How to get colour accurate prints: six simple rules

Our promise has always been that what you see on your screen is what you get in print. We keep it every day. But a screen is a lamp and a print is paper, and they only agree when a few things are set up properly at your end. None of it is difficult. Six rules, ten minutes to read, and the colour takes care of itself from then on.

1. Work in calm light

Your eyes adapt to the room. Bright or shifting light fools them, and you end up correcting a problem that only exists on your desk. Keep the room light consistent and shade the windows if you can. No window in front of the screen or behind it, and nothing bright reflecting in it. Set your desktop background to a plain mid grey.

2. Calibrate your screen

If you do only one thing in this guide, do this. An uncalibrated screen is usually too bright and too blue, which is why so many "dark prints" are really bright screens. Use a colorimeter; we recommend the Calibrite ColorChecker Display. Let the screen warm up for 30 minutes, then run the software. Aim for a white point of D65 (6500 K), a brightness of 120 cd/m² and a gamma of 2.2. Repeat every three to four weeks, and whenever you move the screen or change the room. If you cannot quote those three settings, the screen has not really been calibrated to anything.

3. Set Photoshop up once

Thirty seconds, once, and every file you open after that is handled the same way. Edit, then Color Settings. Working RGB: Adobe RGB (1998). Colour management policies: Preserve Embedded Profiles, for RGB, CMYK and Gray. Conversion options: Adobe (ACE), Relative Colorimetric, with Black Point Compensation and Use Dither ticked. Save the preset.

4. Soft proof with our paper profile

Every paper we print on has its own ICC profile. Soft proofing applies it to your file on screen, so you see how the blacks, the contrast and the colours will sit on that paper before you order. Download our profiles and install them; Photoshop and Lightroom pick them up automatically. In Photoshop go to View, Proof Setup, Custom, choose the paper, set the intent to Perceptual and turn Black Point Compensation on. Leave "Simulate Paper Color" unticked, because it exaggerates the paper white and leads to colour casts. Expect the proof to look a little flatter than the original. That is the paper's real range, not a fault. Adjust gently, and do not chase deeper blacks than the paper can give.

5. Send the file with the profile embedded

The profile is how your file tells our printer what the colours mean. Without it, we are guessing. Save as a TIFF or a maximum-quality JPEG, 8 or 16 bit, with Embed Color Profile ticked, and keep the file in Adobe RGB (1998). There is no need to convert it to the paper profile yourself. Black and white work is the exception: skip the colour profiles and see our black and white guide.

6. When it matters, order a test strip

For an edition, an exhibition or a tricky file, a test strip is cheap insurance: a 4 by 30 inch strip of your image on your chosen paper, from £3.95. Check it in daylight, make your adjustments, then print the edition with confidence.

The guide, and two short videos

All six rules are in a four-page PDF you can keep next to your screen, with links to our profiles, the Photoshop and Lightroom walkthroughs and two short videos: Preview your print, on soft proofing, and How to prepare your file.

Want a hand?

If you would like someone to walk through your own setup with you and look at a file together, get in touch and we will arrange a chat about colour management. If you work with our agency, ask your artist manager.