Printing Photos The MOST important things you must do when you start printing! Part 1!

[@yakubjoshua9462]

Real printing for the awe inspiring print, requires a real relationship with your printer, whether just for 1 print, 1 time, or for multiple prints over years of time. You know you get that straight up, personal, friend, collaborationist attention. That you point, your printer knows, Ah, yes... and you go, Ah, yes! That is the relationship

[@yakubjoshua9462]

Jose deserves a lot of credit for being able to....... and most, willing, to detail in solid outline detail, the steps to get good to great output. The knowledge did not come easily nor inexpensively, whether in money spent on equipment that wasn't up to par, the time and resources spent getting to the conclusion, meaning endless hours trying out settings, combinations in CorelDraw, Painter, Illustrator, Photoshop. In the day, yeah, that is principally why Mac/Apple was considered superior. But, of course, that hasn't been the case for well past 15 years now.

[@allenbuyck7957]

good refresher for all of us !!

[@steviesteve1716]

Thank you for all your help in 2022

[@richardterrell5309]

That is really interesting and helpful Jose, as these are matters of importance I had not fully understood though I have made monitor calibrations in the past.

[@Jeff-m5x3j]

Color Calibration starts with your eyes. For example, one time my optician suggested that I add “Blue Blocking” to my prescription. Big mistake. To deduct the blue it adds a slight amber to the lenses. The result was that I found myself pushing my photos toward the cool side in editing in order to compensate. The same thing happened as I was developing cataracts and everything over the years went slightly yellow. When I had them fixed (which I highly recommend doing as soon as you need to) the whites became white again.

[@RamasolaProductions]

Thank you for sharing your experiences and information.

[@kaminajo]

Hello José. I hope you are wetland in good health. I was wondering whether you have made your “long” part 2 of this elaboration. My printer (not a Pro1000 😂) is patiently waiting. And yes! I’m a Mac user but your explanations are really wonderful. Thank you!

[@yakubjoshua9462]

Agree. My first color printer was an HP-500, pretty much T-Rex ancient nowadays. Windows was v. 1.3; Dr Halo was the graphics software.... producing: Junk-ola! Of course everything crashed all the time: Corel Draw 1 & 2, early Adobe page mill, et al. Then, late 90s got an Epson 1520, not very good quality, carts ran out fast. Early 2000s got an Epson 2200, all software works well Windows XP, Win 7.... ink no good, printer behavior, blah. Then we get to about 2009, Win 8/Win 10, all graphics software great stuff, get an Epson Stylus Pro 7900. Finally the apex of Everest!

[@Mark-re8oq]

Jose, kudos to you. You have me pretty-much trained over the last several years to get really nice results from my calibrated Canon Pro-100/ Precision Ink/Canon Paper/Lightroom workflow. I am really enjoying my printing thanks to you! On this video you through me for a loop. I thought you NEVER let the printer manage the the output (vs. the ICC Profile) in our calibrated system. Can you please explain the rationale?

[@yakubjoshua9462]

A coupla Epson 300s and 340s on CIS, but nothing really top-shelf cos of the ink quality, but the 300 series wasn't that good for much. Now, Stylus Color P7000 + SC P-900, with Color Munki photo, software all stable, output top shelf... all the time. Calibrate all papers+ printer+ monitor, update or verify every month or two or so as needed, but using own equipment icc profiles. It's been a tough slog over the last 3 decades.... a learning curve forced by the lack of stability/compatibility of the software/equipment, and working to get quality out of impossible obstacles.... Now, today, much simpler, but, as Jose is laying it out, just because the software & hardware can work together perfectly, its the operator --- you, me, that now matters the most in the workflow.

