[janneluecke]

I've read a few topics that touched on this but not specifically my problem. I have an Epson 1400 wide format printer. I use PSE 6 on the mac. I've done a lot of research on color calibration and profiles because my first attempt at printing out a LO was horrifying. The color was so off. It was a pretty neutral colored LO so if somebody didn't see my original on the monitor they wouldn't even know but I'm afraid something with more color will look even worse and I do want my prints to look like they did when I designed them so I want to solve this. I bought paper at Redriverpaper.com so I also downloaded a .icc color profile from their site specifically for the type of paper and printer I'm using. I loaded the profile into PSE and used it when printing but the color is still not right. There are so many different color profiles to choose from I would use all my ink trying them all just to see if one might work. I also tried calibrating my mac but after I did and I looked at my layout it was really bright so I changed the color calibration back to the mac's default. I know a lot of people have certain companies print their LOs and I never hear any complaints about color matching. How can they all get it right when you are sending your file to someone who has a different monitor than you and it's probably not the same colors as your monitor?yet you get your LO back and it looks just like what you see on your monitor? Does this problem make sense to anyone. The subject is so beyond my understanding I'm hoping someone can simplify it for me. Am I really doomed to just trial and error with trying every profile and different monitor calibrations until I get it right? Thanks for any help. Judy

[Suzie West]

janneluecke, on 21 April 2010 - 09:08 PM, said:

I've read a few topics that touched on this but not specifically my problem. I have an Epson 1400 wide format printer. I use PSE 6 on the mac. I've done a lot of research on color calibration and profiles because my first attempt at printing out a LO was horrifying. The color was so off. It was a pretty neutral colored LO so if somebody didn't see my original on the monitor they wouldn't even know but I'm afraid something with more color will look even worse and I do want my prints to look like they did when I designed them so I want to solve this. I bought paper at Redriverpaper.com so I also downloaded a .icc color profile from their site specifically for the type of paper and printer I'm using. I loaded the profile into PSE and used it when printing but the color is still not right. There are so many different color profiles to choose from I would use all my ink trying them all just to see if one might work. I also tried calibrating my mac but after I did and I looked at my layout it was really bright so I changed the color calibration back to the mac's default. I know a lot of people have certain companies print their LOs and I never hear any complaints about color matching. How can they all get it right when you are sending your file to someone who has a different monitor than you and it's probably not the same colors as your monitor?yet you get your LO back and it looks just like what you see on your monitor? Does this problem make sense to anyone. The subject is so beyond my understanding I'm hoping someone can simplify it for me. Am I really doomed to just trial and error with trying every profile and different monitor calibrations until I get it right? Thanks for any help. Judy

Hi Judy, I use an Epson 1400 and Elements 6 but I use a PC rather than a MAC.

If you have a scanner, scan a piece of scrapbook paper with adesign (or even a photograph) into your computer and open it withElements 6 and see how off the scan is from the original paper or photo.

You may need to calibrate the monitor. I just Googled "calibrate monitor in Mac" and found this site: http://forums.macrum...ad.php?t=419728 You might want toread through these posts and try the calibration methods and see ifthat helps. I'd take notes while doing this.

If that doesn't help, I'd contact Red River Paper (call them if you have to) and discuss your problem with them. I am using Epson paper only and I get beautiful prints. I had a terrible time in the beginning because the Epson profiles would not load. I have a long post on this board about it and how I finally found a fix. That doesn't seem to be your problem since the Red River paper profile seems to appear in the Elements 6 print screen. There are devices you can purchase to calibrate your monitor. I've never used one - was getting close to purchasing one but finally got things to work out.

I hope this helps.

Suzie

[Suzie West]

Suzie West, on 05 May 2010 - 01:21 PM, said:

janneluecke, on 21 April 2010 - 09:08 PM, said:

I've read a few topics that touched on this but not specifically my problem. I have an Epson 1400 wide format printer. I use PSE 6 on the mac. I've done a lot of research on color calibration and profiles because my first attempt at printing out a LO was horrifying. The color was so off. It was a pretty neutral colored LO so if somebody didn't see my original on the monitor they wouldn't even know but I'm afraid something with more color will look even worse and I do want my prints to look like they did when I designed them so I want to solve this. I bought paper at Redriverpaper.com so I also downloaded a .icc color profile from their site specifically for the type of paper and printer I'm using. I loaded the profile into PSE and used it when printing but the color is still not right. There are so many different color profiles to choose from I would use all my ink trying them all just to see if one might work. I also tried calibrating my mac but after I did and I looked at my layout it was really bright so I changed the color calibration back to the mac's default. I know a lot of people have certain companies print their LOs and I never hear any complaints about color matching. How can they all get it right when you are sending your file to someone who has a different monitor than you and it's probably not the same colors as your monitor?yet you get your LO back and it looks just like what you see on your monitor? Does this problem make sense to anyone. The subject is so beyond my understanding I'm hoping someone can simplify it for me. Am I really doomed to just trial and error with trying every profile and different monitor calibrations until I get it right? Thanks for any help. Judy

Hi Judy, I use an Epson 1400 and Elements 6 but I use a PC rather than a MAC.

If you have a scanner, scan a piece of scrapbook paper with adesign (or even a photograph) into your computer and open it withElements 6 and see how off the scan is from the original paper or photo.

You may need to calibrate the monitor. I just Googled "calibrate monitor in Mac" and found this site: http://forums.macrum...ad.php?t=419728 You might want toread through these posts and try the calibration methods and see ifthat helps. I'd take notes while doing this.

If that doesn't help, I'd contact Red River Paper (call them if you have to) and discuss your problem with them. I am using Epson paper only and I get beautiful prints. I had a terrible time in the beginning because the Epson profiles would not load. I have a long post on this board about it and how I finally found a fix. That doesn't seem to be your problem since the Red River paper profile seems to appear in the Elements 6 print screen. There are devices you can purchase to calibrate your monitor. I've never used one - was getting close to purchasing one but finally got things to work out.

I hope this helps.

Suzie

P.S. Judy, another thought: While experimenting with the calibration and profiles, to economize on use of paper and ink either print just a portion of a file or open a new page and title it Test or something and copy either reduced images to it or just parts of images. Keep notes so you now what's what in the end. You can also change the name of the Layers in the new Test file with language that will identify that particular layer with your handwritten notes. I hope this isn't too confusing! sgw

[janneluecke]

Actually I did read your other post. I'm not sure it's the same problem. I did talk to an expert at an Apple store and he showed me how to calibrate the monitor. After I did and then opened PSE again my LO looked really funny so I put the calibration back to default. The thing is I think what needs to be done is actually calibrating the monitor with the printer. I'm wondering if that's only possible with and expensive program like Spyder2 or Colormunky. If I change the calibration of the Mac monitor then I'm obviously going to color things differently in my LO to make it look how I want but does this garuantee that my printer will print out the same colors as I see on my monitor? I did make a 4x6 LO just using a brush with different colors and then printed out a bunch of them with different color profiles in the PSE print window, I haven't tried them all yet of course, but when I then hold the printout next to my monitor none of them look the same. It's so frustrating. Like I said, the LO look okay (it's not like brown shows up purple). Someone else wouldn't know what I was talking about unless they saw the printed LO compared to the LO on the computer screen. I just want my browns to be the same shade of brown that I created! I'll keep tryng, I guess or take the chance of paying someone else to print my LO and hope they get the color right. Thanks for listening to my venting. Judy