts, yellow, blue, green, and brown. When I print the image, all the colored shirts are accurate, the only issue is the red car, its pale, and slightly different red color. I have been told the problem is with the printer and not the monitor. I really don't know. I have been considering a new BenQ monitor. I don't want to carry whatever the problem is to a new monitor. I highly respect your knowledge of photography. Looking forward to your comments. Dan

[@TA-yg4vo]

I was hoping this video would help with my Epson R3000 prints being way too dark. I have scoured the web and there is an army of R3000 owners complaining of this same problem with this printer. The monitor I am using is a BenQ PG2401PT unit that has been factory calibrated. I believe it has auto brightness (?) Using the Epson print utility the prints will come out just “OK” if the brightness is set way to the high end, the contrast lightened extensively and the ink density adjusted way down. Other owners have reported this same situation and Epson was of no help. My PC is a few years old with all high end custom picked components. My daily printer is an Epson C88 and it produces color prints using the same Epson photo paper and the output from it is quite good with high speed off and resolution maxed out. The dark prints on the R3000 are not dependant on the paper used i.e. glossy, matte, Epson, Red River high end stock etc. The printer pattern doesn’t look faulty. There is something missing in the setup of the R3000 or it arrived defective. Are you saying that dimming my monitor will decrease the ink density output of the R3000? That doesn’t make sense to me but I certainly don’t know it all. I’ll try this and if it works, it will astound me. I’m pretty sure I have printed with the dark and the prints were very dark. I don’t have the shrouds on the monitor but did at first. Thank you for your video just the same. I wish I could upload an example, just imagine the prints all look like my photos were taken indoors or out at midnight with no flash.

[@cheo1949]

Auto brightness simply means that it will be set bright enough for visually looking at websites and other things and never ever for image editing you need to set your CDM2 and disable the auto brightness. Prints are always too dark when the images are edited to a condition that makes them too dark. That is 100% of the time and one of the hardest things to accept when you begin to print photos at home

[@jeffanderson963]

I'm happy to see you using a Canon printer. I just bought a G4770. I'm trying Qimage. Do you have any opinion on that program? I am having problem with my printouts being too dark. I had that problem with my previous Epson and Brother printers. i will follow your advice. Can you make available any of your photos, like the one you show in this video with the tractors and blue sky? Great video! Steve

[@otter5555]

i print images for a living. i never ever print via any photoshop version. why? too dark. doesn't matter what printer or driver i use. they print dark. i can print via windows or microsoft word and the prints are perfect on every printer and every computer every time. monitor brightness has zero effect on the output when importing an image from some other source. tried all the fixes and they did nothing.

This was a tip I learned in 1995 working in Animation editing.. and working with film just as digital was still young, merging the two worlds.. found consistency was enabled with dark work setting. Bonus is now I can work with a monitor without having the brightness cranked. I find most screens I look at. people have at high brightness including their smartphones.

[@cheo1949]

Visually it will appear more accurate. Specially in the darker regions. A black tone will look black rather than the grayish dark color of the bare monitor screen. I used to hang out at the conversion video lab for TBS here in Washington DC. They would convert all the BBC PAL format programs to NTSC. And that is where I first saw the conditions they edited in. It finally sank in after I stopped being stubborn about it. Of course they were correct!

[@cheo1949]

Must be why they started to saturate some papers with OBAs. I have no idea what all the restrictions that take place as light is passing through the various deposits of ink droplets, housing off the base coating of the paper and have to pass through yet again through those no layers and finally hit our eyes which also suffer from color deficiencies!! That is way too much for me to ponder I think.

[@douglasbradshaw9553]

What I got from this is.... that if you adjust the light in the room where your computer monitor is correctly and then calibrate the monitor and then using that calibrated profile to print an image. The image should look exactly like the image on the monitor and you should not have to adjust the brightness using the monitor's adjustment buttons. The calibration tool should only be adjusting the brightness on your monitor.

