merged pictures don't look as good printed out as they do on the monitor screen

[MEM4625]

Hi. I don't have any formal training in photoshop, just self taught, so I need a little help with something. I made my sons graduation announcements that included 3 pictures. When I look at them on my computer and even on the computer at the print shop, the announcements look great. But when they are printed out, they just don't look the same. It's hard to explain whats wrong but it just doesn't look as good as it does on the monitor. One thing is the color seems sooo intense. Plus his skin is too yellow. I did mess with the saturation on a couple of the copies so I know that could be some of it so I made a copy with out messing with the color at all but it still doesn't look good. I know without seeing the picture its hard to say but are there basic steps to take that ensure the color and even-ness come out good? Thanks.

[dv8_fx]

For me, it's difficult to tell what went wrong. It could be your image's color setting or the shop's printer ..... maybe if you upload a copy of your announcement, we can judge....

[SeniorS]

There some plugins for PS to control skin color. I tried SkinTune 2.0 and for home (for profesional eye it mess with background too much) usage it's good enough. Program total easy to use. With it you can make sure that at least face is in good color. There is some exception. If i remember right then too exposed face will not make good but with average image it will do the trick.

P.S. or do what dv8_fx said, maybe someone will corect it.

[Steve]

The print shop?
You're not printing them yourself?

[MEM4625]

no. I didn't think I would get a good of quality printing them myself.

[Steve]

Well if the images look good and pretty consistent on both your computer and the computer at the print shop the problem is at their end, in what ever settings they're using to print or with whatever conversions they're doing to the image.

You may want to use another print shop for this.

[SeniorS]

Uploud here to see, is there problem with images?

[MEM4625]

I wondered the same thing. But even I noticed that when I save the file as a jpg and open it back up with say microsoft picture manager, the colors are way more intense then what they appear viewing it with photoshop. I re-did them last night, using the "don't color manage" and sent them to the printer and I'm waiting to hear back from her.

And to SeniorS, I'm araid my son would kill me if I upload his picture for all to see. I have to remove the text first, but if this latest attempt doesn't work, I might upload it for you to see.

Thanks for all your help.

[Bucket]

Hi, I am a newbie. I have heard about this topic countless times. The place where i went was called the Art Studio and the professional said "what you see on the screen,and when its printed out,they are not exactly the same" Unless the only way they come out completely different is that you have altered them. You said you messed around with
the saturation, and also the the settings for the printer. Bucket

[SeniorS]

Yeah, thats a good and basic excuse from printman (me too)

But in reality it is posible to make at least close enough print of image file. Both of them should be calibrated or at least monitor and have correctly working printer icc. But thats can take time and so on and on. So, yes "it isn't posible to get what you see on monitor on paper"