So i'm planning to buy a new printer, Epson R1900, and i just want to know "DO i really really really need to buy a calibration device to get what I want from the screen?" I mean, if i set it to CMYK mode in Photoshop, how can i make it as accurate as possible? thank you
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Printer Calibration With Monitor
- Thread starter pdechavez
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The greatest accuracy would come from an expensive, high-quality display in controlled lighting conditions that has been calibrated using a calibration kit.
Only you can determine just how accurate you need it to be. With my photography I'm about halfway picky--good ACD, a little tweaking, but no calibration kit.
My school's newspaper has crappy 15" LCD panels that aren't calibrated, under highly variable viewing conditions. Same thing with the Yearbook. Sometimes, I can tell that's a problem (the printed product looks off). Most people don't see what I see (i.e. non-photographers don't care, and even some photographers truly don't see that their photos are off-color). And most of the time even I don't see any issues.
So, up to you. You can have the crappiest conditions and still usually get good results. Or you can shell out a few thousand for a setup and never worry about a discrepancy between a print and your screen.
MR has several threads on calibration. Peek around and you'll see them.
Only you can determine just how accurate you need it to be. With my photography I'm about halfway picky--good ACD, a little tweaking, but no calibration kit.
My school's newspaper has crappy 15" LCD panels that aren't calibrated, under highly variable viewing conditions. Same thing with the Yearbook. Sometimes, I can tell that's a problem (the printed product looks off). Most people don't see what I see (i.e. non-photographers don't care, and even some photographers truly don't see that their photos are off-color). And most of the time even I don't see any issues.
So, up to you. You can have the crappiest conditions and still usually get good results. Or you can shell out a few thousand for a setup and never worry about a discrepancy between a print and your screen.
MR has several threads on calibration. Peek around and you'll see them.
Your screen is not a CMYK device, so its gamut is going to be different than a printer's gamut. You can calibrate the monitor, the printer, or both. If you're using a printer with an ink set and paper that you can get profiles for, then assuming low variance from the manufacturer profiling the printer is only important for someone who needs an extreme level of matching or consistency (and it still won't "match" the monitor because CMYK isn't RGB.) Printer calibration devices are expensive, screen calibration devices aren't so exepensive- but only you can say if you're getting acceptable results from either- so only you can judge what you need. "As accurate as possible" means you need to profile the ink you're actually using, the paper you're actually using and the screen- in the lighting you expect the print to be displayed in...
Most of us find calibrating the monitor and using printer/paper profiles to be sufficient, but a lot depends on intended use (like color matching for a catalog, or paint samples...)