Need Recommendations on Printer Calibration Software

<p>Subject says it all. I have an Epson Stylus Photo 1400, running Window 10.</p>

<p>There's nothing to calibrate on such a printer. Perhaps you wish to make your own ICC printer profiles? Or you wish to calibrate and profile your display?</p>

<p>I guess I need to make my own printer profiles. My monitor is already calibrated using a Spyder 5 Pro, and I'm using the Epson supplied ICC profiles for the paper being used, but the prints come out too dark when they look fine on the screen. In order to compensate, I have to increase the brightness in Photoshop, and that requires guesswork. I'm wasting too much paper.</p>

<p>It sounds like Photoshop is battling Epson for control of the color preferences. On the PS print page, check to makes sure that "No Color Adjustment" is selected under ICM; and under Color management, select "Photoshop Manages Colors", and that the correct ICC profile for your paper is selected.</p>

<p>On the other side of this, under "Printer Setup", select "Print Settings", which takes you to the Epson setup page. Select "ICM", then "No Color Adjustment". Then, return to the PS print setup page.</p>

<p>Good luck...</p>

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<p>I guess I need to make my own printer profiles.</p>

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<p>Maybe. Try some of the canned profile first. Some from Epson are actually very good, some not so good:<br>

<em>Not all ICC profiles are created equally</em><br>

<em>In this 23 minute video, I'll cover:</em><br>

<em>The basic anatomy of ICC Profiles</em><br>

<em>Why there are differences in profile quality and color rendering</em><br>

<em>How to evaluate an ICC output profile</em><br>

<em>Examples of good and not so good canned profiles and custom profiles on actual printed output. </em><br>

<em> </em><br>

<em>High resolution: http://digitaldog.net/files/Not_All_Profiles_are_created_equally.mp4</em><br>

<em>Low resolution (YouTube):

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<p>but the prints come out too dark when they look fine on the screen.<br /></p>

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<p>Test using a color reference image: http://www.digitaldog.net/files/2014PrinterTestFileFlat.tif.zip<br>

Too dark under any well behaved illuminant? If not, it's your display calibration. </p>

<p>If you are using the downloaded paper profiles correctly in your software, next step is ICC profiling. Which some places can do for you if you print some stuff out. </p>

<p>Thanks. I will try these suggestions. One more thing, how does Black Point Compensation affect the printed image?</p>

<p>I had the same problem when uploading files to Costco for printing. In my case the problem was my monitor was too bright. I dimmed it down considerably from the brightness I was use to in an office environment, and the prints began to look like what I saw on my monitor.</p>

<p>There is a difference between calibrating you monitor (adjusting the monitor setting, especially brightness, using the Spyder software) and profiling which is letting the software generate a profile correcting color and brightness and loading it to the video card. You need to do both.</p>

<p>There is also a difference viewing an image that is back lighted, on your monitor, and viewing a print by reflected light. I suspect if you view the print under a brighter light, that more closely approximates the monitor illumination, many of the differences will disappear. Or reduce the monitor brightness to approximate the illumination under which you view the print. </p>

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<p>One more thing, how does Black Point Compensation affect the printed image?</p>

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<p>Yes and always use it!</p>

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<p>There is a difference between calibrating you monitor (adjusting the monitor setting, especially brightness, using the Spyder software) and profiling which is letting the software generate a profile correcting color and brightness and loading it to the video card. You need to do both.</p>

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<p>You do both yes. The profile doesn't correct; it profiles (fingerprints) the calibration which <strong>does</strong> <em>correct</em> (change) the behavior of the display to (hopefully) an ideal condition. </p>

<p>Thanks everyone! All very helpful.</p>

<p>I found Colormunki very helpful in getting my printed output to match my monitor. One result of using it was that I, like one of the other commenters, dimmed my screen quite a bit.</p>