Hi I wish to calibrate my monitor and printer so that what I print looks pretty much the same of what I see on screen, because so far they're miles apart :( thanks L

You cannot calibrate your monitor with your printer. What you see on the screen and what you get on the printer is entirely dpendant on the the software you are using. The only time you will get exactly what you see on the screen transfered to the printer is when you do a print screen. Tell us what you are trying to do and maybe there is a solution. Stuart

Printer model? Have you played with settings in your printer control interface? Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

hi again i've got an HP color cp1515. I usually print from the default Windows Picture and Fax viewer, but I sometimes print from Photoshop aswell... I've tried some setting from the printer like ICM (image color matching) to be set up either via software or printer, but it still differs from screen. I know theres also some color handling option via photoshop (after file> print) and some printer profile settings which rgb and what not....but i dont know how to mess with these :(

Calibration is a whole can of worms. You need standards to reference to. First what is your standard image. Then you must calibrate your monitor under standard room conditions (ambient light, color temperature, monitor color temperature, brightness, contrast, gamma, color balance). Next is your software. If you use various software you have to calibrate each seperately. Then comes the printer settings, and paper and ink and the viewing conditions of the final image. You have to standardize paper whiteness, brightness, reflectivity, finish, absorbency, and opacity. Hope the ink is consistent between batches. After printing hundreds of test charts and color scales you will learn what your printer is capable of. Now you have to match and adjust what you see on the monitor with what you see on print.

If it is colour calibration you are after then yes, as wizard-fred says, its a whole can of worms. The problems arise becse your monitor uses a addative colour process. That is it adds varying amounts of red, green and blue to produce all the neceaary colours. Equal amounts of red, green and blure produces white. Black is the absence of any colour. As printer uses a subtrctive method using yellow, cyan and magenta as the base colours. The difference between using light and inks to produce color, known as CMYK, K being black. White is produced by a total lack of ink assuming you are using white paper. Black can be produced on a colour printer without using black ink by mixing all the colours but it often has a green tinge to it. That is why colour printer have a black cartridge as well as tri-colour ones. Commercial colour printer use the Pantone colour system in an attempt tp match screen and printer for accurate colour representation but even that is not perfect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantone Stuart

oh my....so i presume its just isn't that worth the hassle for a home user? it's sad :( but thanks for the info :/