Colour Calibration by Michele Sawyer

Colour ‘Munki’ Your World

Do your prints look nothing like what is displayed on-screen? Are you surprised to see colours shift and appear blotchy in print?

It is probably because your monitor and printer are not communicating, not on the same wavelength, so to speak.  Monitors and printers have to be calibrated to get the best colour reproduction.   The good news is that this is easily fixed by hiring a ‘Colormunki’ from Total Photographic Supplies for under $20 for two days hire. Your prints will never look better, accurate colours that match exactly what you see on-screen.

Monitor Profiling
After installing the Colormunki software, getting accurate on-screen colour is the first and most important step.  You simply suspend the device over your monitor and it flashes various colours which the Colormunki measures to build a profile for your monitor.   In the advance mode, the Colormunki will also measure the ambient light of your room.  The on-screen instructions are very easy to follow and offers the choice of viewing a video if preferred.   The process takes a few minutes, and when completed shows your monitor in both before and after calibration modes.  So easy, the monitor looks fantastic, with adjusted contrast and brightness that lets you see highlight and shadow details across all colours.

Printer Profiling
The next step is to create a profile for each printer and paper combination that you use.  Individual profiles are necessary for every paper type.  This enables the printer to print accurate colours using different types of media.  The Colormunki instructs you to print an A4 target page using your preferred paper.  Once the ink is dried (approx 10 minutes) you pass the Colormunki over the target page and it records the result.  The Colormunki then instructs you to print a second A4 target page, using the same type of paper.  Once this is dried, you pass the Colormunki over this page and once again it records the second combination of colours.  In the final step, the software builds a profile using the information from both the target prints, and imports this profile into your preferred software, eg. Photoshop.

Before printing your masterpiece, you need to make sure that the printer’s colour management is turned off.  You want Photoshop to manage the printer and the colour.  In Photoshop’s print dialog box, under ‘Color Handling’, Select ‘Photoshop Manages Colour’.   Then select the correct printer profile for the paper you are printing with (the one that Colormunki built),  and then select ‘Perceptual’ as the Rendering Intent, this will enable any out-of-gamut colours to print accurately.

If all of this is confusing, have a look at the Colourmunki website http://www.colormunki.com.  It has four videos that not only explain how you set-up the Colourmunki, but gives a simple explanation of how our eyes see colour, and how different devices measure and display colours in RGB and CMYK.

Finally, you will be able to enjoy your printing, knowing that what you see on the screen, will be what you get in print.