My images always print too dark.

Colors are perfect but I have to guess at how much to lightne an image on screen to get it to print at proper lightness/darkness. Printing with a Canon Pro 9000

Easy to say calibrate your monitor but there is much more to look at too. Here is a nice link to read:
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/colour_management/prints_too_dark.html

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C309g-m printer, prints too dark

My printer always prints too dark.
The prints never come out like they look on the screen. I can manually change the lightness of the photo to compensate, but it would be nice if there were settings I could change in the printer instead.
Any advice would be nice..thanks!

What paper quality and paper type settings are you using? If you are printing on plain paper but have selected a photo paper then the result will be oversaturated. Also if your application gives the choice of RGB or CMYK then choose RGB. (The printer uses CMYK inks, but the driver is expecting RGB data.)
What operating system? Your driver may have settings for Advanced Color Control. In the Windows 7 dr.iver this would be found in Printing Preferences, Color, More Printing Options. You can change the brightness and saturation as shown in the sliders here:
Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
If your problem is solved please click the "Accept as Solution" button ------------V
If my answer was helpful please click the "Thumbs Up" to say "Thank You"--V

Some images printing too dark

I have two cameras that I use with iPhoto 6.0.4. A Canon G4, and a Pentax ist D. In iPhoto both cameras have nice looking images. The images from the Canon make beautiful prints, but the Pentax images print too dark. How can I fix this? Can I set different printing preferences for each camera?

whenever I calibrate my iMac with the Spyder2 hardware, I have to calibrate it twice because I always forget to turn off the Screen Saver and the Energy Saver 'Put Screen to Sleep' option.
another important thing about calibration. where is your 'book located during the calibration? what lights or on or off? is there any direct sunlight shining on the 'book?
personally, I prefer to calibrate at night with all lights turned off. if I calibrate at day, I shut the tinted doors and turn all (fluorescent) lights off. I realise that you are supposed to calibrate under your normal lighting conditions but I prefer this method

Images appear fine in Photoshop cs6 and cc, but print too dark, and also show too dark in Windows picture viewer. How can I correct this? Is this a Photoshop setting issue or what?

Images appear fine in Photoshop cs6 and cc, but print too dark, and also show too dark in Windows picture viewer. How can I correct this? Is this a Photoshop setting issue or what?

Ok, look at your files in Photoshop. What is the profile assigned to them? You can find this out by going to the Status bar at the bottom, clicking on the right-pointing triangle and choosing document Profile from the list.
Then in Windows, go to your Control Panel > Color Management and add sRGB (if it isn't there) and select it as your default profile.
I hope that will work.

Epson prints too dark from LR on color managed MacBook Pro?

Hi all,
I have a newish MacBook Pro, calibrated with Spyder2, and printing to an Epson 2200. The prints are too dark, and don't really come close to matching the screen in LR. I've brought the images into PS2 for soft proofing, but the prints are still far too dark. It's not just out of LR, but DPP as well. I found this topic:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc44027/28
Tthat seems to describe my problem, but it seems to be Adobe-specific. Doug doesn't say if he's tried printing from other apps. I use Epson's custom profiles, which actually seem to be worse than the standard profiles that come with the driver.
A new twist seems to be that profiled jpg images with sRGB profiles exported from LR also print too dark when I had them sent out for printing, which leads me to think that my screen is not profiled correctly, or there's some weird flaw in the Mac's color management engine that skews everything.
My first question: When I profile my screen using Spyder2, I have the brightness set at maximum. Should I bring it down, and if so, how far? The Spyder2 help says use "Factory Defaults", but the MBP ships with brightness set on auto-adjust based on ambient light levels.
My second question: Are there others who have this issue? Have any of you resolved them successfully, and if so, how?
Thanks!
Timmy

