Printing

[torrid_nc]

OK, here's one for the photo gurus. How do you go about printing?

I had an Epson R1800 which stopped working, and now have an R1400. Quite frankly, I am disappointed with them both. I see brilliant pictures on my screen, but they look dark and the colors are flat when I print them.

I start to print stuff, then just get disgusted and stop.

[Saturate15]

I have a really nice HP printer. It does good work, but not excellent. The one I had picked out was mysteriously out of stock and no where to be found when I wanted to buy it. I had a negative scanner and everything. :( If I want good prints I order them from Ritz or something.

[littlemissGTO]

I go to a local camera store when I want prints made.

[jlw]

I use Sam's Club for my cheap prints and White House Custom Color for my good ones.

[mistermike]

Calibrating your monitor and printer goes a long way toward getting them to look like one another.
http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3054 39

[VeritasGT]

Calibrating your monitor and printer goes a long way toward getting them to look like one another.
http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3054 39

This.

Also, if you use photoshop, you can set the color profile to match the gamut of your printer, and you'll see exactly what your print will look like.

[torrid_nc]

Calibrating your monitor and printer goes a long way toward getting them to look like one another.
http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3054 39

This.

Also, if you use photoshop, you can set the color profile to match the gamut of your printer, and you'll see exactly what your print will look like.

I've my monitor calibrated with a Spyder3. I've mucked around with some downloaded Epson .icc profiles to no avail.

Will the Spyder3 Print actually read the colors my printer outputs, then create a custom .icc file?

[mistermike]

I've my monitor calibrated with a Spyder3. I've mucked around with some downloaded Epson .icc profiles to no avail.

Will the Spyder3 Print actually read the colors my printer outputs, then create a custom .icc file?

I have the Print program as well, but haven't really drilled into it yet, as I don't own a decent photo printer other than a couple of 4X6 dye sublimation units that seem to work well with no tweaking. I know they had a tutorial on profiling specific Epson printers. Apparently there are a couple of tricks to substituting the Spyder profile for the Epson one. Their little videos are more useful than the basic instructions in some instances.

[sxty8goats]

I've my monitor calibrated with a Spyder3. I've mucked around with some downloaded Epson .icc profiles to no avail.

Will the Spyder3 Print actually read the colors my printer outputs, then create a custom .icc file?

I used to fight with an Epson 870 back in the day. It was a constant experiment with profiles, calibration, paper and ink. Originally we had major issues with 'orange shift' caused as the cyan inks would fade leaving the image orange. One day that ran out of ink and I threw it away. :)

Now I use an online lab to produce true chemical prints. I'm using http://www.maxlab.net/ because they are in IL and I was in IL when I started using them. Their prints have always been dead on and service was quick. Some of the 'one hour' places will have a profile if you ask for them but most don't. The absolute worse one I've used was the Wolf Camera in Crystal Lake IL. A 'real' camera store and the whites were light blue and the skin tones made them look sick.

I've had ok results from my local Walgreens when I've needed a quick print.

[mistermike]

I'm lucky to have a good relationship with a lab that I used to manage. They have a digital Noritsu printer that can handle anything up to 11 x 14, matte or glossy, and excellent WYSISYG preview.