Printing A Proper Bright Image.

are you talking about printing on your local printer, or when you get a print from FAA?

If you are speaking of having something from FAA sent to you it's important you calibrate your screen(s) if on a PC, this should help

If you are speaking, Locally, if you are using a PC you should calibrate your screens AND make sure you are using the right profile for your printer, so what you see on the screen is closer to what you see on your screen. Printer profiles are important to make sure screen and paper produce something similar.

Hi Anna,

View this YouTube video,...it will explain better than I about what and how your end result prints end up that way..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZOvESXxXSM&t=0s

Hope it's a good starting point to solve and eliminate your problem.

Marty Saccone

most monitors when new has the brightness set to 100. and its so bright, it could blind a pilot from the ground if pointed up. if you adjust your image on a bright screen, everyone with a normal screen, the image will look dark. sort of like if you have hearing protection on, you yell a lot to people.

a screen should be around 25% or so in brightness, anything else is over kill. a screen calibrator is needed.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Mike is right about screens being too bright, especially Mac screens.

If you have a color printer, make a 4x6 to get an idea. It won't be exact, but it will give you an idea of what to expect.

Anna,

Here's a good "tool" to use to see if your monitor is too bright or off somehow:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/monitor-calibration.htm

And you can take a file that looks good on your screen and get a cheap print made, from Sam's or Costco,etc., just make SURE you tell them not to auto-adjust the image, which most printers do from the retail end,

Rich

Another thing to consider is the lighting you use to examine your prints, daylight (D50) lighting is the recommended light source. And yes the monitor is a good starting point. I've been printing at home for years but only on a small format hp photosmart; gives good color renditions and seemed to provide output matching my monitor. Recently purchased a wide format printer and right off the bat images looked darker than what was shown on my calibrated monitor. By combining techniques described in some online videos, information found from printer website, and resolving the issue of light source used to examine and possibly exhibit images have found much more compatibility between what is viewed on monitor and the final print.