Photo Printing brightness problem

[gingernut]

Morning,

I'm trying to print some A4 'ish photos for a customer in Cornwall. (On Ilford Inkjet glossy paper) on a HP Photosmart C5180 printer. The images have previously been adjusted for brightness with Nikon "PictureProject" software. The files I'm printing on my home printer appear darker than those on screen, and those 6x4" images that I ask "Photobox" to produce for me.

I've tried changing a few of the autofix/image quality etc settings for the printer,but it doesn't seem to make much difference ?

Any help/suggestions gratefully received.:)

[Bushfiva]

Follow HP's instructions for calibrating printer color via the evil HP Solution Center, Settings, Printer Settings, Calibrate Color (or something similar). There are third-party products such as Eye One that will calibrate your printer to your screen, and you can search online for someone who has made a printer profile for your printer/paper combination. I don't know if HP does such things; Canon does. You can do a vaguely similar job by printing a standard color chart and adjusting the monitor (easiest option) to match the printer.

[gingernut]

thanks Bushfiva will have a look

[mixture]

As bushfiva hints.... when was the last time you calibrated your screen and printer ? :E

[gingernut]

I don't think I ever have !

The screen seems to be ok (?) the stuff I have commercially printed seems to match whats on there.

Is the simplest way to reload my printer (HP solution) software (I lost it in the last blue screen episode) and take it from there ?

[mixture]

I assume you're using the correct paper profiles when printing ? (They seem to be downloadable here post-registration PRINTER PROFILES (http://www.ilford.ch/profiles/index_en.asp?type=profile)). Strictly speaking you should also be using the paper profiles in Photoshop for softproofing too.

You could always try some RIP software instead, that's what most pro outfits I know of use to drive their inkjets.

[green granite]

You might find this article useful:

Monitor Calibration Guide (http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/calibrating.htm)

The site also has lots of articles about monitors and has 'average' calibration settings for some.

TFT Central - LCD Monitor Information, Reviews, Guides and News (http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/)

[Exascot]

I have a similar problem but with black. My Lexmark shows the ink cartridge to be 75% full but is printing so faintly it is unreadable. I took it out and reset it. Now it wants to calibrate but can't print a page to calibrate from. Is it possible that it is telling me lies about the amount of ink remaining?

[Milo Minderbinder]

yes
or you could have a blocked head

[gingernut]

thanks, think I've sussed it :-)