Which white point should I use for images shown online and ordered as prints?
Asked 8/10/2019
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I want customers to view photos on my website and also order prints from those same images. What white point is recommended for a workflow that serves both screen viewing and print output?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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If you want to be ISO compliant¹ for printing, you need to use D50 in a viewing environment that also meets the D50 standard. D50 was chosen because it is very close to daylight under a cloudy sky.
If you use any other white point, you risk metameric failure when prints are viewed under standard D50 conditions.
On the other hand, D65 has become a more or less de facto standard for many in the graphics industry where most everything is viewed on a monitor and no one is worried about printing anything. Many mobile devices aim for D65.
In either case, you have no way of guaranteeing that your clients will be viewing online photos on a D50 or D65 compliant device. You also have no way of knowing the lighting conditions under which they will view and display purchased prints.
The ISO standard for viewing prints and for viewing images on a monitor (D50) is what should guide your choice. The best you can hope for is that the viewer of your images have also created a viewing environment that complies with the same standard.
¹ The standard is ISO norm 3664:2009. You'll need a registered (paid) user account to view it directly online at the ISO website.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For print-critical work, the standard recommendation is D50, used together with a D50-compliant viewing environment. That aligns with ISO print-viewing practice and helps avoid mismatches when prints are evaluated under standard lighting.
For web and general screen viewing, D65 is the more common display target and is widely used by monitors and mobile devices.
The practical limitation is that you cannot control your customers’ screens or room lighting. Even if you prepare files perfectly, viewers may see them on non-calibrated devices and prints may be viewed under many different light sources.
So the best practice is:
- use a color-managed workflow,
- prepare print output with D50 in mind if print accuracy is the priority,
- recognize that online viewing will usually be closer to D65-style display conditions,
- and accept that customer viewing conditions are ultimately unpredictable.
In short: choose D50 for print standardization, D65 for typical screen viewing, and rely on color management rather than expecting one white point to guarantee a perfect match everywhere.
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