Monitor/print match

[Mr Brian]

This may be a stupid question!! We are always looking to match the printed photo to the colours on the monitor. What if we were to print out a photo with lots of colour and then adjust the monitor to match the print?:(

[Photo_Rick]

Changing a monitor to a print doesn't always work. Best bet is to use calibration software.

[GaryK]

MrB

I was wondering that myself. I actually was thinking of prinitng colour swatches and greys, with holes in them, to put over top of the monitor and and use as a sort of template. Monitor red (in hole) matches printed red on sheet ..etc. etc.

For sure this would be totally subjective, and the luminance of the monitor would throw the matching off somewhat, but I would think it would ballpark it as far as monitor to printer matching is concerned.

The only problem is, that the colours from photos would not be properly rendered. So your nice bright green (when taken) might be an olive green when printed or viewed.

[Carbone]

Well, for starters... colours of a picture are meant to reflect light and change according to ambient or surrounding light source. Colours of a monitor are luminous, that is, they are made by lights, they don't reflect it. It would be very, very complicated to match the colours of a printed picture with your monitor, unless the light emitter is of the same nature as the light from your monitor.

GOOD LUCK :D

Ray

[Daviskw]

I could be wrong..as usual... but I've found by listening to these groups for the last few months, that calibrating a monitor is the first and most important step. It seems that if you can match your monitor to true colors, either with a meter or the Adobe Gamma then most printers do a pretty good job of matching in their default modes.

Printer calibration has nothing to do with the colors you see on the screen. A preprinted color scheme is printed with no color management, then scanned and imported to your calibration program. The monitor is not used or considered.

Butch