Problem with graphics printing dark, please advise

[daisybelle]

I'm a new user to PSE6, I have used PSE4 for sometime now. I build scrapbook pages and take my completed .psd pages on a flashdrive to Office Depot to have them printed on matte paper. I've had so many problems in the past when I print the pictures, they come out so much darker than they appear on my computer when I'm building them.

I haven't printed a page using PSE6 yet, but I will next week and I'm hoping I can fix the problem before I print. I'm wondering if others have this issue, and if there is a solution to it. I'm hoping that it will be better with PSE6, but perhaps there is a workaround that I don't know about.

Thanks so much for any advice you can offer.

Daisy

[ATR]

Daisy,

I am not an expert, but I am offering the following for consideration:

The Photoshop Elements 6 version has what looks like a new and improved Print Dialog Box, sort of a combination of the old Print Dialog plus Print Preview??

Have you experimented with the options offered under its Color Management Header?

ATR

[daisybelle]

Since I take these out of house to be printed, should I still fiddle with the color management and print preview. I assumed this area was only if I was going to be using my own printer.

I'm sorry, I'm a bit confused on this..

[Karin Sue]

My prints often come out darker than they look on screen. I think it has to do with the screen being light and the prints being ink.

I have prints done at costco. Although I can go online and get the printer profiles for the printers at my local costco, I don't really know how to use them.

Last year I made several jpg copies of my christmas card at different brightnesses and named them to reflect the settings, I made sure that the file name would be printed on the back and had some test 4x6's run off.

You might want to try making copies of your page resized to fit a 4x6 and try different brightnesses, etc. You could note the settings in the extra canvas strip that results when resizing to 4x6. That would give you a nice reference set.

Also, costco has an auto adjust that can be turned on and off. They recommend off if you have already done your own adjustments.

You should probably talk to the photo guy at Office Depot about how to get the best prints.

[TonyW]

Almost certainly a monitor problem. Not sure if it's always true but many monitors straight out of the box are set to be too bright - or with too high a color temperature. Ideal for playing games but not for photo editing. I'd highly recommend calibrating or as a minimum setting it up using something like this:

http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php

If you can't distinguish X, Y and Z then you have your monitor set too bright.

Tony