Matching the colors of monitor display and printing results

    22-Nov-2007
    8000787002

    Category : Image Quality
    Description : Matching the colors of monitor display and printing results
    Matching the colors of monitor display and printing results

    These instructions explain how to adjust monitors and printers that are suitable for color matching and also explain the Digital Photo Professional settings to use to take advantage of the color matching setting.

    The Color Matching Process
    Set the color display of the monitor. (STEP I)
    Set the application to reflect the monitor and printer settings. (STEP II)
    Start printing. (STEP III)
    As a result, you can adjust the colors of monitor display and printing results to get them closer together.


    STEP I. Setting the monitor color

    White parts in images may appear reddish or bluish, depending on the monitor. This is because the setting value of monitor is not appropriate to display the colors of images. When performing color matching, the value must be adjusted to reproduce the colors of images accurately.
    This value is called color temperature and it indicates light colors in units of temperature called Kelvin (K). The default color temperature setting for most monitors is often set at about 9300K; if the value is not changed, it displays overall blue-tinged images. To reproduce white colors accurately, set the color temperature value to “6500K” (if “6500K” cannot be set, select “sRGB”).
    For information on how to set the color temperature of the monitor, please refer to the instruction manuals for the monitor.

    To adjust the colors of monitor more accurately, using a commercially available color-tuning tool for monitors called a “calibrator” is one way. If you use a calibrator, the colors displayed on the monitor are directly measured and you can create a monitor profile (an ICC profile for the monitor). The monitor profile stores the optimum settings for the monitor and automatically applies the to the monitor, which allows you to reproduce the colors in image data accurately.

    Measuring monitor colors with a calibrator

    When using a calibrator, please note that the color temperature on the monitor must be set to 6500K (or sRGB) in advance. If you set it to another value, such as 9300K, it will not measure correctly.


    STEP II. Setting the Software

    The following instructions explain the settings for the software that will handle the images (in this section, Digital Photo Professional).
    Please note that we use Digital Photo Professional 3.0 in this section. If you use other version s of Digital Photo Professional, the items that appear in the dialog boxes may be different.

    1. Start Digital Photo Professional, select [Preferences] in the [Tool] menu.
    The [Preferences] dialog box will appear. Select the [Color Management] tab.


    2. Select the color space in the [Default settings of Work color space].
    The color space is the color range (color gamut characteristics) that can be reproduced by the data. For EOS DIGITAL products, either sRGB or Adobe RGB can be selected as the color space for images being taken. In this section, select the same color space setting as your EOS DIGITAL camera. For information on how to set the color space on your EOS DIGITAL camera, please refer to the instruction manuals for your camera.

    3.Next, select [Monitor profile] for [For display] in [Color matching setting], and then click [Browse].

    4. Select the profile for the monitor you use, and then click [Open] on the dialog box that appears. The monitor profile differs depending on the monitor. For details, please see the instruction manual for your monitor. If you used a calibrator, select the profile you created.

    5. Select the profile for the printer (ICC profile for the printer) to be used under [Printing profile] in [Color matching setting].
    The printer profile is a file that stores the settings related to the printer model or printing and the characteristics of paper to be used; and it is typically installed along with the printer driver. If the printer profile is set, the printer performs printing at the optimum settings and provides printing results that reproduce colors of images accurately.

    It may be necessary to manually install the printer profile, depending on the printer model or the paper. For details, please see the Web site of the printer and paper's manufacturer.

    6. Select [Relative Cplorimetric] under [Rendering intents] to the right of [Printing profile].

    7. If you use Easy-PhotoPrint on a Canon printer, select [Relative Colorimetric] in [Rendering intents when using Easy-PhotoPrint].

    8. Click [OK] to close the dialog box.


    STEP III. Printing

    Start printing after the settings are complete in Digital Photo Professional.
    If you have set it to adjust the colors of images by using the printer driver functions, disable that setting (see the chart below). The printer profile settings set in STEP II. will not be reflected in the printing results if that setting is enabled.

    Example of print setting on a Canon printer (the content displayed depends on the model)
    Select [Manual] in [Color Adjustment], and then click [Set].
    When the picture shown on the right appears, select [None] in [Print Type].

    When printing with Easy-PhotoPrint or Easy-PhotoPrint EX
    If you use Easy-PhotoPrint or Easy-PhotoPrint EX when printing the images, set the following things in order to make use of the settings in Digital Photo Professional.
    Select [Preferences] from the [File] menu. Clear the [Optimize images automatically] checkbox in the dialog box that appears. If you use Easy-PhotoPrint EX, select [Quality Priority] in [Print Quality].
    Click the [2.Paper Selection] tab, and then clear the [VIVID Photo] and [Photo Noise Reduction] checkboxes on the screen that appears.
    Select [Paper Size] and [Media Type] to fit the papers to be used. It is automatically set to print with the ICC profile that matches the paper.

    The color matching steps are complete at this point.