[@cheo1949]

Wrong! CALIBRATION is all about color reproduction. Luminosity is set manually through the calibration software. Monitor Profiles are NOT used for printing. Only Paper Profiles ( ICC or ICM ). When you calibrate the monitor it will ask you what "White Point" You wish to use. Most will choose D65. ( This has to do with the color temp of the lights under which the prints will be viewed under ) When you print say a standard image to initially validate the printer for correct output, you do not edit it. It is already perfect! No need to adjust anything. If it looks too bright on your display it is because "IT" is set too bright! If it appears too dark then the display is set too dark. 99% of the time it is too bright. You now print your image and you examine under 500 lux power light with the color temp of D65! You illuminate the print but isolate the display from that light source. Serious image editors will use a monitor HOOD to isolate the monitor from extraneous light. Now comes the important part. If the Monitor and Print Color Match, then that's is the first hurdle in this equation. If it matches in color but the Print appears darker than the monitor? Even though the print is actually perfect under your viewing lights? Then you need to recalibrate the monitor and choose a lower CD2M luminosity setting. I use 80 through my Colormunki Software using the Advanced Method. That brings my print results to match the monitor in brightness. Color is nailed as well. Once you achieve that you are DONE!

[@douglasbradshaw9553]

I understand now. Thank you.

[@StephenKlym]

How can you tell if the picture is not matching the monitor without having them side by side

[@borderlands6606]

My Epson prints too dark, but if I get a photobook made online, the images come out exactly as they look on screen. I think there's more going on than screen brightness.

[@davidwalker3626]

I already have calibrated my monitor with an X-Rite Color Munki (many times), but my prints are still way too dark from my Canon printer.

[@cheo1949]

Use advanced mode in the cm software and set your monitor brightness to 80. It is too bright so you are editing your images down. This is the most common problem. Also remember that prints will always look duller than on a backlit monitor. Have done the evaluation image yet? Open and print it. No editing. Use a brand paper matching the printer brand. Set the driver to ICM color mode if EPSON and Color Matching to NONE if Canon. Watch my more resent video where I go over this yet again.

[@13mowe]

If I scan and print. I get an almost perfect copy , but if I scan and save it and then print it is different . Any help . I have tried on 2 different printers hp and exactly the same results 🤔

[@JoseLuisGarcia-wl6vo]

Hello Jose I want to comment about color theory, first of all, we need to understand additive and sustractive color theory, in real world additive colors are just an illusion of color by wave length of withe light specter, where the sum of colors gives you white light. On printing media, colors are sustractive because they are pigments and tend to go block light, I mean when you mix magenta, yellow and cyan you theoretically gets black, brownish grey actually. There are no way you compare an additive color to one sutractive, model colors are different. You can always use a mac monitor to do better the task, Desktops works better for graphic proffessionals than laptos, and try to get well calibrated and even tricky, I mean, print a color guide from your printer and place aside your monitor, now, try to manipulate all the controls, bright, color, contrast, tint, etc of color control panel to match the print paper. I used this technique for as long as 25 years and work fine for me. But remember actual technology does not guarantee a perfect match between color models, not yet.

[@cheo1949]

Absolutely! Any time you are working with LIGHT that is Additive. You mix rod and green light and end up with yellow. All you need is RG and B Primary color to create all the "Other " colors. In subtractive color such as Paints, Dyes, Pigments you theoretically use the complementary or secondary colors to mix and hopefully generate all the colors. I only have a medium level grasp on this part of color theory however I do understand exactly how it works as I did and studied fine art oil painting for decades. Thanks for the info. Maybe I will do a video on this subject.

[@cheo1949]

Your technique might work perfectly if you have very good visual acuity! Most folks need an unbiased instrument to insure the calibration is correct and not influenced by human eyes. I too did it like you describe.

[@SweetMilkArt]

when i make bright colorful prints i dont run into the issue but once i do a deeper more contrasted image the image is instantly too dark. Its not my moniter because the image looks the same on three separate devices (ipad (retina), laptop, & iphone (retina)) but once the print comes out its way too dark

[@cheo1949]

Don't make the mistake in thinking that is not your monitor. If it looks correct in all three devices then they are simply all too bright. Your print will be too dark basically because you edit it down. If the printer is operating correctly and you have certified it the way that I described in my last two videos you get what you sent to it. Printers do not react specifically to images they produce what you sent to them. Of course I was assuming your printer is working correctly. Please watch my last two videos.

[@chazM6116]

After watching your post of the 14 re calibration, I have to say one thing you said was the wrong way around, you say do your colour first then adjust your brightness. You need to set your Contrast and Brightness FIRST then your colours; this is the steps your ColorMunki will work if you use the advanced settings. First it will check your ambient room light mine is 200 lux to set your screen (mine screen requires 85 lux) First step is to check your contrast, then the brightness and set it to when your room needs. After setting this it will then do the colour setting. It makes sense if you set the colours first then alters your brightness you will alter the ramp so making your colours wrong.

