Calibrate and Profile Your Monitor Before Printing

So you have bitten the bullet. You’ve made up my mind that your crisp new product collection is just too treasured to be advertised with amateur photography, so you’ve phoned a professional photographer to help record your products most desirable visual assets and help boost your corporate brand image.

The DVD arrives and as guessed the photography is spot on! All you need to accomplish now is enhance the images a little in Adobes Photoshop, transmit them to the printers and then await delivery of your great new brochure.

Your brochure arrives back from the printers but all is not Ok! The photos are way too intense and contrasty, all those soft tones seem to be lost and there appears to be a awful colour caste?

This is an particularly typical concern and one I hear customers agonize about on a recurring basis. The natural response would seem to be, ‘blame the photographer’, after all they were the suppliers of the original image files. But in reality it is highly likely to one of or a mixture of the following issues:

1. Heavy Handed Photoshop Tactics. A really frequent issue often caused when people are sometimes new to professional image editing or simply do not have the necessary ability with the software suite. Beginners will often destroy much of the subtle tonal data that is contained within the picture file, for instance by turning up the contrast too high or over saturating the image.

2. RGB to CYMK Conversion. The RGB profiled picture file your photographer provided you will often look very different onscreen to when it comes out of the printer. This is a massive topic in it’s self and is worthy of it’s own article but basically commercial printing inks can rarely recreate the same exact colours that you see on your computer monitor. The picture files require cautious conversion and ideally proofing if precise colour accuracy is important.

3. Poor Monitor Calibration. This is the major concern and the one that I think causes the most discontentment and problems. If your monitor isn’t accurately calibrated or indeed you simply use the makers canned factory configurations, there is a good risk that your monitor is misleading you!

Monitor Calibration is the technique of altering your monitors controls to achieve the most neutral display possible, including modifying its luminance (brightness), white point (colour temperature) and gamma controls. If you don’t work with pictures on a frequent basis or you hire a design consultant (who understands the meaning of tight colour management) to do your pre-press work then you may choose to simply correct your monitors controls manually, even so remember not to modify the image files as what you observe on your screen will be different to what your designer and printer sees!

Regardless, I strongly recommend you invest in some basic monitor calibration hardware that will come bundled with compatible profile software. You won’t have to invest thousands, indeed for the price of a complete set of inkjet cartridges you’ll be able to get a basic calibration device, but it will transform your digital workflow and give you the end results you deserve.

Monitor calibration apparatus will precisely measure the flaws in your screen and then the software will make a unique profile, which is in effect a ‘filter’ that compensates for these imperfections. This individual profile is then saved to your computers appropriate libraries.

It never ceases to amaze me how even professional designers simply don’t comprehend or choose to ignore the significance of colour management in their workflow. Monitor calibration is a small yet critical part of a professional digital workflow that when overlooked, can cause untold disappointment and problems. So do yourself a massive favour and invest in some simple monitor calibration equipment, you’ll wonder why you haven’t done it sooner!

Andy Nickerson is the owner of Brampton Valley Photography, Commercial Photographers Northampton