simple monitor calibration problem?

[John Burch <john2004@bga.com>]

Hi,
I keep reading all this complex discussion on color calibration hoping the
light will dawn someday. But, till then, the only problem I see in my
prints is a brightness mismatch between the monitor and the print. The
color match looks good to me if I boost the brightness to preview or darken
the print in the EPSON driver. I do not have a strong color sense so I
would miss a lot of subtle details most of you would notice. I've
calibrated the monitor with Photoshop Gamma and it says everything it
calibrated and I like what I see during normal use of the computer, but it
is obvious that pictures are much too dark on the screen and when they
print they look much better. Detail that is lost on the dark screen is
clearly visible in the print.  I discovered this problem as I was
complaining to Norm at mediasteet.com about how the Generations ink were
too light and I couldn't get the dark blue skies in my pictures. It's
obvious now, that his inks were doing fine. My monitor is showing me very
dark pictures that are not printed by either Epson or mediastreet inks as
dark as the screen. 

Does this mean that Photoshop Gamma utility is useless? 

Before you suggest Proveit and a puck, I have to say that my budget is too
tight to consider that yet. Would you expect ProveIt, alone, to improve
this situation? 

Norm said earlier that his inks and paper were a very close match to the
Epson standard when using the EPSON 1200 printer driver, and I have to
agree with him for my purposes (3D rendered art) 

I'm using Windows98SE, Photoshop 5.5, Epson 1200, Generations ink,
mediastreet.com Royal Weave and Epson Photo Paper.  I'm using the Epson
Stylus Photo 1200 profile with unchecked Printer Color managment, and Auto,
not Custom. Paper is always set to Photo Paper for Royal Weave as well as
the real Photo Paper. 

The colors look best on Photo Paper, maybe just because I love that crisp
white surface, but the Royal Weave holds excellent detail and the color is
a perfect match to Epson's OEM inks (to my eye). 

If I could make this monitor match the prints brightness without forcing it
in a preview or driver slider, I think I would have a perfect, archival
duplicate of the Epson OEM inks. And I do know that some or all of you
could point out the lack of a perfect match but I can't see that yet. 

John 


Human = soap bubble. Beautiful, delicate, transient, materials reuseable.
Buffy: "Fire, bad. Tree, pretty."
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