How to Print Correct Colors With Adobe Photoshop
Often, when Photoshop users print their photos or projects, the printed colors look muddy or dull. Sometimes most of the colors look great, but one or two turn out completely different from what they looked like on the computer screen! How can we keep this from happening, and how can we get consistent colors when printing from Photoshop? There are many factors that affect how colors print.
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Instructions
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Start in CMYK color mode. The first thing to look for if the colors in a Photoshop document print badly is the color mode. Computer monitors display colors in RGB, because they use Red, Green and Blue light to create the full range of color. Printers, on the other hand, use CMYK. They use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (abbreviated as "K") inks to print in color. So, when you open a new Photoshop document that you intend to print, always choose CMYK in the Color Mode menu of the New Document dialog box. If you have an existing document that you want to print, change it to CMYK before printing by going to the "Image > Mode" drop-down menu and selecting "CMYK."
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Use print-safe colors. Since screens make colors with light, it is an additive color system. That means that the more light you add, the brighter colors you get. Printers, on the other hand, are subtractive. The more ink you add, the darker colors you get. Because of the inherent properties of the different color systems, printers cannot print all the colors you can see on the screen. Using only print-safe colors is one way to ensure that your colors will turn out the same on both the screen and the printed product. You can tell if you are not using a print-safe color by using the Color Picker dialog box. Double click on your foreground or background color swatch in the Photoshop tool panel to open the Color Picker dialog. If you see a small yellow triangle with an exclamation point by your "Current" and "New" color swatches, that means the color is not print-safe.
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Calibrate your printer. Each printer make and model has a way to calibrate it so that it produces color correctly. Calibrating a printer involves printing test sheets and changing printer settings. Find your owner's manual or instructions on the manufacturer's website to calibrate your printer model. You may need to change ink cartridges and clean inside the printer.
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Use the correct paper. If you are printing photos, the colors will look dull if you are printing on matte paper. If you are printing flyers, the ink can spread out and look lighter if you are printing on glossy paper. Be sure to use paper that is made for the type of product you are printing.
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Tips & Warnings
Some colors, especially light browns and bright colors, do not print very well from a desktop printer.
