Along with computers, printers do appear to make our lives much easier and more convenient. Regardless of what type of printer you have, be it a laser or inkjet, from time to time some maintenance is in order, from wiping the device with a clean cloth and removing all the dust that settled on it in time, to doing a printer calibration to make sure it keeps in top shape. Why is color printer calibration important




Well, if you’ve ever printed an image that looked a certain way on your computer screen then came out of the printer with different colors or a different alignment, you’ll understand how calibrating the printer ensures that what you see on your PC screen is what you get on paper as soon as you hit print.

Before we settle how you do color printer calibration let’s establish why the differences between the image on the PC and the image that was printed occur. Sometimes the image printed on paper doesn’t have exactly the same saturation or contrast as you can see on the PC screen

This results in colors that are less vivid. Ink layering and overlapping may also lead to differences in color and an image that isn’t the exact replica of what you see on the computer screen. Fortunately calibrating a printer isn’t very hard. Almost all printers from well-known brands come with software and drivers on a cd that you can find in the box. The printer driver generally offers simple or more complex settings that allow calibration and fine tuning the color of your printer. It’s ideal to also calibrate the PC monitor before you start on the printer.

The first way to calibrate a printer is to print out images with a high number of various color bars and photographs. After looking at it and comparing it to the screen you can then tell what needs to be adjusted. Test images for calibration can easily be found on the Internet. The second and more complicated way, that also produces the best results is to use a Raster Image processor that allows the PC to send data in CMYK to the printer instead of RGB. You could also use ICC profiles.

ICC profiles consist of files that characterize the behavior of your printer in combination with a certain ink and paper type. Many profiles can be found on the internet and in combination with a well-calibrated display will ensure that the image on paper matches what you see on the screen. Using ICC profiles is pretty simple but not error-proof. So you might need to look into it a bit more before starting.

Finally, calibration tools can also be used for calibrating a wide series of devices including monitors, scanners, printers and digital cameras and at the same time ensure that they all communicate to each other in the same color ‘language’. Those tools will also include profiles as well as allow customization for the user.

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