A place to discuss the tools you use - printers, scanners, software etc...
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I know this is an old subject but I am ready to use something to calibrate my monitor. I need something that works good and is under $100.00 Everything on my monitor looks dark and the colors that I see are not what prints and when I make adjustments and print everything is way to light. What I see is not what I get so first to calibrate the monitor and then see what happens. First calibrate moitor and then go and have my eyes calibrated with new glasses.
Help please!, What do you use and would you suggest others use it?
Tina B
I would be interested in this also!!!
I use the Spyder 3 Pro ($154 from B&H), but they also list a Spyder Express - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/6 ... l#features - at $88.90.

Mine works wonders and I would replace it in a heartbeat if it died or went lost. I have been using it (Spyder 3 Pro) for 3 years without problems.
John
I'm using an older version of Spyder. Spyder 2. It works great! They also make an inexpensive version for around $95.00. Check out Amazon.com they may even have it cheaper.
Chas
Chas's Gallery
f/16 on a sunny day.....:)
HEY HUN,I have a version that Ithink was called the spyder pro 3 elite,I was having the same problems as you,my printer was not printing what was on my screen and vise versa,Ihave only had it a few months and Ihave to say the colours on my sreen look really good,but they still do not match my print out exactly,so perhaps Ihave bought the wrong type of colour calibrater???,mine cost me around £89,dont know what that is in dollars,but you can view them on line at www. warehouse express,they have quite a bit of info on all there products,or contact spyder direct to get the low down .
.have prob confused you more than helped!!!!! :doh:
regards,
min.
Min,
Volumes and volumes have been written about color management. It's a ticklish subject. What works for one person doesn't always work for someone else. A lot of testing what works for you may be in order. A book I have found indispensable is,"301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques" by Andrew Darlow.
Chas
Chas's Gallery
f/16 on a sunny day.....:)
Min,

Have you been able to resolve your printing issue?

If not, I might be able to help, but need information regarding O.S, Elements Version and Brand name and model of printer.
John
Ihave to say the colours on my sreen look really good,but they still do not match my print out exactly,so perhaps Ihave bought the wrong type of colour calibrater???


No! the problem is not your calibrater! (Unless its broken!) Calibrating your monitor is the important first step in managing your color process from camera to screen to printing. While the colorimeter profiles your monitor, it does nothing for profiling your printer. That is a whole 'nuther piece of equipment, which, unfortunately, is a bit expensive for the average user to run out and purchase.

But all is not lost! There are things you can do with the printer you have without running out and buying more expensive equipment in order to "get it right". While getting it exactly perfect may be impossible, with a little effort you can achieve acceptable results. For more information on color management from start to finish with PSE and PS, check out Pixels by Woody. Some of you will recognize him as Colin from the Elements Village PSE site. He has a lot of useful information that isn't that hard to digest on his site.

If you want to get your printer profiled also, go to Cathy's Profiles. (Thanks Diego!) For $35 US you can get your printer profiled without you having to go out and buy any expensive equipment. And one thing I would recommend as far as your printer goes is to stay away from 3rd party inks. I know buying the manufacturer inks can be expensive, but the printers are calibrated to them and you will get your best results using them. I've tried several myself, but never was able to find one I really liked.

Good luck! :thumbsup:
GeneVH

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Roger what Gene says.

Colin is the master at this stuff.

My 2 cents - make sure that you are using your printer manafacturer's ink, paper and settings or you can't get a good call on what is wrong if the colours come out "off".

I would recommend that you also, at least for the first run, use Printer Color Managament in Photoshop when you print, then experiment with Photoshop Manages Colors and figure out how to tweak the color managament settings in your printer. This is the hardest thing to help you with, as there is a lot of variation from printer to printer - even from the same supplier.
John
For everyone, Min and I have had a few PMs on this, and now will be conducting business on the open forum.

So,

Firstly, to produce a print screen or screen shot of something you are having an issue with - and this applies specifically to Win XP/Vista/7 and PSE5.

1. Press the Print Screen key your keyboard. This can vary from kb to kb but on mine is to the right of the F keys and above the numeris keyboard cluster on the right hand of the kb. On mine, it is one of 3 Insert/PrintScreen/Pause Break. Pressing this key loads an image of your entire screen into the Windows clipboard. (Pressing Alt+Print Screen captures the active window or a dialogue box only. Useful if you would be cropping to get down to a smaller image for posting).

2. Launch PSE editor (version 5 for sure, not sure about 7/8) and do a File, New, Image from Clipboard.

This gives you an editable view of your screen. You can use the crop tool to get down to the relevant area if a full screen capture, use the brush tool to circle a specific area, etc. If posting into a thread check for the board limit of 500 pixels by doing an Image, Resize, Image Size and see what the pixel dimensions are. If width or height are over 500, check the Resample Image button (the pixel size buttons will become editable) and enter 500 into whichever box is the largest. I usually use the Bicubic Sharper setting and then press O.K.

resize.jpg
resize.jpg (75.39 KiB) Viewed 4745 times


3. Do a File, Save As, make sure that the image will be saved as a jpeg and that file size is less than 256Kb. (Use the quality slider to get down to a smaller size).



I usually save images that are produced this way into a Desktop Folder called Clips as it makes it easy to find when I am putting a thread together.

If the image is larger than 256Kb or downsizing it leads to too much loss of detail, use pixentral.com and post the link to the full-sized image.
John
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