[Recovered Thread: 28176]

[eric s]

Getting a calibration system for your monitor is not hard. Many here suggest the ColorVision Spyder. I don't have personal experience with it, but have read a mix of bad and good things. ohenry (who comment on this thread) has one and likes it a lot. One thing that can't be argued is that they are the cheapest solution.

Getting a profile for your printer is harder (but a good step.) I asked some people who are professional photographers and they basically said "don't do it yourself." The hardware is expensive and they thought that it was hard to do. I haven't done it myself, but I don't plan on trying. There are many companies on the web that will do it for some money. The one that was suggested to me by multiple was:

http://www.chromix.com/

But it looks like their web page is being serviced. This place will also do it:

http://www.drycreekphoto.com

And I'm sure there are others.

But there is some thing you should know first. When you get a printer profile, you are profiling your printer with that brand inks and that paper. If you switch paper or ink brands, you have to reprofile. This doesn't work if you use cheap paper, though. Good paper (Epson, RedRiver, ...) don't vary between boxes. The paper is the same now as it was a year ago and will be the same in the future. That is why you can profile of it and keep using that same profile. The same with inks. Use quality inks and you get consistant behaviour every time, all the time. Cheaper inks will not be the same between two cartidges. That makes it basically impossible to profile them correctly.

Eric