Time for a reality/sanity check for those who complain that "the "prints are too dark from my Epson printer"!
If you will just reduce your monitor's white-point luminance to the range of 80-90 cd/m2 when you edit your images, it's almost certain that the problem will be solved (assuming you're not making some other error in color management setup). Many people conclude that their problem must be a generic failure or defect of Epson printers (i.e., compared to HP, etc)-- or that the Epson paper profiles are defective. Well, perhaps there's some element of truth to that conclusion--to the extent that Epson printers have evidently been designed with typical professional editing environments in mind (i.e., the low brightness levels to which "serious" printers adjust their monitors and ambient lighting). Why would they do that: Well, who wants to spend many hours each day looking at the glare of a 200 cd/m2 monitor screen (and the reflections from a brighly lighted room)?
So, for getting "monitor-matching" prints from printers such as the SP 2200, you simply need to work (edit) with your images in a more-or-less "dimly lit" room using a monitor that is properly adjusted for such a low-light environment--(i.e., the screen luminance not higher than 90-100 cd/m2). Of course even with such a reduced screen luminance, the light used for print-viewing must be sufficiently bright(**)
It's possible that your monitor cannot be adjusted to the necessary (low) luminance level--or that you haven't any means to measure the luminance level. Those are correctable hardware issues, although may require $$.
(**)please note that a fairly bright viewing light is needed for prints (made as suggested above) to appear to be a reasonably close "match" to the monitor image.
Phil

Exported Jpeg's when sent to photo lab print too dark

I have had consistent results with exported jpeg images that look fine on my monitor (as raw files)and show in the histogram in lightroom 2.5 as the highlights just starting to clip as printing too dark when sent to a photo lab in SRGB. Is this a fault of my monitor? I have calibrated the monitor, a Dell S2409W, using charts on the website at http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html but this still happens. Will darkening the Monitor help or will the images still clip at the same point? I have been able to send a second image with the exposure and or brightness boosted a bit and they print brighter, but this is a pain. What is the best way to correct this so that I can see the same image as I get back from the lab?

hello henrykipson,
you said that you want starting an professional laboratory business,i can talking about this because i had a laboratory until some years ago .i hope that you made some artistic study,so it's more easy for you to learn this topic.you must study,an pass an examination for take an artigianal licence that allow you to open this activity ,the licence given you the opportunity to work either for sale photografic material either to shoot and developing,one time that you had pass this examination you must gone to the police autority and inform these of your business (is under police control.because you work with chemical material,and also because you had a reservate people information,and they must given you their assent.)after all you can start to buy a good developer and print machine beyond to have a dark room.for manual print.you must decided if do you want work in black and white or color.You can do both but is better to specialize by one of them ,like you want.
Remember from the digital events many people print his image at home,you must deciding maybe is better to work with a professional photographer,that can given you more work.itsn't easy.you must have a good preparation because ,they are more exigent.The good results depend also from the quality of your works.a good machine,good chemical product,good upkeep,of your laboratory.(in italy this is the procedure,i think also in other country,because is a ticklish question licence.)I hope that this my little explanation are useful to you.Good luck .
cheers alessandra minotti

Recently my PDF files have printed too dark. Has something changed in the software?

Why do my PDF files print too dark?

2many2cho0se wrote:
Yes...I know iMessage is supposed to be where there is wifi...
Actually, all iMessage requires is a data connection, & that data connection can be either WiFi or 3G.

Illustrator PDFs print correctly from PC, but print too dark from Macs

Photoshop and Illustrator PDF files (CS5 & 6) print correctly from my work PC, but not either of my Macs. See below:
At work, I have a Dell PC and an iMac, at home I have a MacBook Pro.
At work there is a big office color Ricoh printer for the Dell and iMac, at home I have a Epson 3-in-one laserjet for the MacBook Pro.
Both the work and home Macs will print Illustrator/Photoshop PDFs very dark/undersaturated/off color on their relative printers, but the work PC prints them correctly.
At work, If you hold up a print of a PDF file printed from the Dell PC, and one printed from the iMac, they are completely different looking - the Dell print matches the Dell and iMac screens, but the iMac print is very dark and dull.
At work, when I open a Illustrator or Photoshop PDF on the work PC and send it to the Richo printer, it comes out perfectly matching the screen, but, if I open it on the iMac and send it to the Richo printer, it prints too dark/off color.
These are the *exact* same PDF files I am opening on both the PC and the iMac - our files are saved on a server so I'm accessing the same documents on both machines.
Also, I create the files on the iMac and save them to the server on the iMac, but if I open them on the iMac it prints too dark, and if I open them on the PC, it prints correctly.
At home on the MacBook Pro, the prints are also much darker than the screen (despite color calibration with a ColorMunki as well as following all Epson's color calibration steps) and I see a similar color problem as printing to the work printer from the work iMac.
Someone please tell me this is just a printer profile thing and I can go in somewhere on my Macs and switch something so they print the same as the PC does!
Thank you in advance for explaining why my Macs are making me pull out my hair!

