Why prints don't match on-screen view [visual examples]
Have you ever send your photos for printing, and after waiting impatiently, you got a printed photo that is not as good as what you have seen on your monitor or mobile phone?
Been there, felt the disappointment.
Who is responsible for that? If your answer is "printing labs," I need to clarify that they are pretty innocent. They print what you give them unless they use an automatic photo enhancer algorithm implemented on their machines to improve your photos before printing.
Printed Photo
What is the problem then?
The main reason that you find differences between your photo on-screen and printed paper is that your monitor is not calibrated. Your monitor ages too (as you do, sadly), and the colors go off when it gets older.
In simple words, with an uncalibrated monitor, brightness and colors won't be 100% accurate, e.g., what you see as "perfectly white" can appear gray on another screen or with a green shift on mobile phones. Consequently, that may kill your joy of printing your photos.
Besides, editing photos can make you frustrated and be risky in this situation. Why?
Because you do changes based on what you see on your uncalibrated monitor. You may over-saturate colors, make your sky purple unwantedly, or even mess up the brightness and contrast of your photo. It may seem perfect and alright, but just on your own screen.
Another thing is that printed photos are slightly darker than what you see on screen! Read the article to find out why and how to solve it.
Is there any solution then?
If you are going to print your photos, and you want to be happy when you receive them, there are two solutions for this problem:
1- Use monitor calibration tools: These tools are designed to adjust the colors to the standards. In addition, you can find some online or offline calibration software options that modify your monitor settings. But for the best accuracy and result, you need hardware tools. It is recommended to calibrate your monitor at least once a month.
2- Trust automatic photo enhancer tools:
There are some automatic photo enhancers like Viesus, which improve your photos not only like a pro but safely for printing too. For example, Viesus recognizes objects in your image and enhances each part of the photo (sky, vegetation, face) separately.
In this case, you can make sure that your colors are authentic and sharp, the brightness is not too much or too little, and every enhancement has been done moderately.
Moreover, Viesus constantly prints enhanced photos on different surfaces to make sure everything is fine and desirable. Therefore, choosing printing labs that use Viesus as their enhancer algorithm is a straightforward way to print your photos with the best result.
You can also use other automatic enhancers for each photo separately, save the result and send them to print.
At last, consider this:
don't worry if you are not a professional photographer or don't know how to use photoshop or similar software. You can have perfect photo books, large printed canvases, or postcards with photos you took and memories you have captured.
Modern printing labs with their new AI photo enhancers like Viesus help you to have a pleasant journey with your photos.
We love photography. We want you to press the shutter more and more. So just go out, take pictures, print them, enjoy the moments again and trust the technology!