Screen calibration may not be one of most interesting topics within photography, but it's an absolutely vital one if you're looking for accurate colors. Calibration ensures that your audience sees your photographs exactly the way that you edited and color graded them.
I myself recently upgraded to a pro-grade Eizo monitor, which can be very accurately calibrated – crucial for my work as a professional freelance photographer – ensuring that my clients receive accurate edits whether they’re viewing them across a smartphone, tablet or on a computer screen.
You’ve probably heard of screen calibration tools such as the Datacolor Spyder that I use for accurate colors on my monitor. These are brilliant and cost-effective, too.
But you may not be aware of the calibration tools also available for printers. If you do any sort of professional printing where you’re creating prints at home to sell, then it’s certainly a good idea to calibrate your printer to ensure consistency between your monitor and the resulting photo that comes out of your printer.
Any printer worth its salt will have an ICC profile that you can download, which should help dial in its calibration for applying the right amount of ink, consistent colors and contrast.
This is a profile that the printer manufacturers cook up specifically for their printer models. However, while it’s a good starting point (and certainly better than no profile at all), it is possible to take the color accuracy even further.
For anyone printing professionally, you may want to consider a printer calibration tool like the Datacolor Spyder Print, which creates super accurate custom ICC profiles bespoke to your printer and the paper you’re using.
It works by enabling you to print a series of swatches on the paper of your choice – you then use the spectrocolorimeter to scan each swatch, with the software working out how accurate it is compared to the color value it should be. This information can then be baked into a custom ICC profile to use what your specific printer is capable of more accurately.
Different papers will also have an effect on how the colors come out, so it’s super handy to have different ICC profiles for all of your different paper types and media.
Does everyone need a printer calibration tool? For casual photographers, absolutely not. These tools, alongside professional printers, can be very expensive.
When you factor in the costs of paper and ink waste, and the problems that come with issues like clogged print heads or misalignment, you may instead want to consider using a third party to print your pictures professionally to save yourself the headache.
You can also send your test sheets off to a company where they'll scan and create a custom ICC profile for you.
But for professionals who love the fine control of printing their own work, and the ability to play around and experiment with different paper choices, then a printer calibration tool will be a must-have, ensuring the most accurate workflow from computer screen to prints.
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Want to know more? Take a look at the best monitor calibrators.