the iMac it prints too dark
your print space is off on the Mac
or you are applying the wrong source profile or both
on the MacBook Pro, the prints are also much darker than the screen (despite color calibration
EDIT: sorry i misread that as your monitor was also dark, if the mac displays the problem doc proper, you are targeting a bad print space, that's where i would look...
you app is apply the wrong source profile (or your monitor profile is off)
basing the source>print space conversion on the wrong source profile could account for your printing woes
be sure you are embedding an ICC profile in your doc, are opening it in a color-managed app, and it should display properly
be sure your workflow uses the embedded profile and your printer is setup to convert to the proper printer profile
color management theory
epson workflow

Why does PS CC print too dark? I found printing from PS CS5 was more accurate.

Why does PS CC print too dark? I did not have this issue when printing with PS CS5.

Why does PS CC print too dark? I did not have this issue when printing with PS CS5.

Acrobat XI is prints too dark!

Acrobat XI is printing too dark to our machines. Acrobat 7 prints just fine, same file, same machine.
Anyone else having this issue? It's VERY frustrating and short of adjusting EVERY photo in EVERY
file we cannot figure out what the issue is. We are using Windows XP & Windows 7, same result in both.

Have you compared the colour management settings in Acrobat's print dialogs (Advanced)?

Images print too dark from Photoshop CS2 and CS3

Having used both CS2 and CS3 I now realise that the prints that I work on in either appear much brighter on the screen that they do when printed, as much as 3 stops darker when printed. I have also noticed that in other programs such as Google Picasa that I use as a viewing tool the images appear closer to the images from the printer. I have used various pro-labs that require their profiles to be used and my own epson 3800 printer at home and despite trying lots of different settings I am unable to get prints that look like they do on the screen they are always darker.
I am using windows XP on a dual core 2.4 PC with 2 Gb ram and an ATI Radeon X1600 series grafix card which I have just updated the driver on. The monitor is an LCD type and is calibrated weekly using a spyder 2 express.

First isolate whether your display is too bright or your printer is too
dark. I'd start by printing images from another source and see if they
look as they should. www.drycreekphoto.com has a number of calibration
images that should do for this purpose.
Once you've isolated the problem, we can take it from there.

Recently my images started to print too dark.

I am running LR 4.4, on an Epson XP-850, in OS X 10.9.4 and color profile both the monitor and the printer with ColorMunki Photo. I have re-calibrated three times and each time the prints are WAY too dark. I get the same problem in PS CS5.1. If I print from preview, they actually look better. If I have the Printer manage colors from LR, it looks better. It's like there's a compatibility issue? I have the latest driver from Epson, and have custom profiled my paper to my printer to my monitor?! My printing issues are unique to PS and LR applications which is why I'm starting here. Does anyone have any ideas? I've already uninstalled and reinstalled the printer. I have all the latest firmware and software updates. Thank you!

Easy to say calibrate your monitor but there is much more to look at too. Here is a nice link to read:
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/colour_management/prints_too_dark.html

Photos print too dark on Lasejet CP1515n

I have a Laserjet CP1515n and in almost every way it works very well and very reliably. Unfortunately color photographs always print out too dark. I have not been able to find any documentation that describes how to resolve this and set up color printing for more accurate results. I have never had this problem with any HP inkjet printers, of which I have owned a number over time. This is presumably a calibration issue but I would appreciate any pointers on how to deal with this problem. Printing of documents in color is not an issue, only photographs.
I have seen other people with other color lasers with this type of problem. I don't believe that what they have said about how to deal with this amounts to any more than experimenting with settings. Does anyone have an approved or official take on this problem or a reliable method to solve this?

You can change how the printer interprets color.
Go to Print->Properties->Color->Color Thems and select "Photo".
This helps give more accurate color when you are printing only photo images.
I work for HP.

