How to Get Prints that Look like what I see on my Monitor

Question

I am giving CDs with Xmas card images for clients to take to their local printer and print their Xmas cards. But they are getting different results than what I saw on my monitor -- often much darker. Is there something I can do to be sure that what the lab prints is the same as the image I saw on my monitor???? I have a PowerMac G5 with a 17" monitor, which I calibrated with a Monaco colorometer....I am using Photoshop CS2.

Answer 1

make sure to select the ICC profile, give your clients a list of prefered printers that do color adjustment in lab for a modest fee, I like delta quest imaging and Millers, Pro color is ok, and dont even think about white house custom color they dont know color from their A**. Use a standard Profile and Gamma with all your images for consistancy, you will want to send Great Mcbeth Color charts to the lab and have them tell you what color space they are printing in. Most labs I have seen seem to be printing in Adobe RGB 1998 but many still use Adobe SRGB which may be why alot of your images may apear more saturated contrasty and darker. Also low quality labs will not check their chemisty often so I have noticed problems especialy with the fujifilm 390 mini lab and lesser models where the chemistry varys in just 1 degree and all the images look way to magenta or way too cyan!
also keep note on the type of paper they will be printing your photos on, fijifilm paper is not going to last as long, I have heard rumers that because it is thinner it is more suseptable to oxidation and eventual fading.
Personaly I refuse to allow any of my clients to print anything themselfs because if they end up printing it at wallmart or taking it to proex ritzcamera or wolfcamera and messing it up they arn't going to know it was the labs fault they are going to assume it was your fault and thats your reputation on the line.