How do I make my MX880 Canon prints come out in the same colors as on the screen?

Question

I have a Canon MX880 printer which I recently bought. For some reason, prints from Adobe Lightroom come out with bad colors (i.e. not the same as on screen, though not altogether different). I played around with a bunch of setting and couldn't find something to make it work.

Thanks in advance!

Asked by Shwouchk

Answer

For best results you need a "color profile" to match your monitor to the color palette / gamut / system / ... that you are using AND you want a color profile to do the same thing for your printer. Then you see on screen what the image should look like and your printer interprets this correctly. Both are necessary for serious work. If you set printer to screen and the screen is not correctly "profiles" YOU will see good results on screen and printer BUT your electronic images will probably not appear correct to anyone else.

There is more on web about this than you'd want to wade through, but it doesn't take much effort to get a good enough idea for practical purposes.

Some printer manufacturers provide formal profiles for their printers.

Here is an excellent introduction re ICC and ICM profiles and printers -
Understanding Printer Colour Management

Good Introduction to Icc Profiles and Their Use - monitors and printers.

An about.com tutorial - main value is in a number of useful links provided - Calibrate Your Printer

If you have money - Chromix

Adding a co or profile to Windows XP

Wikipedia - color management

Answered by Russell McMahon

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