[@cheo1949]

Yes that is the process when initially calibrating a monitor. In the color munki it will do contrast, color and brightness. You manually choose the brightness level. What I meant to say is that AFTER you calibrate, and you still get darker prints than your monitor, you go back and adjust the brightness levels again as needed until you get a close enough match. But if you nail it perfectly the first time then you are in!

[@cheo1949]

I use a monitor hood by the way. The room's light has no effect on it.

[@chazM6116]

No hood as I use two curved 27ins monitors and its hard to make one to fit BUT hood only keep reflections off and will not affect the ambient light and the effect that has on your eyes, you eyes are like auto exposure so taking the room lux is by far the best way, my print match my screen.

[@cheo1949]

My room is lit with single 60w lamp and the windows are blocked. The hoods literally produces a tunnel to the screen. Just my way of working. Not form everyone but I can not argue with success. It works for me.

[@cpiep]

It's not always your monitor. I used 2 printers..the same model (canon ts-9020) over the last 2 years. Prints were exactly like on the monitor. Just got a new printer different model (canon ts8322)..prints are too dark. Everyone always says the issue is the monitor..what is the solution if the problem is the printer?

[@cheo1949]

IN this case it's your new printer. Are your driver settings and or color management the same? I have 13 different printer some with 3rd party inks and most running OEM inks and the out put is pretty much the same. There are slight differences in color out put but the density is pretty constant. Use the Standard Evaluation Image V002 Tif for any test comparison. Not your images. Get it on my Facebook group or here www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi048/essay.html

[@cpiep]

@@cheo1949 im not sure how to check the driver settings. Ill have to look that up. Thanks for your response!

[@Amanda-vc5wx]

I'm having this problem but it has nothing to do with my monitor's brightness. They print fine from other apps no matter what brightness

[@cheo1949]

I am clueless as to what you are staying.

[@reganhahn8752]

I am also having this issue. When I print a photo to my color laser printer, the color matches my monitor but when I print the same photo to my ink jet, it's quite darker.

[@slaterhorsetraining]

Thank you very helpful

[@brianmccutcheon3205]

Thank you yet again my friend appreciate your film clips

[@cheo1949]

Thanks.

[@harry_wardd]

This was interesting, thanks Jose, I had this exact problem receiving a test print today (hence why I’m here) - colourwise was fine, I think it’s just the brightness as the shadows and highlights were much darker than my screen when editing (my brightness is on full - rookie mistake) What I’m taking from this then is that there’s no “perfect” print because if I’m selling to general public, it’s totally dependent on where they hang it (I.e opposite a window or directly under a lightbulb - is that fair to say or would you say there is actually a happy medium somewhere?

[@LOTUSARTSTUDIO-gx8yf]

Thank you, this is called Experience 👍👌

[@mazennabulsi7246]

YES BOSS... EXACTLY .. That's true in every word you said, I practiced that myself.. i calibrated my monitor then accordingly created a profiles for my printer in several papers types and inks, then I printed out 1 standard colors test image. then I compared my prints to the print I have received from the papers supplier. they're all perfect. so the Monitor and the prints is matching with the original Image print. and I keep my room at maximum 80 light luminescence or even less... so the results were stunning ...

[@cheo1949]

You got it nailed down!! It's really not rocket science when you really empty your mind of all the misconceptions and ponder. It becomes that "Aha" moment. After that not is so easy to print that it becomes boring. NAH!!!!! It's still exciting as hell to see a gorgeous print emerging!! It will never grow old! Thank you sir!

[@mazennabulsi7246]

yeah ..come look at the Zebra print on my wall Jose.. that P600 is really amazing with B&W prints .. thank you .. I was just a dummy fellow, knowing ZERO about printing and prints, and thanks to you for all what I gained...

[@cheo1949]

You are way too nice! I would love to see that shot!!

[@zacharydurant7200]

Hi Jose, Thank you for making these highly informative videos, your expertise is a gold mine! I recently purchased the Canon Pro-1000 and I have the LG ultrafine 5k display. I believe I made a mistake in purchasing this monitor since I cannot calibrate the RGB channels with my Xrite i1display calibrator. To compensate for the darker prints I applied a curves layer in PS. I feel that this is not the best way to compensate for brightness (I understand the print will be a bit darker, but mine was so dark I lost detail in the shadows). If you would be so kind may you please recommend an appropriate monitor to better suit my printing work. Also how do you compensate for darker images, which layer adjustments do you use? do you treat highlights and shadow separately with layer masks? Thank you again for your valuable time! -Zac Durant

[@cheo1949]

Not at all a monitor expert but I can tell you that 4k monitors do not do too well when it comes to calibration as we were accustomed to. Can you manually darken the current monitor? Again not the best avenue to use but it is better than a curve. A post applied curve will not restore the detail you already lost while editing. This you certify your printer by first printing my standard reference image?? Join my FB group - link is in the newest videos Show More. Then go to FILES and download the Standard Image which is a tiff about 40 meg. Print it with the driver controlling color. DO NOT edit it. It should print correctly. Then if it does not match your monitor it is your monitor that is off. I have tons of videos describing and explaining what to do. Check out my Color Managed Workflow Playlist!

