Color Calibration Woes

[zsouthboy]

So, I've gotten a ColorVision Spyder 2PRO Studio (http://www.adorama.com/ICVGPU128.html?searchinfo=spyder 2&item_no=6), and calibrated my monitor at work.

Problem:
The monitor was already quite close to where it should be (I have a pretty good eye for these things, as i'm a photographer)

Prints I have gotten done come out with the blues becoming purples, the yellows oversaturated... etc.

We use Image4 (http://www.image4.com) for our posters and other materials(they're local).
It hasn't mattered whether I send them RGB files or converted them myself to CMYK (I do know about profiles and such..) same result...

I've also submitted an advertisement to a completely different company, and the proof (and the magazine) come back with similar problems... looks good onscreen, but blues turn purple.

I try to avoid colors that won't print correctly in the CMYK gamut. Doesn't seem to help.


Suggestions? Currently I've made an action that changes the color balance in photoshop to approximate what the prints will look like, and I've had the idea of inverting that action, then getting some test prints...

This is such a pain in the ass.

 

[Lefungus]

This test (beware, it's in french) has shown that spyder 2 pro was very bad compared to concurrent professional color calibration hw. If you don't understand the picture, just check the graphs (Basically, they compare manually configured screen to spyder2 pro configured screen, then they compare it with lacie colorimeter (lower bars mean better color fidelity. Results will show you that lacie is just much much better at this job). They do that for a couple of different monitors.

If I were you, I would try to get my hands on another colorimeter and try to compare results.

 

[Jawed]

http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/evaluation/gamma_space/index.htm

Find the gamma of your monitor and tell us what white point you are calibrating your system for.

I've never used the Spyder or similar - results I've seen with it have not been good.

Try getting a print (of a photograph) made on a true photographic printer (i.e. a lab with a Fuji Frontier or similar that prints on photographic paper). Ask them if they have a profile for you to use before sending in a file. I suggest this only as a sanity check, using an entirely different printing process.

Jawed