Print quality
LightZone has high quality color management built-in; however, print quality depends largely on the printer, the printer driver software, and any color management in use.
To achieve the best print quality, make sure that you understand and properly use the settings in the printer driver. Incorrect settings can and most likely will result in lower print quality. Pay extra attention to the choice of letting LightZone or the printer driver do the color conversion.
If the printer driver has a setting for no color conversion (typically labeled “Color Managed by Application” or “No Color Adjustments”) then you have a choice of either letting LightZone or the printer driver do the conversion.
- To let LightZone do the color conversion, select the printer profile, rendering intent, and black point compensation settings in the Print Preview dialog. Then, in the printer preferences dialog, set the printer driver to do no color conversion.
- To let the printer driver do the color conversion, select “Color Managed by Printer Driver” in LightZone, then set the appropriate color settings in the printer preferences dialog.
It is important to note that, for most printers, there isn’t one setting that will always give the best results. You might encounter some color photos that print very well on your printer using certain settings or a certain color profile, and others that just won’t print well. If that is the case, try different settings altogether. If your photo does not print well using a custom ICC profile for your printer, try using the standard or vivid settings in your printer driver instead.
For black-and-white printing, most inkjet printers manufactured before 2005 have been inferior in terms of linearity, neutrality and metamerism failure. (Metamerism refers to the situation where two color samples appear to match under one condition but not under another.) However, the latest generation from all the major inkjet printer manufacturers looks promising.