Setting Up Your Computer and Scanning with the Best Color Output

Calibrating Your Monitor: Color Calibrating your monitor by press your monitor setup button usually found on the front or side of your monitor, newer monitors have an auto-just setting just press it; older monitor need to be manually calibrated using calibration sets or manually working with your monitor to make it look as best as you can get it.

Load your software:

Setting/Calibrating Your Software: Depending on what software you are using to edit your photos, setting it screen display settings (Calibrating) should be done. Adobe Photoshop calls it Color Settings (Found under Edit in the menu bar)  and Corel Photo-Paint calls it Color Management (Found under Tools in the Menu bar) Depending on what software and how advance it is you should be able to find these settings somewhere in your menu bar and starting with the word Color and followed by words like properties, settings, management, preferences. or display.

I prefer my Photoshop color settings to be the following:

RGB or Monitor: Apple RGB

CYMK: U.S. Web Coated (Swop) V2

Gray: Gray Gamma 1.8

Spot: Dot Gain 20%

Note, these settings aren’t set in stone; they are just the best settings I have found to work best no matter if you are using a home computer, work, or a friends. Also, if you know the settings and can calibrate your monitor, software, scanner, and printer all the same that would be the better and best thing for you to do to insure your images come out in true colors.

In changing these settings you are setting your screen to show your image in true colors or coloring closer to what they will print out. Now, this will vary still depending on what scanner you use and what printer you print to. Some printer and scanners print too green, too red, too dark. I find that HP tend to print greener and darker than other printers.

Scanning – A Quick Run-through

¦      Resolution/Dpi Settings – Remember 2 things the Res is more important than size and that the print out size you want your image will determine your res setting.

¦      Settings and Color – You want to do as little color fixing and image clean up as possible with your scanner, so try to keep your settings as sample as possible.

¦      Descreening – Use this setting when you are scanning from a book, newspaper, magazine and other printed media including ink and laser printers. (Descreening softens the look of dots printing, the little dots you can see in newspaper printing)

¦      Scanning a large image multiple times, do this if you can’t fit the entire image onto your scanner.