Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Does photo paper type make a difference?  (Read 3343 times)

davehaze

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7
Does photo paper type make a difference?
« on: December 03, 2008, 09:44:12 am »

Hi all, I just bought a Canon pixma mp610 printer and I have some regular (non- premium) Kodak soft gloss 8.5 x 11 photo paper that I have been using and the prints are coming out a little darker than expected. I am printing out of PS and I have noticed that in PS there are several printer profiles to choose from and they do make quite a bit of difference on how the prints turn out. Right now I am using the series MP610 GL2 profile in PS and the media type in the printer driver I have photo paper plus glossy selected.......there is no Kodak soft gloss option. Would getting some Canon photo paper that has the corresponding printer profile in PS and likewise in the media type in the printer settings be better? I hope it makes a difference cause I just ordered some Canon Photo paper pro. The Canon paper and replacement ink cartridges are expensive. Any cheap places to buy them from? Thanks!
Logged

Richowens

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 977
Does photo paper type make a difference?
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2008, 12:24:41 pm »

Logged

Peter McLennan

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4690
Does photo paper type make a difference?
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2008, 01:02:26 pm »

Logged

bill t.

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3011
    • http://www.unit16.net
Does photo paper type make a difference?
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2008, 01:55:20 pm »

Using the correct profiles you won't see a lot of difference between the various glossy papers.

Sounds like you're suffering from prints that seem too dark.  I suspect the real problem is that your monitor is too bright, and possibly not calibrated.  Unfortunately, the dirty little secret about recent very bright monitors is that they are so bright and contrasty that prints simply can not match what you see on the screen.  Prints have a much lower contrast range than a monitor.  Beyond using the right print and monitor profiles, those of us with bright monitors also have to adjust what we see on the screen to appear much brighter that what we hope to see on the prints.  And that's even the case with correctly calibrated monitors.

Of course there are work-arounds.  If you are dead certain you are using the right printer profiles and they are being correctly applied (which seems to be your case), you can empirically adjust down your monitor's brightness and contrast to look more like your prints, but don't tell anybody I said that.  If you do that, be sure you work from a large sampling of prints to get the best possible fit.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up