What is Printer Calibration?
Printer calibration is the process of making the printed image match the image shown on a computer display. Only those people printing large photographs or detailed graphics probably need to regularly use manual printer calibration, as others can make use of a printer’s automatic calibration settings. Think of calibrating a printer as achieving what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSISYG) printing. A computer display and a printer don’t always produce the same image for a few different reasons. First, print ink dots naturally overlap a little bit on the paper, while the pixels on displays do not overlap. Second, printers commonly create images slightly darker than computer displays. Third, printers mix four pigments to create colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), while displays contain pixels of three colors (red, green, and blue). Finally, different types of paper will affect the final printed image, whereas displays don’t have such issues. With printer calibration, the software that c