[@OrelRussia]

Merry Christmas! Jose, have you compared printing with relative intent to absolute colorimetric one? I have followed all the printing procedure (a good calibrated monitor, 100 cdm2, low ambient light, grey walls, etc.) but still was never 100% satisfied with my prints from the Pro-100 and Pro9500 II with OEM inks. The prints were still too dark :) I had to havily adjust each image for printing but my prints came out still a bit 'lifeless'. Yesterday everything has changed! I usually printed with a relative intent, sometimes with perceptual. However, yesterday I tried the absolute intent. Wow! What a difference it made! My prints now are just like on my monitor. I don't see any drawbacks compared to the relative intent, only advantages. The PS colorproof works great but usually it's useless. Images really look like on a screen. I don't know why nobody advises to use the absolute intent instead of relative/perceptial ones.

[@yakubjoshua9462]

What is a buyer to do? How does this affect pricing plans? Lots of good questions....... Lots of reasons for people who are not printers, inclined to print, cant make that investment.... to consider options. Prints can be expensive because the printer has spent a ton, and needs to recover costs, including people, material, supplies, shipping, et al.Time being money, you make an order, you start being billed for advice time, consultation. Has to be so, gotta pay the folks working to make prints. What you get is, well, what you sent. Unless you are particular, and your printer knows how you are particular, and quotes on your particularities. If not, what you get is literally a print of what you sent. How many customers know this or that canvas, matte or photo paper for this or that image? Nor does the print shop. Its not as simple as a 001 here and a 1001 there.

[@beerborn]

I never use Adobe software like Photoshop or Lightroom to print my photos. They never seem to match what is on the screen. I've color calibrated my monitor with Color Munki and my prints do not come close to what's on the monitor. I use Windows Photo Viewer to print all my photos and it comes close to screen matching and I've used it ever since.

[@cheo1949]

That suggests that your monitor calibration may not be perfect. I can print through PS , LR or Qimage and I get a match. Print a standard image simply open and print. Set the driver to ICM color mode. Use Canon paper on a Canon and Epson on Epson. Choose the matching media type. Make sure you set it to ICM. The results as I have shown multiple times is a near perfect result. You now have to calibrate your monitor so IT matches your printed standard image. You should never have adjust your images so the print matches your monitor. If you have to do it tells my the display needs recalibrating and have it's brightness contrast and whit point adjusted. Not by manual adjusting but through your calibrating software.

[@yakubjoshua9462]

If you have the pocket, 32 + gig memory, 8gb or more graphics card, a high rated, calibrate-able monitor (27" min), and you do enough printing to justify either a 17" or a 24" printer for museum quality fine art work, spring. If not, and most won't, try to find, excuse me, other than regular print houses that sell standard work, output, a specialized printer, like me, who only works with 3-5 artists/photographers at any one time so that your work is personal to me and personalized thru the entire workflow process.

[@yakubjoshua9462]

There is the concept of Limited Edition in art. And that is honored. However, all of us digital printers know, in time, equipment changes, strata manufacturers change formulas for this or that strata, even discontinuing papers. Ink manufacturers, including Epson's proprietary lock on the US market (for now-- hopefully), so, in essence, what was a limited edition on Paper 1, Ink 3 yesterday, is no longer the same limited edition of the exact same original work today, or tomorrow, given continuing advancement in technology, machine, media, and the knowledge of the craftsman. None of this invalidates an earlier issued certainty by the artist or the printer, as it pertains to that work on that equipment utilizing this or that ink, and other factors, such as memory, software version, monitor, ah, yes... a lot. What is an artist to do?

[@CJBradley]

OK this is good advice, but I have been printing for almost 30 years and never done a colour calibration for my monitiors, experience has taught me how to produce good prints. All you need to do is buy and use matched papers and inks preferably OEM and follow exactly the factory printing procedure and all will be well. Take your prints and hold them next to the surface of the monitor and adjust it untill they look as close as possible to the print, you will soon become accustomed to what you can expect when you send an image to the printer and you will not be far away from the best your printer is capable of producing. Remember, manufactures are beter at getting perfect results than you will ever be unless you take proffessional training in creating images with materials other than factory manufactured and you may even destroy your printer.