Color mis-matched prints, help needed!

[iceblue1980]

Hello guys!

I have a problem. I use a HP CP2025 printer (laser, color) to print my retouched photos. The problem is that basically all my prints are too dark and too red compared to the image shown on the computer screen. I tried to view my images on different displays, checked the colors in Photoshop and everything seems to be right. I work in RGB-mode.

I print on mormal paper and I use printer color mamagement as option when printing my photos.

Any tip or advise on what's wrong? Couple of other color laser printers are too printing out too dark photos with red colorcasts.

[TommyO]

iceblue1980,
This is not uncommon. We hear it a lot. You need to find ICC profiles for the printer and paper you plan to use. For this particular printer, they may be hard to find as it is not a common printer in the "Photoshop" world.

Once you obtain the profile, you will be able to soft proof on the screen prior to printing. The soft proof should look pretty close to a printed result. In the end, you will find you may always need to lighten your final image just a little.

Also, you will not use "printer color management" after you install the ICC profile. Allow photoshop to do all the color management using the profile.

If you need more technical details, just ask, or refer to Photoshop's help. It's pretty thorough. Also, if you cannot find an ICC profile for the printer and paper, you can always create your own. However, that entails buying some hardware, which is not cheap. If you don't want to buy the hardware, do like many others and experiment with certain adjustment layers that will always get the image close and make those part of your final workflow.

[smjohnson]

While screen matching is not this easy, here is a suggestion that may help:

I'd advise:

1) Use the photo intent instead of sRGB screenmatch.

2) Selecting the media as heavy or glossy will likely use a media table that has more max ink, which may result in more chroma in the dark colors.

These are all settings in the print driver.

[iceblue1980]

I appreciate alot the advices given here! I too was thinking of a "custom" layer to make the prints perfect. I'll try with ICC as well though.

[smjohnson]

There is a limit to the amount of color that the printer will put down if plain paper is selected. If you select a premium paper in the driver (even if you don't use it) more vivid colors are possible. For best results, using a premium laser paper (smooth, white) will make better photos. It does not cost as much as inkjet photo paper, and makes a big difference in the quality of photos.