[@kuau714]

Jose, One of the biggest issues I think you forgot to mention is the contrast ratio most displays have a very high contrast ratio 500:1, 800:1, 1000:1, one would assume the higher the better, which in some cases it is, yet for photo retouching you want the contrast ratio at like 200:1, the image will look duller on screen yet will match the print much better. There is a reason why the pro grade displays are much more expensive, not only because of color gamut and even display, one can adjust the contrast ratio much lower... In other words as usual you get what you pay for. If you are serious about printing one should own a "real" monitor ie. EIZO and NEC...

[@cheo1949]

Contrast will be adjusted automatically by the X-Rite Software. When you are done calibrating a monitor out of the box you almost faint at the results but that is the way it needs to be for image editing. These new LCD screens are ridiculous. The very best and most accurate results were achieve with older CRT screens! Shocker! But still people have ZERO clue about this and they will love and prefer those contrasty as hell and over saturated super bright results. Just go to the local store and look at a 4K curved screen 60" TV! They have to look as punchy as possible under those bright store lights!

[@robertmccullough2981]

Pixma pro 200. I have to over expose image on the histogram to get close.

[@cheo1949]

Thanks odd. You have to physically have to shift your tones beyond 255?

[@robertmccullough2981]

@@cheo1949 sorry I have been away . I fixed the problem. I stopped using Lightroom to print from. Using Canon now and it work well

[@alanmatthews9260]

I have an Epson printer. Previously, I had a Canon which printed very close to the colors I expected. I can NOT get this Epson to print close at all. Every print seems to have a shift toward red especially on skin tones. I’ve tried printing with and without sRGB or embedding Adobe RGB etc. Nothing works. Thoughts? Or should I go back to Canon?

[@cheo1949]

Why are you embedding working color spaces? How are you setting up your driver? You're supposed to work in the color space that photoshop or whatever application you're using is set at and then you either let the driver control color by choosing the matching paper on the drop-down menu and making sure your driver is set to color managed workflow or in the case of a Canon printer to color matching / icm. if you want to use an paper ICC profile then you do the opposite. You disable color management or color matching in the driver and allow the application to control color and only and I mean only choose the matching ICC profile for the paper you are printing on. You do not chose a Color Space. That is NOT paper profile. It's only used by your editing app and the monitor.

[@MarkSRiddle]

Coming to you from a DigitalDog video, combining both of your knowledge was the best, thank you both !

[@cheo1949]

Digital Dog aka Andrew Rodney is a true expert in color management that can't even come close to. But thanks for being here. I appreciate it.

[@ChicagoRob2]

Not to be off-topic, but please keep us informed if you encounter the infamous waste tank ink-dump with your Pro-1000.

[@cheo1949]

On the PRO-1 that supposedly occurs on the 45th day from the date of installation. There are varied reports about the PRO-1000 regarding that but I will see when the time comes.

[@shadreckphiri6185]

Jose thanks again for a great video. just an of topic question. my pro 1 has just shown a warning of low chroma optimizer...my question is when would you Chang it as soon as it says low or run it down further. thanks in advance. ps hope you well announce it when the new pc ink for pro 1 is available and also breakdown the shipping to the UK. thank you again.

[@cheo1949]

If OEM wait till declared empty. There will still be a few ml of ink in them! If you are refilling the chips will declare empty sooner. There will be more ink in them when "empty". So it is very safe to print till empty.

[@jenniferholmes1527]

I literally scanned some photos into the computer and chose to print them as a smaller image, without doing anything else, and it printed the white background as more of a grey with darker photos. What am I doing wrong? I don't think this is a monitor issue because, like i said, I didn't edit the images.

[@cheo1949]

For anything to print White meaning ZERO INK is put on paper it would have to have a value or 255-255-255 on the RGB channels. Bet your white scanned border is actual gray and not max white. So it is actually darker and thus print darker.

[@jenniferholmes1527]

@@cheo1949 the printed copies are definitely darker than the original hard copies.

