Help! My pages print the wrong color at the printers!

[anitab]

(I posted this in the wrong area before - I'm using PSE5, so it should have been here.)

I've completed pages for a heritage photo album (for Christmas gifts), but when I take them (as JPEG and/or PSEpdf) to two different local printshops, the pages print out (they made a number of attempts) with a yellowish, greenish cast - quite unattractive, and not at all what I get when I print them on my HP printer at home (and not at all what I see on my monitor!). The ones from the printshop are also a bit darker...

Because of the volume of pages I wish to print, I would prefer to take them to the printshop. I anticipate doing a number of albums in the future, so this is something I need desperately to figure out.

New note:
Update:
I talked to my son this morning, and he said I need CMYK, not RGB, to have things printed at a printer; so I looked up CMYK on PSE help menu, and this is what the help menu says:

CMYK
Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A color space used by most printers to render colored images. Photoshop Elements does not support CMYK color mode.

So now I'm basically in panic mode and feeling like I've bought the wrong program, and I've invested all this time and money -- is there a way around this issue, besides investing more money in gobs of printing supplies? My whole purpose in doing this was to create multiple, hands-on memory albums for family members...

[Priss]

(I posted this in the wrong area before - I'm using PSE5, so it should have been here.)

I've completed pages for a heritage photo album (for Christmas gifts), but when I take them (as JPEG and/or PSEpdf) to two different local printshops, the pages print out (they made a number of attempts) with a yellowish, greenish cast - quite unattractive, and not at all what I get when I print them on my HP printer at home (and not at all what I see on my monitor!). The ones from the printshop are also a bit darker...

Because of the volume of pages I wish to print, I would prefer to take them to the printshop. I anticipate doing a number of albums in the future, so this is something I need desperately to figure out.

New note:
Update:
I talked to my son this morning, and he said I need CMYK, not RGB, to have things printed at a printer; so I looked up CMYK on PSE help menu, and this is what the help menu says:

CMYK
Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A color space used by most printers to render colored images. Photoshop Elements does not support CMYK color mode.

So now I'm basically in panic mode and feeling like I've bought the wrong program, and I've invested all this time and money -- is there a way around this issue, besides investing more money in gobs of printing supplies? My whole purpose in doing this was to create multiple, hands-on memory albums for family members...

We're working on this for you Anita.

[Linda Sattgast]

Color is a sticky subject because there are so many variables. Usually it's not the fault of the program we use, but of some setting we have on our computers or the way our monitor is calibrated. If you can print a page on your HP and get a good print, then here's what I've done before that's worth a try. Print one page on your HP and take it with you to the print shop as a color proof. Tell them you want them to print the same page and match your color.

I did this with a reduced copy of my page in a 4 x 4 size, but the color was true. I took it to Kinko's where they printed a 12 x 12 page. The color was different than my sample, so they adjusted something--I'm not sure if it was the computer or the printer--and they printed it again. This time it turned out close enough that I was okay with it. Remember, the recipients won't know the original color on your monitor, so they have nothing to compare with. If the skin tone colors look good, and the rest of the colors are close, you might want to go ahead and accept it.

If you don't get someone who will work with you, ask for a manager. Of all places, the Quick Print shops should be the ones who know how to adjust colors. You might ask if they could use an inkjet printer instead of one that requires CMYK to see if that makes a difference.

Here's another trick I've used when the printed page (even on my own printer) doesn't come out looking like the page on my monitor. Put a Levels adjustment layer at the very top of the Layers palette on one of your pages and adjust the middle slighter to the left so it's about 20 points lighter, e.g. from 1.0 to 1.20.

Open up your other pages and apply the same adjustment layer to them. The easiest way to do this is to click on the original adjustment layer (right in the Layers palette) and drag it over onto another page that needs it. Make sure it lands at the top of the new stack of layers!

Continue to do this until all your pages have the same adjustment layer. You can leave this layer visible when printing, but turn it off when viewing on your monitor.

Regarding the green tint, that may be the kind of paper they're using or who knows what. I really don't think it's a PSE5 problem. You would have the same problem with any program you used, I'm sure. Since you're running out of time for Christmas, you might need to use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and adjust the Hue slightly to compensate, say 5 or 10 points to the left. Again, you can drag this layer over onto your other files to quickly make changes to all your files, though I would take one file to the print shop first to check it.

It's definitely a work around, but with it being this late in the holiday season, there's not much time for you to do research. I would have the print shop see if they can adjust the color first, and if that doesn't work, try the second option with adjustment layers.

