On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 7:05 AM, Mark Hayes (Hotmail) <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Julian,
>
> In the past, I had the same problem - sending calibrated prints to online
> printers and receiving dark prints back.
>
> It has been some time since I printed anything online - but the issue
> obviously remains. I quizzed the online printers, who were exceptionally
> helpful and once I'd got in touch with the correct person (someone who
> actually understood what I was talking about!), and we worked out the
> problem.
>
> The printers I was using at the time (Photobox.co.uk) had their standard
> consumer-type machines set up to completely ignore any embedded profile.
> They told me at the time (some five years back) that this was in fact
> industry standard - YMMV. Since it stripped out all profile information,
> it just took basic RGB data from the file and printed it using their
> standard setup - which always came out too dark.
>
Given that Darktable's exported JPGs use sRGB, it shouldn't matter that
they discard the embedded profile, right? Or do these smaller printers use
a different color space?
I wouldn't like to have to tweak my edits, making them brighter that they
should so that the prints come with the correct brighness... It's trial and
error, but I could create a Preset to be used in the export module, with a
tone curve that increases brighness. At least that wouldn't mess with the
edit history.
> The solution was to print on their larger machines. Their larger machines
> (printing on much bigger paper) were set up on the assumption that the
> users would be either professionals or advanced amateurs. The larger
> machines did take notice of the embedded profile - but it forced you to
> either print big pictures (>18" along one side I think), or copy several
> photos (using the same profile) onto a single canvas and send that in -
> have them printed onto one large sheet and then cut them to size by hand
> afterwards. So by ordering photos of a larger size, they automatically
> went to the larger printer, and it examined and used the embedded profile.
> It worked too. But in all honesty, it was a right Royal PITA, so I didn't
> do much after that.
>
I'll try this with some of the photos I printed before, and see if it makes
a difference.
> Someday, it might be a good idea for there to be a list on a website
> somewhere which lists out suitable online printers that do the job
> right...! And how to order from them to achieve this...
>
+1 for this.
Thank!
Julian.
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