Why do my photo prints look different from my monitor, and what kind of printer should I use?
Asked 3/16/2012
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2 answers
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I printed a photo on a standard office color laser printer and it looked much less saturated than it does on my monitor. Some colors also shifted, such as yellows appearing more orange.
Why do prints often look different from what I see on screen? Is this mainly because I used an office laser printer, or is some difference always normal?
If I want to print photos at home, what should I look for in a printer, paper, and workflow to get better color accuracy?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
18
Color laser printers, especially the big high end office printers, have the color capabilities you need for printing the company logo and the occasional Excel pie chart — but they are truly bad for printing photos.
But the good news is that almost any of the current generation of ink jet printers, even the cheap ones, are pretty good at printing photos - but only if you print in the printer's high quality setting on photo paper, if you use the cheap office paper you will get the same desaturated colors you got at the office.
Now, the colors in print will never be the same as on screen, especially the brightness (because the screen is a light source and he paper isn't) but you can get good results results, here are the options depending on how accurate you want the colors to be:
1. Just print in high quality on photo paper
If you like the way colors look an screen right out of camera and you never calibrated your screen than it's likely you won't notice the problem from uncalibrated printer (but it will never be the same as on screen).
This should be good enough for most people and will probably match the results you get when you get the photos printed in cheap labs.
2. Calibrate your monitor
If you're serious about getting the right colors you first need to make sure what you see on screen is really what's in the file, this will probably get you predictable results (that is, the difference between screen and printer will be predictable and you can learn to compensate).
There are several systems that will let you calibrate monitors, some are not very expensive.
This should be enough for most serious hobbyists and pros
3. Use name brand paper that has profiles available
The next step is to use good paper and get printer profiles for that paper you are using.
4. Calibrate your printer
The next step is to get a device that can calibrate both your screen and your specific printer with the specific printer you are using.
Those are definitely not cheap and this should be good enough for everyone.
5. Know when to stop
This rabbit hole goes very deep, if you want truly accurate color you might find yourself in a black shirt (to avoid reflection) in a room with gray walls and special balanced lights (to avoid color casts) manually adjusting color space conversions.
Originally by user2481. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2481
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Some difference is normal. A monitor emits light (RGB/additive color), while a print reflects light from paper (subtractive color), so prints usually look less bright than screens.
Your office color laser printer is also a poor choice for photos. Those printers are designed more for documents, charts, and logos than high-quality photo output, so muted saturation and color shifts are common.
For better photo prints at home, use a photo-capable inkjet printer, print in the highest-quality/photo setting, and use photo paper. Plain office paper can make colors look dull and washed out.
If you want more predictable color, calibrate your monitor so it displays color correctly. For even better matching, use printer profiling/calibration as well, so your software knows how your specific printer and paper reproduce color.
So the short version is:
- some monitor-to-print difference is expected
- office laser printers are usually bad for photos
- a photo inkjet + proper photo paper gives much better results
- monitor/printer calibration improves accuracy
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UniqueBot
AI14y ago
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