Hope that helps.

By the way, I just got the new Epson R1800 large format printer, and it's the ONLY model of printer I've ever used that the color comes out looking exactly like my monitor every time with no tweaking needed! I've been SO impressed with it!!!

[msbrad]

Thank you Linda for this information.
I one day hope to be able to get that pirnter too.
m

[anitab]

Oh, dear! I'm so embarrassed that it's taken me so long to respond. I guess my excuse is Christmas, being out of town, etc.; but mostly I've been trying one thing after another to solve the problem I was having, wanting to report that I had succeeded!

I never found a local printer (I tried three) who could print pages resembling the ones I printed on my printer. In fact, in some cases the journaling was so 'muddy' that it was not really readable - not too mention the colors; and the sepia tones were very poor. I tried PDF's, I tried JPGs, I didn't give up easily. I took my CD of pages to one place that converted RSB to CMYK for me, but would charge $40 and hour to do that, and once they did that they said (over the phone, since it was not one of the closer shops & they didn't have time to do it while I was there) that it 'didn't make any difference.' The small shops didn't appear to have much choice in printers... I'm 45 minutes from a city with more choices, so I ended up printing the albums for gifts at home. (They were well-received, by the way.)

Fotogirl, I appreciated all your helpful suggestions. I only wish your shop were located near me! : )

Thank you, Linda, for the suggestion for using a levels adjustment layer. I've been using that idea now, as I'm finally creating (and adjusting) pages on my Mac desktop. I was new to PSE Elements in September, and also was working with a new computer (MacBook); thought I'd be smart and get the Windows version of PSE Elements, since it can be run on the MacBook, but found it inconvenient to work from that side, when I do most things from my Mac desktop. Thanks to counsel from Wendy, I 'downgraded' to PSE El 4 for Mac, and I'm loving it; it's really much simpler to just work on the Mac side! (Interestingly enough, I have had no problem using PSE El 4 to open pages I made with PSE El 5 for Windows!)

I did re-calibrate my LCD MacBook monitor (thank you, Wendy, for your help with that!). The pages I brought over from the Windows side do look darker when viewing them on the Mac side, so that's why I've being using levels adjustment layers...

By the way, I'm very anxious to send off to viovio.com to have a book made. They seem to have incredible prices, and I read a review which gives them good press, comparing a hardbound book done at Shutterfly (64 pages, $73.99) and one done at Viovio (64 pages, $30.99), with some pages in common... Viovio has a base book price (5.00 for softcover, 15.00 for hardcover) with .25 for each additional page.
http://www.viovio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=423

Thank you again to everyone who gave their time to help me solve this!

[Wendy]

Hi Anita ...

So glad that things are now working out OK :)

Do let us know how you go on with getting the book printed ... that sounds a great deal..

Wendy

[Kaysmail]

I too am having problems getting the same colors to print that I see on my monitor. I wasted 5 sheets of matte paper this afternoon trying to print a whimsical layout I created today and finally resorted to using Kodak premium glossy photo paper (not my favorite) which did give me a similar color. I can't figure out why this happened, my prints are usually close to what I see on the screen.
I have PSE 3.0, and an Epson R200 printer - no ICC available at Epson so that doesn't help. I'm also using an Intel iMac, so that's different as well.
Any suggestions?
TIA.
Kay from CNY

[troush]

You know, I was having problems with a print on my cx7800 (just a 4x6), it was looking a little washed out. So, when I printed the next time, I looked at all the settings and found one to choose either Epson VIVID or Adobe RGB (Epson VIVID was the default selection). So, I changed it to Adobe RGB, and viola, a very good match. I usually don't have such problems, but this print was something I shot in RAW and converted. (My JPEGS usually come out fine straigth from the camera).

Just thought I'd throw it out there.

-Trish

[Kaysmail]

You know, I was having problems with a print on my cx7800 (just a 4x6), it was looking a little washed out. So, when I printed the next time, I looked at all the settings and found one to choose either Epson VIVID or Adobe RGB (Epson VIVID was the default selection). So, I changed it to Adobe RGB, and viola, a very good match. I usually don't have such problems, but this print was something I shot in RAW and converted. (My JPEGS usually come out fine straigth from the camera).

Just thought I'd throw it out there.