[@TheKingOfPopVideos01]

only my dvd prints are dark, i have canon pixma mx922, ive tried everyting, it prints fine on paper but on dvd it prints to dark,

[@cheo1949]

That's just the the way your particular discs print. You need to adjust manually. DVD printing is not color managed

[@TheKingOfPopVideos01]

@@cheo1949 so I can do nothing else? I’ll just buy another model printer then

[@jeffbirmingham861]

I just got the canon pro1000 and this printing thing is totally new to me. I just printed a photo i edited with Capture 1 It looked great on my Imac. but the print came out way darker and dull. I used Canon photo paper semi - gloss SG-201 So i'm not sure what i did wrong. Thanks for any help.

[@cheo1949]

IMac screens are too bright and contrasty so you tend to edit images down. They look great on the non calibrated for image editing but the printer simply produces what it gets. Print the Standard Evaluation Image with out ANY editing. Make sure you are using the full Canon pro1000 driver. Print on CANON media and choose the same in the DRIVER. Mac color management is different from Windows. It does things automatically for you. I like to have full manual control. Join my Facebook Group. Link is on my video descriptions. The go to the FILES tab to download CONTROL images.

[@GingerPhotographer]

I edit mainly in the evening in low lighting - do you have any suggestions for setting up an area with natural bright lighting? I've seen people viewing prints within a box but which light "Kelvin" should I be using.. Thx

[@cheo1949]

I had to literally block the windows out so I could just light the room with just two 40 Watt bulbs. I experienced this at several professional video and photo editing studios here in Washington DC that did all the early video format conversion for the BBC from PAL to NTSC. As well as images for use by the PBS channels. You could barely read a newspaper in there. But the screens looked fantastic. It's like trying to watch a movie in the theater with the lights on and then off.

[@kostaswilliams1083]

Thank you Jose, once again. I used this fresh video to validate my method: As you know from other conversations I have very recently bought a PIXMA PRO-100 and I’m going through the motions of getting everything right. My display is calibrated with a Spyder 5 Pro. I made sure to check the image in a dark room as you mention. Last night I printed the same test image you have used yourself in many videos. It is 98% correct in that it is a bit saturated, especially skin tones, and also blue skies appear to have a sliiiight purple to them. This is with no profiles, straight to the printer. Using Canson Lustre for this test. I will check the prints today under brighter lights. I must also say that using the manufacturer icc profile didn’t make it any better. I’m thinking Colormunki and creating my own profiles... do you think I’m missing a step or two?!

[@cheo1949]

Printer validation using standard images MUST be done using Manufacturer Papers. NOT 3rd Party Papers. That is why you are getting slightly OFF results. Again you are comparing to your print to your monitor assuming it is perfect just because ut was calibrated. The Spyder 5 is not as accurate as even the lowest cost X-Rite Product. I am sorry to bluntly say that but it is simply true. So you can not say that your resulting print blue sky is a bit off. According to what? Your monitor's display of the image? If you were to print that image rather using color management, turning off Color Matching in the Driver ( Color / Manual Adjustment - Matching - NONE ) then print through the ICC for that paper you will get the proper results. Assuming that profile is perfect which often it is not. Again if it does not match your monitor it is not the image's fault. These images are very special and they are perfectly "Correct" As long as the proper work flow was followed the PRO-100 With OEM inks and CANON Paper such as Pro Luster it will faithfully reproduce that standard image's values. By the way 98% is much better than most people achieve after years of practice. Remember that you can not possibly get a 100% match. It is impossible.

[@kostaswilliams1083]

Thanks Jose, your bluntness is very welcome. I understand what you're saying in terms of 'relative' observations to sky and skin color. My next steps: 1) Canon Pro Luster and repeat the print 2) assuming results are better, invest in CM and create own profiles for the Canson papers.

[@normameyers4904]

Can you do a video for us that want to get their photos printed from an online printing service like Mpix. My photos are even close to my monitor. I am a beginner and really struggling with this.

[@cheo1949]

You need to calibrate your monitor and you need to use the LAB's profiles. They should tell you what you need to do to embed those profiles to your images. If your colors is correct but not your brightness then you need to calibrate your monitor to the correct level. Usually a LOT darker than what it is set for now. Or you will automatically darken your own images thinking they are ok when in fact they are actually dark now.

[@formless4541]

@@cheo1949 Hi Jose There are some key points I find missing everywhere I look and it's to do with the white balance setting, the gamma, and the brightness. Does not calibrating the moniter automatically set these things correctly? Or do I have to do it myself before/after calibrating the moniter? And what about laptop screens that cannot be adjusted?