Aperture 3 prints too dark

I've been using
aperture 2 since it came out, no problems. I upgraded to Aperture 3, and have had no problems with my Library, but it won't print like Aperture 2 did - the prints are far too dark.
I have copied the same file to Lightroom, and with exactly the same settings, it is printing fine. I still have Aperture 2 on my MacBook, and that prints fine.
So what's going on?

I've just spent the last hour doing print tests with 3.0.1 using two printers and two papers. My 27 inch iMac is calibrated with a Spyder3Pro and the brightness of the screen is turned down 4 notches from full. I have to say my default prints weren't bad, but here are the tweaks that made a difference:
• Epson R2880 with Ilford Gallery Smooth Pearl: brightness +1.15, contrast +0.03, Relative, black point comp OFF.
• Epson Stylus 1400 with Epson Premium Glossy Photo: brightness +1.10.
These settings give me prints that are pretty bang on. The Ilford paper tends to be a bit bluer than its onscreen profile so I've made a preset that punches the yellow. Works well.
Switching from Relative Colorimetric to Perceptual made little or no difference in these tests so I decided to leave it at default (Relative).
A couple of bugs:
• Print presets don't remember the assigned paper size (but this is also true in Preview).
• Clicking More Options always clears the paper size back to default (US Letter). Annoying.
• The print window won't remember its size and position between launches and moves around erratically when clicking More Options. Also annoying.
• Photo refresh is way too long when switching presets. I get at least 10 seconds of blank preview before the image appears. Refresh when adding adjustments is equally long.
Also, nothing to do with printing but this update hasn't fix my bug with my secondary display going back to Alternate view every time I switch from Browser to Viewer mode. The menu still says Blank but the display is stuck on Alternate. I need to switch between Desktop and Blank for it return to normal.
Printing is certainly different in this version. The fact that the Gamma setting is gone shows how much of a change has been made. And since older presets aren't imported, it's back to the drawing board...

Printing too dark in CS4

I have CS4 on Tiger 10.4.11 on a completely color managed system, Epson 4800 printer. Printing seems to be broken in the new version. Prints are very dark. I know to select "Photoshop Manages Color" in Color Handling, and "No Color Management" in the printer color management dropdown. The procedure works fine in CS3.
That something is up is suggested by this wrinkle. In this case I am printing using advanced b/w. If under color handling I choose "Printer Manages Color" and go into the b/w advanced setup, it's still too dark. If instead I choose "No color management", then make my choices in advanced b/w, it works fine.
One would first think that it's a double color management problem, but I'm turning it off anywhere I can see it in CS4, and still having problems. Is there a new secret handshake I haven't puzzled out yet?

> So, Eric, you are saying we need to Convert to a space (or gamma) in
> Photoshop before Command+P -- because the Epson Adv B&W driver will
> assume a color space/gamma -- what would that assumption be based on
> (gamma of our Mac default MonitorRGB)? Assuming I am not talking
> about feeding the Epson grayscale.
Yes.
The ABW driver wants to be fed gamma 2.2-encoded image data.
This is why my standard recommendation for printing to the ABW driver __ONLY__ is to use:
Color Handling = Photoshop Manages Colors
Printer Profile = Adobe RGB
Rendering Intent = Relative Colorimetric
Black Point Compensation = Enabled
Why does this work? Because no matter what your image working space is (e.g., sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB, Apple RGB, ColorMatch RGB, etc.), doing this will cause your image data to be encoded in gamma 2.2 before the data gets passed off to the driver. (Adobe RGB has a gamma encoding of 2.2.)
The same workflow will work in Lightroom, too. You just need to check the "Display Profiles" checkbox in Lightroom to access Adobe RGB when selecting a printer profile.
If you are in grayscale mode instead of RGB mode, choose "Gray Gamma 2.2" instead of "Adobe RGB" for the printer profile.
However, the catch is that -- as noted in this thread -- there is currently a glitch, which we (Adobe + Apple + Epson) are investigating. One of the symptoms of that glitch is that the above suggested workflow does not work on Leopard.
> Does this CS4-Apple-Epson issue have anything to do with some users
> reporting dark prints in Photoshop Manage Color - No Color
> Adjustment Epson workflow? -- For example, someone using 1.8 gamma
> Monitor RGB...
Unlikely.

My images always print too dark.

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