Printing too Dark

It may be since Aperture 2.0, but possibly since installing Leopard (and even with 1.5), I can't get my monitor brightness and print brightness to match. I have been using an Eye-One Photo to calibrate my monitor (30" ACD) and my printer (Epson R1800). Before Leopard, this worked quite well. Now not at all.
I try to adjust brightness on the monitor according to the spectrophotometer and the Eye-One Match software, but the prints come out way dark. I even lower the monitor's brightness to the minimum, and my prints are still way too dark. This all worked fine with Tiger.
Can anyone suggest where I can look to address this problem?
Thanks!
- David

Hello everyone. I chose this thread to make my first post because I have been reading everything I could find regarding color spaces, colorsync, and printing within Aperture, in an effort to make good prints with Aperture. I've only been using Aperture for a month (2.1); never used any previous versions of Aperture. I'm going to buy a new printer soon, so I wanted to get the entire Aperture printing-process learning curve mastered using my current hardware (Canon i9900) before working with a new printer.
I profile everything with i1, and I use Zedonet's PrintFab RIP for my printer driver. I'm almost to the point where I can produce prints to my liking, in that they (nearly) perfectly match my screen. My question specifically addresses PrintFab's settings. Is anyone using it? Google and Apple Forum searches did not yield a single thread where someone said they use PrintFab with Aperture.
Regardless, some of you color-space experts might have an answer to my question. PrintFab needs you to select the document's color space (not just the printer profile); similar to printing in most color-managed applications, but instead it's set up in the print driver. It allows you to import existing ICC profiles too, such as Adobe RGB (1998), but it defaults to sRGB. I want to match PrintFab's setting to the color space of the data sent to the printer driver from Aperture's print dialog, when Aperture is printing a RAW image, and the Aperture print settings are set to "System Managed" for the ColorSync Profile. Is Aperture leaving the color space intact (it's internal wide gamut profile) or is it converting it to sRGB, or Adobe RGB(1998) like when you round-trip to an external editor? What colorsync profile should I import into PrintFab (e.g., Apple RGB (1998), Adobe RGB (1998), Wide Gamut RGB, sRGB, or something else) to match the color space Aperture uses for "System Managed" (i.e., printer manages color) printing?
Cheers

Similar Messages

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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)?

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Prints too dark with Photoshop Elements 10

    My photos are printing out much darker than what is on the monitor display.  I have calibrated the monitor and changed the color profile, color management & color space numerous times and they I cannot see any difference in the prints. I've changed the printer settings, still too dark.  I have edited the photos and brightened them, still much darker than on the display.  I'm using Photoshop Elements 10 with a new monitor and computer.  My old computer and Adobe Photoshop CS2 program did not have this problem.  Any suggestions?

    Check to be sure that color is not managed both by PSE and by the printer. In editor, go to Edit>color settings and check "always manage color for computer screens." Then, go to File>print>more options (lower left in the dialog)>Color Management tab>Color handling: "Printer Manages Color."
    Are drivers and firmware for your printer up to date?
    Do pictures print well via other applications with your equipment?
    Have you printed a file,  processed in Elements, at a kiosk, such as at CVS? How does that look?
    I assume that you are printing from Editor, not from Organizer. It is said that the print engines are not the same.

  • 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.

  • Epson r 3000 print too dark

    Hi there,
    I am waisting papr and ink and I am getting totally sick of this.... and clueless!
    Situation:
    I am a Mac newbie after hundred frustrating Win years and have a MacBook Pro late 2013.
    It comes with Mavericks and all updats are installed.
    I have two printers: An office printer (Canon) and a photo printer - the Epson Stylus Photo R 3000
    Bot work, as far as shier printing is concerned. That was easy.
    Surprisingly the photos I get out of my Canon printer are not bad at all, as much as the printer can.
    But the Epson is producing crap.
    Trying to describe my workflow:
    Open Image in RAW converter (Canon DPP), convert to Tiff (16bit)
    Open Tiff in Gimp 2.8.10
    Make adjustments such as cropping etc if needed, scale to paper size, setup the layout (paper format, where to print on the papr etc) - this all works.
    Go into Gimp Print dialog.
    Set the color management to "ColorSync" - I should mention that I did setup Gimp to use the profile of the paper manufacurer (in my case Hahnmuhle).
    Print preview - excellent
    Print - not a bit, but way too dark (I am guessing, but it is easily 30 - 50% too dark, or in other word at least - 1,5 to  2 EV, if not more.
    I am totally frustrated and it seems that there is no help in any forum.....

    Have you calibrated your monitor?
    99% of the time that prints are too dark, it's because your monitor is too bright. You need to properly calibrate your monitor and adjust your photos so they look correct on the profiled monitor.
    Here's a decent article on the subject:
    http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml

  • Officejet pro 8100 prints too dark

    Hi I recently bought this hp printer after being delighted with my 3550 which has finally became obsolete.
    bad move ! every photo, whether printed on the network , direct print on pc or via eprint, comes out too dark and fuzzy
    i have even tried manual colour management as suggested elsewhere on this forum. i found the troubleshooting guide soes not address the issue at all. it ia clearly an issue with hp printes of various types'
    some real technical help required pls

    Sofar, the selecting/de-selecting of bi-directional has no bearing on it. 
    When I engage the print dialog is defaults to 10 copies, and I have to manually reset it to 1 copy. 
    I have no idea where that default comes from, but it does not happen only in word, but in several program, but not in all of them, or so it seems.
    Of course, too often I don't remember to reset it, and then there's hell to pay. This is costing me a lot of paper and ink.

  • 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.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Vendor name in fbl3n

    hi, Is it possible to get the vendor code in FBL3n report. Because in Bank outgoing payment GL report we need vendor name. Vendor name is available in screen layout of fbl3n, i have moved from hidden to display still it is not showing the vendor name

  • Does windows have a problem with iDVD DVDs?

    Works fine on Mac Works fine on Playstation Works fine on B&O DVD Doesn't work fine on Wintel PC. The DVD buttons are only sometimes activated - mosty they are not recognised and don't function. When they do function, it's only by pressing a little "

  • Side bars not accessible FF 4.0b2 on Toshiba AC100 (Android 2.2)

    Having now got FF installed, albeit not the latest beta, I have a couple of issues. 1. The AC100 does not have a touch screen, so the swipe left/right gestures on my HTC Desire, which bring the side bars on to the screen, can't be used. 2. Page navig

  • Bookmark pages using Excel VBA

    Please help me writing a VBA script to bookmark all pages having a common word  in a document. I am alraedy done with: opening a document Finding the word Placing a book mark Challenge is I want bookmark placed on all pages where word "customer" appe

  • Delete Generated programs in transformations in SAP BI

    Hi Experts, I am facing an issue while deleting an old include program which was no more used in the transformation. While deleting the include program its still showing that its used in the generated program. But the transformation was deleted long