Printing (This Is Where It All Comes Together)


Okay, you've set your camera to Adobe RGB (1998); you've calibrated your monitor; you've set up Photoshop to use Adobe RGB (1998); and you've set it up so any photos you bring in that are not in Adobe RGB (1998) will automatically be converted to Adobe RGB (1998). You've even downloaded a printer profile for the exact printer model and style of paper you're printing on. In shortyou're there. You're just a few clicks away from grabbing the brass ring, baby! Let's do it!

Step One

Go under Photoshop's File menu and choose Print with Preview. You can't just choose Print anymore. That's for wusses. That's for non-calibrated, color management-less wussesnot you, my friend.

Step Two

In the resulting dialog, click on the Page Setup button. In the Page Setup dialog, choose which printer you're printing to from the Format For pop-up menu (in this case, an Epson Stylus Photo 2200), and then choose your Paper Size (in this case, a 13x19' sheet). You also choose your page Orientation. Leave the Scale at 100% (you can change that later), and click OK to return to the Print dialog. Now you'll need to access the Color Management controls (which should be at the bottom of the Print dialog by default). Note: If you don't see the options, click on the More Options button on the right in the dialog.

Step Three

In the expanded Print dialog, under the Preview window, make sure Color Management is selected from the popup menu below the preview window (it should be by default). Then, in the Print section, make sure Document is selected (rather than Proof). However, it's down a little farther, in the Options section, where we have to make some very important changes (for what we're doing, using the default settings would be fairly tragic).

Step Four

In the Options section near the bottom of the dialog, go under the Color Handling pop-up menu and choose Let Photoshop Determine Colors. That way, we're staying consistent by letting Photoshop do the color management all the way through the process. So far, so good, but don't click the Print button yet.

Step Five

After you've selected Let Photoshop Determine Colors, the currently selected Printer Profile will appear in the pop-up menu directly below it. This is where you need to choose the profile for the printer you're using and paper you're printing to. I'm going to be printing to an Epson 2200 on Epson's Velvet Fine Art paper at 2880 dpi, so I choose the printer/paper profile that matches that (which I downloaded in the previous tutorial). Doing this optimizes the color to give the best possible color print on that printer using that paper at that dpi.

Step Six

For the Rendering Intent pop-up menu, I recommend choosing Perceptual because it seems to give the most consistent results for printing photographic images to color inkjet printers. Now, before you click the Print button, just make sure the Black Point Compensation checkbox is turned on (it should be by default). When you're printing photographic images (like we are here), this option helps maintain more detail and color in the shadow areas of your photos.

Step Seven

Now you can click on the Print button, and when you do, another Print dialog will appearyour print driver's dialog. Choose your printer from the Printer pop-up menu, and below that, you'll see the Copies pop-up menu, where you choose options for your printer. (In the example shown here, I'm using a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X. However, on a Windows PC, choose your printer from the Name pop-up menu, and then click on the Properties button to choose from your printer's options.)

Step Eight

Click on the Copies pop-up menu to reveal a list of all the printer options you can choose from. There are two critical changes we need to make here. First, choose Print Settings so we can configure the printer to give us the best quality prints.

Warning

From this point on, what appears in the Copies pop-up menu is contingent on your printer's options. You may or may not be able to access these same settings, so you may need to view each option to find the settings you need to adjust. Also, if you're using a Windows PC, (after you click on the Properties button) click on the Advanced tab when your printer's options appear and you'll be able to choose from similar settings.

Step Nine

Once you choose Print Settings, and those options appear, choose the type of paper you'll be printing to from the Media Type pop-up menu. Any ICC profiles you've downloaded for your chosen printer will appear in this menu.

Step Ten

Under the Mode section, click on Advanced Settings. Choose your desired Print Quality from the pop-up menu. I choose SuperPhoto-2880 dpi to get the highest quality photo possible from this printer. If you don't mind sacrificing quality for speed, you can choose a lower print quality, and it won't take as long to print. However, I only choose a lower print quality when I'm doing testing or proofingnever for a final photo that will be framed or mounted.

Step Eleven

The second important change you'll need to make in the printer driver software dialog is to turn the printer's own color management off. You do this by first choosing Color Management from the pop-up menu, to make the Color Management options visible. Now, this is a very tempting dialog, with a Gamma pop-up menu, a checkbox for Epson Natural Color, and lots of fun-looking sliders that are just begging you to mess with thembut don't do it. They are evil. So why did we come here in the first place? To turn this junk offjust click on the No Color Adjustment radio button.

Step Twelve

When you select No Color Adjustment, all that tempting stuff is immediately hidden from view, because you just turned off the printer's color management features, which is precisely what you wanted to do. You want "no color adjustment" from that printeryou're doing it all in Photoshop. Now you're ready to hit the Print button to get prints that match your screen, as you've color managed this photo from beginning to end.

Warning

If you're printing to a color inkjet printer, don't ever convert your photo to CMYK format (even though you may be tempted to because your printer uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks). The conversion from RGB to CMYK inks happens within the printer itself, and if you do it first in Photoshop, your printer will attempt to convert it again in the printer, so the results will be way off.



    The Photoshop CS2 Book(c) for Digital Photographers
    The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
    ISBN: B002DMJUBS
    EAN: N/A
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 187
    Authors: Scott Kelby

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