[HunterWare]

Hi everybody. First time poster.

I am a newbie in color management. How to get the color match from what I see on the monitor screen to the print out. Do I need to have monitor and printer profiles ?
If I have my profile, how to have soft-proofing in photoshop ?

[loki74]

Im pretty sure you do this with View -> Proof Setup and View -> Proof Colors.

[tillin]

the above post is correct for soft proofing.

however to really match monitor and print. you need to calibrate both your monitor and your printer.

paper profiling is a long and arduous task, and the device needed is obscenely expensive, the easiest way to do it is to print a given company's test target and have them make a custom profile for you,

monitor calibrators are relatively inexpensive ( get the monaco optix xr ) and it is the first step to accurate color management.

if you have an accurate monitor, youll end up guessing less trying to tweak your prints.

[Sourbook]

Even a calibrated monitor can not be fully trusted. Any decent Photoshop user must always be aware of the CMYK values, along with the total ink values of the image. I am of the habit of continually monitoring the 'Info window' in Photoshop. Get used to using it. The numbers do not lie.

In the words of Ronald Reagan, "Trust, but verify."

[art_director]

Onscreen and printed color will never be an exact match. This is due to the fact that the two means create the color seen in different ways -- partitive vs. additive. IOW, one reflects light off a surface, the other makes the color from bits of light. You can get close to eyeball and make an educated guess but an exact match is but a dream.

[siMac]

You'll never get an exact match, there'll always be quantum-level differences; such is the nature of the universe ( ), but soft proofing is a reality these days. The latest LaCie LCDs are capable of displaying the entire AdobeRGB(1998) colorspace which, in turn, covers the entire CMYK printable spectrum. Properly calibrated monitors such as these (with the appropriate wetware and in a properly lit environment) can be used for soft-proofing no problem.

I never said it was cheap though...

[art_director]

I'll stick with color approvals, thankyouverymuch.

[production_coordinator]

This is why they will never match...