Print outs not what I see on the screen! Help!

[AutumnChick]

I've got a new computer which I use PSPx to do digi-scrap pages, and an epson R300 printer, but what I print out is nothing at all like what I see on the screen - it is so so dark. I know I have read that you should just turn down the brightness on the screen, but doing that, just makes the screen impossible to look at! Any help or advice on what I can do would be appreciated! I paid over a thousand pounds for this new pc and everything else, and would just love to be able to print my pics without having to take the disk to boots!

[MandyNi0]

Very hard to tell, are you using the manufacturers paper and inks, if you don't it can certainly make a difference. The other thing that might help would be to look at monitor callibration. I don't know a whole lot about it but check your systems help file and perhaps do a "google" on it.

I did have some issues with colours but it was purely down to the ink and papers.

Sorry can't be of more help.

Mandy

[Harrey]

I have problem with photoshop. I have to go into View and then 'Proof Set-up and select the Monitor RGB. Do you have anything like that at all?
HTH

[PacificBlue]

Shell, someone more technical than me (regarding PCs and hardware) might be answer this more easily.

Basically you are talking about the calibration between your PC monitor and your printer, which is something that infuriates many digital scrappers (and designers). There are calibration tools available (do a google search) to help get the same colour tones that you see on your computer through to the printer settings. However, apparently these don't work for the newer LCD flatscreen monitors that come with newer PCs nowadays. Only very recently some companies are now suggesting that they can do this. This link here seems to promise it for LCDs http://www.scs-imaging.co.uk/

Here is a quick search to find some guidelines regarding calibrating your monitor for PSP http://www.jasc.com/support/kb/articles/monitor.asp however, that is just the monitor side of things. You will need to also calibrate the printer to the monitor. Getting complicated, huh?

Additionally, there is no way that you can tell that what you see before you onscreen is going to match with that developed at a developers anyway. In fact, I sent many digital layouts off for printing recently, and although thrilled with the results of having my layouts printed, they were all slightly darker or muddier than I was expecting.

I use PSP myself, on a year old PC, and the way I get around this darkness problem (realising that my flatscreen monitor is much brighter than my old big dunger of a thing) is that before printing at home, I up the brightness on the layouts themselves. Onscreen they then appear too bright, of course. But they print out much better. Then I change them back for display purposes. Once you've found the exact setting that gets you the best print quality from your Epson, you can save the process as a batch process in PSP, and run this over any future layouts.

And everyone else's point about papers and inks is a good one also. I always use the Epson inks in my printer, and also premium photo glossy paper, normally of that manufacturers also. Attempts at using any others means the prints don't come out as expected again.

[AutumnChick]

all too techy even for me - and I thought I was well computer literate!! I'll have to try all the suggestions over the weekend.
I do and always have used recommended paper/inks, so that isn't the prob, but I do have one of those flat screen deeleys, and it does seem a million times more in my face than my old humdinger of a monitor!! I did notice on my old pc, that the colour was never the same, but it wasn't as bad as this. Have always had epson printers, so am thinking of even phoning them up, esp as I have bought insurance on the thing too!!

Thanks for all help - greatly appreciated :)