# Monitor colors are way off!



## SuziMi (Aug 4, 2009)

Hellllooo boys...and girls,

I'm a student in graphic design, I have a HP Pavilion dv1000 note book, running XP. I'm still in the learning phase of design, and I don't print out much, if anything. I send what I create for others feedback. The last several assignments my professor has stated, "either your colors are slipping, (?) or your monitor is calibrated incorrectly." His solution, "work it out, you will gain knowledge"...ugh. Here is an example: I will have a design in neon green, pub it to pdf send it to 3 different people, and all tell me it looks like a light murky green watercolor. However, on my monitor, it's neon green. Can anyone tell me how I can correct this issue? It would be greatly appreciated.

Toodles...Suzi


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## bigrocky (Aug 3, 2009)

same problem wd me m havin acer 18" inch tft monitor. need solution.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Hi Suzi, welcome to TSF

The millions of shades for each color displayed on a monitor (which uses light) are made up from a mix of red, green and blue (RGB), but the colors used in print (which uses ink) are made from cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK).

Most colors are covered by these 2 color systems, but some, like neon green, need to be converted to their nearest equivalent before printing.

If you're using an advanced image editor like Photoshop, you can switch between the 2 color spaces to preview the output. You might also need to recalibrate your monitor and printer.


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

You can use your monitor's or your video card's calibration processes to calibrate or if you have Photoshop it comes with Adobe Gamma and you can use that 

there are tons of tutorials on Youtube for calibrating your monitor either using Adobe Gamma or using other means such as making sure your workflow is using good colour management principles - same ICC profiles etc.
@Koala - is the new avatar the new you?


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## SuziMi (Aug 4, 2009)

Thank you so much for the welcome, I've feeling you may be seeing a lot of me, well...you know. 

I do have the Adobe Suite CS4 pkg, I will see if I can find Gamma and figure it out. Thank you both for the education and assistance, and the speedy responce...I will let you know how it turns out...

Toodles,
Suzi


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## blah789 (Aug 25, 2008)

Big article on printer calibration here:
http://www.normankoren.com/printer_calibration.html

You can also get a bunch of color calibration pics like this
http://www.digitaldog.net/files/Printer_Test_file.jpg.zip
to print out and check out the results.
See if you can order one from your printer manufacturer.


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