-Trish

Troush,
I don't have the option to choose Adobe RGB on my Epson R200, it's either Epson Vivid, or no color management. I spent countless hours yesterday trying to get things to print in the right colors, the color was REALLY off. I trashed my PSE 3.0, then reinstalled it. I trashed my printer driver and then downloaded a new driver and installed that, I ran maintenance on my printer heads and changed a couple of low ink cartridges. When all was said and done, I discovered a folder on my desktop with a plug in that said "Print Image Matching II", and once I put that in with the other plug ins, my printing was back to normal, not perfect, but more lifelike.
I have an Intel iMac that runs PSE under Rosetta, which is kind of like a "bridge" or whatever. Occasionally, when I'm working on PSE it shuts down for no reason (I have learned to save after each step!!!), and I'm not sure if that could be the reason the plug in became an orphan?? Anyway, I can once again print photos and layouts. A lot of work and time spent when I could better have been working on learning this stuff.
Sorry for running on.
Kay

[Priss]

(I posted this in the wrong area before - I'm using PSE5, so it should have been here.)

I've completed pages for a heritage photo album (for Christmas gifts), but when I take them (as JPEG and/or PSEpdf) to two different local printshops, the pages print out (they made a number of attempts) with a yellowish, greenish cast - quite unattractive, and not at all what I get when I print them on my HP printer at home (and not at all what I see on my monitor!). The ones from the printshop are also a bit darker...

Because of the volume of pages I wish to print, I would prefer to take them to the printshop. I anticipate doing a number of albums in the future, so this is something I need desperately to figure out.

New note:
Update:
I talked to my son this morning, and he said I need CMYK, not RGB, to have things printed at a printer; so I looked up CMYK on PSE help menu, and this is what the help menu says:

CMYK
Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A color space used by most printers to render colored images. Photoshop Elements does not support CMYK color mode.

So now I'm basically in panic mode and feeling like I've bought the wrong program, and I've invested all this time and money -- is there a way around this issue, besides investing more money in gobs of printing supplies? My whole purpose in doing this was to create multiple, hands-on memory albums for family members...



CYMK is a feature of Photoshop and is not found in Elements. But thousands and thousands and thousands of people have wonderful results at professional printing with files created in Photoshop Elements, and there are members here who have answered questions about this who own professional printing businesses (http://www.photobookmemories.com/about.html). There's quite a good deal of information on this thread: (http://www.scrappersguide.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7989#poststop)

I don't think you've bought the wrong program at all---hope this helps and that you find some great services to do print your projects, that your machine(s) are color calibrated properly. Do let us know what solutions you find. And you can ask some questions about this on the Adobe Photoshop Elements forums too, and see what they have to say over there.) (adobe.com>community>forums>photoshop elements.)

[amyb]

Anita,

I don't know if you have a Ritz/Wolfe camera but I have found that they are awesome to work with. They will work on your print until they get it right. The only issue is that they print only on photo paper. I did a calendar for my parents this past Christmas and I did one print at Wolfe which came out gorgeous! The prints I did on the laser printer didn't look nearly as good but it was so much cheaper I had to go that route. I just didn't show my family the original Wolfe print :D It is very frustrating when your lo looks great on your monitor and comes out looking less spectacular when it's printed.

[mrstucci]

Boy! This is a subject that is of some frustration to me too. I am using a G4 Mac running 10.4.8 and PSE4. I can't tell you how much ink I have wasted and paper and let's not talk about the time spent in trying to print out what I see on my monitor!!! Ugh!! I have a new 23" Samsung monitor and an oldish HP printer. I have tried various things and finally came across a solution-sort of. It's not perfect but it will do. I tried sending pages to WalMart for printing and it works fine but not all the time. So anyway, first I use a photo cartridge that I put in when I am going to print a page. Secondly, when I click on Print and get the window where I select the paper type and quality, there are some options there that I use: what I see on my monitor in PSE4 is so much darker than what is actually printed out that I select my paper then go to Color Options and move the slider to make it darker- unfortunately you have to play around with it but I usually move it to the first marker or a bit beyond and print-see if it's dark enough-if not, move the slider some more. I also move the slider towards more Vibrant. And sometimes I go to Ink and move that one notch to the right. Then I get closer to what I see on my monitor- like I said, it's not perfect but better. Also when I am creating a page, I try not to lighten the photo (particularly photos) so it may look a bit dark to me but I remind myself that it prints much, much lighter. So anyway, just a couple of tips. And if anyone has other tips and tricks for printing pages out that look just like the ones we create in PSE, I would love to hear them!! Judy