Why does the printed copy look so different?

tbari

I'm relatively new to photoshop. I made some adjustments using photoshop and then printed the image on my printer. FOr some reason, the printed version looked very pixelated and un-natural while it looked fine on my monitor - even zoomed in. Can someone please explain why this is happening???

davidweaver

tbari wrote:

I'm relatively new to photoshop. I made some adjustments using photoshop and then printed the image on my printer. FOr some reason, the printed version looked very pixelated and un-natural while it looked fine on my monitor - even zoomed in. Can someone please explain why this is happening???

What size in pixels is the print area of the picture you are printing? What is the final print size you are trying to achieve?

What is the monitor size (resolution) you are using?

Assuming that these things are all fine, i.e.: you are not taking a small file and printing it big...

What printer are you using? Do you have a recent printer driver for it?

Now the print dialog box - the one that pops up when you do File-->Print
- gives you some options.


Try color management settings as
Document
Color Handling: Photoshop Manges Colors - Make sure that color management is disabled in the printer dialog.
Printer Profile: sRGB.....
Render intent: Relative Colormetric w/ black point compensation

UNCHECK "Scale to Fit Media" <-- this may be a problem.

Try a print. If the printer allows for a draft or a best color of color, choose the color or best color setting. Draft setting will provide unhappy results.

Try that and post back.

Good luck,
David

digismile

As mentioned in the previous post, it will almost certainly be that you are letting Photoshop color manage the photo. You want your output to be sRGB and the printer to color manage.

I rarely print at home, and I ran into this same problem with a full rez, 8 megapixel photo that looked like something out of a 1 megapixel camera.

Should be an easy fix ...