Introduction

Although it is possible to adjust the printer's output using the controls other than ICC/ICM colour management, a good print is achieved largely by trial and error and continual adjustment will probably be required to keep the colours right. Experimentation is expensive in ink and paper and is better avoided as far as possible.

Though the 'personal interpretation' aspect of printing can never be anticipated by the printing process, using the ICC/ICM colour management approach and print profiles will move one further along the path to the perfect print before experimentation begins.

This is not to decry other ways. There are many printers of excellent photographs who achieve their goals using highly individual methods. There is no hard-and-fast rule but such methods require a lot of experience and time to perfect - time many of us would prefer to spend elsewhere.

Setting up the printer driver

Setting up the printer driver defaults.

In Windows, the setting of printer defaults - those settings which the driver starts up with - is done in the 'Printers and Faxes' section of the 'Control Panel'. Although the same settings in the same boxes can be accessed from your image application these settings will be transient in nature.

On the Mac: I don't know - would anyone like to comment?

If you use predominantly one set of settings, it will speed things along to set them as defaults.

Things that need setting

The boxes for these are to be be found in the Printer Driver's 'Printing Preferences' window.

Paper Type and Size

Paper type and size can be found on the container the paper came in. If you are using paper from the printer manufacturer's range then the paper name will be found in the requisite box in 'Printing Preferences'. Paper size can be set in a box nearby.

Quality Settings

The choices are manufacturer dependent. The only constant seems to be that the quality increases as you go down the list of choices. Menu items such as 'Photo' and 'Best Photo' are not uncommon. 'Best Photo' may not be the last in the list strangely.

Paper Orientation. Are you printing upright - Portrait or sideways - Landscape? Choose here.

Colour Settings

Printer Colour Management

It is possible to find options available to set the colour management properly. This applies wherever the settings are found either in the editimg application or the priter driver preferences window.

These are:

1. Where the colour management is to be done, the choices are:
   1. in the printer driver. Often the driver will set things up for you when you choose this. This is good because you don't have to think about most of the other settings but, on the other hand, you cannot choose the settings for yourself.
   2. in the editing application. This choice normally gives more opportunity for the user to choose the settings. If you are using profiles not provided by the manufacturer this is the place to choose and use them. User choice makes this the better place to colour manage your printing but it may take more understanding.
   3. Printer Profile The choice of printer profile is made from an often quite long list. It is thus quite important to know which you should use. Help can often be found in the printer manual but not always, otherwise look and se if any of the choices available relate to your printer by name. Any third-party profiles should be recogisable by name. The printer driver will often choose the right profile for you if you decide to use it to colour manage your printing.
   4. Rendering Intent This choice chooses the way any conversions between colours is handled by the colour management process. For photographers there are two reasonable choices - Perceptual and Relative Colorimetric - both are reasonable but the first is the normal setting.
   As it stands at the moment the communication between Computer and Printer is not very intelligent. The upshot of this is that you cannot make the above settings in just one place and expect both computer and printer to work out what to do. It is imperative to set up both. One to do the colour management work and the other NOT to do it. One of the biggest causes of failure is to set both computer and printer to do the same thing - this must be avoided.

   Other settings.

   There will be other settings. You might find a Borderless Printing box, a High Speed box and others. Hopefully these are either easy to fathom or ignorable. A reasonable rule-of-thumb would be not to change anything you are not sure about - trust the printer's default settings.

   Print helper links:

   The Print Resolution Calculator

   What the Print Resolution Calculator is for...