[@patrycjaswietochowska2931]

Hi. I have a question.. i calibrate my monitor with xrite and my prints are still darker and without good colours :( what else i can do?

[@cheo1949]

You are calibrating it TOO bright! 80 CDM2 works for me.

[@6GSF]

thanks guys but i still need the print lighter as its for a birthday card usually i have great results but today using mac preview and epson et2720 the photo/card is 50% darker and even if i reduce the brightness on the monitor the digital image is still much brighter. -0. printing what a nightmare

[@cheo1949]

Don't ever activate print preview.

[@6GSF]

@@cheo1949 how do you mean ? so if i print from powerpoint and use the standard ppt clour setting then the photo is more useable as it's brighter , the problem now being the colors are washed out, but it is much better than the dark version. Thus it must be the actual print settings in this case and nothing to do with the screen brightness , I've actually not had this issue before using the epson and seen on another forum that people are aware of the issue. Thanks for response anyway ill keep trying!

[@doctorrobin3040]

Excellent, as usual. Thanks.

[@cheo1949]

Thank you Doctor Robin!

[@acbabelgates9386]

I'm printing the Same exact image and the Colors Are getting Darker, I understand the monitor Brightness but it's the Same Exact image and it is Now Printing Darker.

[@cheo1949]

All I can tell you is this printers do not on their own change their output something has changed in your workflow check and double-check everything.

[@acbabelgates9386]

@@cheo1949 Thanks Appreciate the help!

[@MikkoRantalainen]

It would have been worth mentioning that if you have a bad monitor (basically anything with TN or *VA panel) there's no point trying to calibrate that thing. See www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php for simple tests to verify your monitor is not too bad.

[@tomveilleux9325]

Agree. I had to replace an LCD with a Dell IPS and was able to get my brightness down low enough to match the print.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

@@tomveilleux9325 I write computer software for living and unlike many other programmers I don't like dark themes while programming. I guess it's related to my monitor being correctly calibrated and then the light theme starts to make lots of sense again.

[@Budrudesill44]

I have a new epson et-2760 and it prints way dark. Screen brightness has never been a factor in how my prints turn out with any other printer. I turned this screen down to 6 (not 60. 6) It makes no difference in the print at all. Your solution is the same as everyone elses and it BS. You have a huge professional printer and maybe it makes a difference with it. It has never made a difference with half a dozen different printers I've owned. This printer is FUBAR and it has nothing to do with my computer monitor.

[@SixShotGaming]

I just bought the pro 10 and I am having so much trouble with it my prints are way too dark and I have tried everything I use affinity photo to print do you have any recommendations?

[@cheo1949]

Start by printing a standard reference image without editing it! It should print perfect just like I show in my videos. Once you establish that the printer produces a good not too dark, or too light version of that image then if you get a dark print it is because the image is simply edited too dark. But it looks perfect on my monitor!!!!! That's because the monitor is set too bright and if probably not calibrated.

[@svachop]

you said it nice once again as always !!!

[@cheo1949]

I just know I'll doing variations on this topic for ever. Once I get my website done all this super basic info will be there for easy access!

[@cheo1949]

No more RANTs on this subject I promise!

[@biegebythesea6775]

i have this with the canon ts8350.

[@cheo1949]

Check your edited image on your editor's histogram. If it looks like it's toward the darker or left side it's edited too dark. Why? Because your monitor is too bright. Edit in a darker room environment. Trust me on this.

[@kellyjeanne78746]

you act as though we have never printed on a printer before. I have been printing for 60 years and never had this issue before.

[@ihalloway]

constantly

[@cheo1949]

Yes it is a constant theme because they still don't get it.

[@TheHungyHunk]

Turns out my luminescence was correct, but my printer is just really bad with colors. :/ Thanks anyway, this would have been a great help if I had a better printer.

[@cheo1949]

Sorry to hear that

[@TonyFisherPuzzles]

This is total BS. If I download a perfectly good photo I haven't made it dark!!! plus it only does it sometimes.

[@cheo1949]

Well I'm glad you tbink so but you are still wrong.

[@cheo1949]

Printers produce what you send to them. Inconsistancies come from none otber than the user. Not the printer. This is what the majority simply refuses to accept.

[@burtba]

Mmm you download a picture and if it looks great on your monitor and you haven’t compensated for this when you print, I’m sorry but you WILL get a print come out darker. It’s no magic its physics, light and ink.