Printer settings

[NRivera]

Is there anyone using a Mitsubishi CP9550DW with a DCS-4 that could share what their printer settings are as far as color profile, color matching, gamma, brightness, etc? We are having issues getting the printed images to match what we see on screen.

[josher89]

The best way to get what you see is calibrating your monitor with your printer using a piece of hardware (and included software) that will read the color values on your monitor, send an image to the printer, and read the resulting color values. It will generate a profile for that monitor and printer that you should use to get the best results. Spyder is one brand (http://spyder.datacolor.com/) and another is Pantone (http://www.pantone.com/color-control).

I have been trying to get one for our office; a decent one is under $100! But alas, the powers that be don't see the value since we aren't in the printing business (mostly) anymore.

[NRivera]

I will make that suggestion sir. Thanks for the reply!

[ER]

There is the bigger issue that no printer can even come close to matching what is displayed on screen. Within a generation our field will be entirely contained in the digital realm. Begin practicing the skills to succeed with digital comparisons and investing in technology that enables that transition (i.e. not printers).

[Tazman]

Within a generation our field will be entirely contained in the digital realm.

Please don't say you think training with comparison magnifiers will be discontinued and the next generation of latent print examiners will never need to look at latents under a glass. Or do you envision digital image capture and livescan completely taking over? No photographs to be printed? No lift cards? Only digital image capture and onscreen ACE-V?

[josher89]

Taz,

I think it already is happening!!! I rarely see latent prints lifts submitted; generally, I'm only getting the images and I'm certainly not going to re-size and print only to look at them under magnification. I worked with the good old boys who did everything with a glass and I just think there's a better way now. I'm not hunched over all day, my eyes don't get fatigued as much (although staring at a screen can render them useless at the end of a long day).

The lifts that I do get, unless they are Helen Keller's, are getting scanned in and marked up in Layers in PS. I don't understand the examiners that get a digital image, size it 1:1, then print it, then look at it with a magnifier. You take the original image, 'change' it (don't hate me George!) by resizing it, then you print it, then you magnify all of the printing artifacts making it harder to distinguish features from garbage. You're getting a 3rd generation image. Not that it can't be done but like my dad used to say, work smarter, not harder!

Knowns, however, are a different story. I would much rather look at inked prints than LS--for all of the obvious reasons.

[NRivera]

There is the bigger issue that no printer can even come close to matching what is displayed on screen. Within a generation our field will be entirely contained in the digital realm. Begin practicing the skills to succeed with digital comparisons and investing in technology that enables that transition (i.e. not printers).

ER I wholeheartedly agree. I started looking at lift cards on glass but my previous employer (which you're probably a little familiar with) is all digital. When I switched agencies I went back to the glass. I feel like I was faster and was able to get a lot more done looking at prints on a 30-inch screen than printing them out, but getting back to that point is undoubtedly going to take time... and money. I can explain until I'm blue in the face how printing out latents is effectively throwing out data that could be used during the examination but "we've done it this way for years and it's worked" and "if it's not 'broke' don't fix it" have won out that argument every time thus far. Persistence is key...

I never had to deal with printer calibration until now so I had some reading up to do. We're going to order the spyder tool from datacolor and hopefully that will be that.. for now.

[George Reis]

I'm still surprised when I get asked about printing latents. When I was at the Newport Beach Police we started our conversion to digital in 1992 (that's not a typo), and never looked back. In the mid-1990s I understood concerns from those who attended my presentations and training, but it is now 23 years later, and it's hard to imagine that there are agencies who take high quality photographs of latents, enhance the images on their large screens, then reduce them down to postage-stamp size in a printing process that greatly reduces the image detail. Alas.

As to this question regarding getting prints to match your monitor. ER is correct that the gamut, color space, contrast ratio, and viewing properties of a monitor and print are so different that your prints will often not match your monitor, even if everything is set-up perfectly. And, josher is also correct that profiling your monitor is an important step. Using a good quality monitor is also very helpful - the NEC MultiSync line is very good, and they come with a calibrated profiling device (a profiling device calibrated to this specific monitor) - but there are lots of good monitors available.

A general rule of thumb on monitors, however, is that many are set to make text look crisp, which results in monitors that are too bright, contrasty, and blue. If you can control your monitor's settings through a menu - it's a good first step to check the color temperature. This should be set to approximately 6000K. Many manufacturers have this set to 9000K. If you make this change, you will, at first, think that your monitor is now dull and yellow. Give your eyes a minute to adjust and you will find that this is actually a better setting.

Since you are using a dye sublimation printer, color management in the printing workflow is generally managed through the print driver - you may want to make sure that you have the most updated driver. If your monitor is properly profiled and you are using the current print driver, and still getting significant differences between your printer and monitor, then it's time to look into other possible issues.

George

[NRivera]

Thanks for the additional insight sir.