Photoshop: Difference in Image window and Preview Window

[christopher_platt]

I know I've seen the subject posted here before, but I did a search and couldn't find it. Anyways. . .
Although I just used the canned profiles, my prints come out looking pretty similar to what shows up in the "Print with Preview" window. The only problem is, what shows up in the print with preview window is often a lot less saturated than what is in the image window itself. If I look at them side by side, the difference is substantial. In order to get the preview to look like I want it to, I have to increase image saturation until the people look like oompa-loompas. . .
Any ideas?
Chip

[Peter_AUS]

Chip, is your monitor profiled correctly using a calibrater hardware and software. Or are you using nothing at all, what profile are you using in photoshop, post a screen capture of your colour setting defaults. What monitor are you looking at, what printer are you using, I know you mentioned you are using canned profiles, but knowing a bit more info might help to solve the problem a bit.

This is a pretty well documented problem all over the internet, covered I am sure by many websites.

Example of one using a google search http://www.arraich.com/ps6_tips_colormanage1.htm

Not being smart just pointing out that there are something like 48,000 pages covering a lot of this.

It has been covered here before, but depending on your search text can make it a hit or miss thing too.

Hope that helps in some way.

[christopher_platt]

Peter-
Even if you were being smart, I couldn't hold it against you. Smartassedness runs deep in my family ;) .Basically, everything is mickey moused. My monitor is not correctly profiled, it's an ultra-thin-and-ultra-low-viewable-angle laptop, I'm printing on an Epson Stylus Photo 820. I know there's going to be some disparity between what I see on screen and what I print - honestly, my mind's kind of gotten used to that part of it. My question is why it looks different from the document window itself to the preview window. Same program (PSCS), but it just looks very flat in the preview window; and the preview window is pretty much what my prints come out looking like. Again, I just want to know why the same document looks different within photoshop. Does it have to do with the fact that it's previewing what a CMYK (inkjet) print will look like, which has a more limited color gamut?
Thanks,
Chip

[Peter_AUS]

From my knowledge of colour management I would say that has to be the reason, the CMYK. But it is a know fact as well, that Laptop screens don't display images the same as they do on CRT screens, although the newer ones comming out (high end, high price), are getting damn good. Not having the monitor profiled as well, as used the canned profiles, does play a huge part in getting images from screen to print matching the same or as near as the eye can tell.

I don't know how you could seem to think I was being a smartass with my post, I was actually asking questions and trying to get some more info out there for others to chime in as well. A Pinch of Salt. Maybe I should just keep my thoughts to myself, and just not try and help people.

[Trevor Ash]

From my knowledge of colour management I would say that has to be the reason, the CMYK. But it is a know fact as well, that Laptop screens don't display images the same as they do on CRT screens, although the newer ones comming out (high end, high price), are getting damn good. Not having the monitor profiled as well, as used the canned profiles, does play a huge part in getting images from screen to print matching the same or as near as the eye can tell.

I don't know how you could seem to thing I was being a smartass with my post, I was actually asking questions and trying to get some more info out there for others to chime in as well. A Pinch of Salt. Maybe I should just keep my thoughts to myself, and just not try and help people.

I Peter, I think his comment about being smart was extremely light hearted. Afterall, you said yourself "Not being smart just pointing out that there are"

Christopher,
The reason for the preview is to help show you what the print might look like when printed. And part of how the computer figures out what it might look like is by using the profile settings Peter asked you to take a screenshot of. The other part is with the color management settings that are in the preview window itself (If I recall you can select an output profile, color intent, etc)

You're just getting lucky that things happen to match what you see on your preview window with your current setup, or the photos you've been printing so far haven't shown how bad things can be (usually skies and skin tones can be tricky)

Your solution of adjusting the saturation to get the preview window to look how you want the print to look, but the regular image looks like oompa loompas is actually a normal way of doing things for a lot of people so there's nothing really wrong with that....it just sucks to have to do it.

In a properly profiled and calibrated system, it shouldn't be so extreme (oompa loompa like) but it is often still necessary to use the preview to make adjustments because the colors are going to be different when you print to a printer. It's physics. You can't make the color look exactly the same and BRIGHT, SATURATED like it does on your monitor. But there are ways of putting color down on paper that can simulate the brightness and saturation. Normally, in a properly calibrated/profiled system, the OS and image management software takes care of all it can for you to make the colors look similar but often you're still limited by the color gamut of the output device. This is where having that preview window can be very handy. It allows you to see where the colors will match up and where they won't and allow you, the operator, to make changes to compromise for it or even correct it sometimes.

Your system isn't properly calibrated so anything you're getting right now is by luck and likely not repeatable across different images of varying color qualities.

Peter's right about the wealth of information on the internet about all of this but it's such a nasty and complicated subject that I admit I get lazy commenting about it in posts anymore. It's so difficult and time consuming to troubleshoot these things over the internet.

Whatever you do, don't go out and buy the newest wiz-bang color profiling system and then come back here posting "Why don't my prints match? I just calibrated my whole system!". That's a whole'nother can-o-worms

[christopher_platt]

I don't know how you could seem to think I was being a smartass with my post, I was actually asking questions and trying to get some more info out there for others to chime in as well. A Pinch of Salt. Maybe I should just keep my thoughts to myself, and just not try and help people.

Peter,
Please accept my sincerest apologies. I did mean my comment in a lighthearted way, in response to your "not trying to be smart" thing. I did not mean to step on any toes. Please know that from reading your posts, I have gained a lot of respect for you, not only for taking the time to respond to posts on a variety of topics, but also because of the depth and breadth of your knowledge. Again, please accept my apologies. I keep forgetting that when you post something to someone you don't know personally, they may not be aware of the subtle nuances of your personality (as I said, I'm a born and bred smartass), and neither can they hear your "joking" tone of voice. I hope that in the future you won't keep your thoughts to yourself, your knowledge and insights are invaluable to PR.com's forums.

Chip