What can I do if the printer prints images darker on glossy paper?

Question

I made some pictures with Photoshop and when I took them to print, they were darker then in my computer. What can I do with it? Maybe will CMYK help?

Answer 1

There are a number of things to consider. @hdhondt mentioned some of them in a comment, but I'll elaborate.

Glossy Photo Paper

People pay extra for glossy photo paper because it is designed to make photos pop. You get more contrast and more intense colors, as well as sharper detail. In general, of the media you can print on, it should get you closest to what you see on the screen. But you may need specific settings for optimum results (see below).

Calibration

The screen and the print results will never look the same. What you see on the screen is created by emitted red, green, and blue light. What you see on the print is what remains of whatever the ambient light color is after colors have been absorbed from it. The appearance is greatly affected by the color and intensity of the ambient light, in addition to the fact that you can't make reflected light look the same as emitted light, and the printer ink uses a different color space.

For home use, people typically just use the prints as they come out. But anyone involved in photography or graphic arts calibrates everything to get the colors on the screen and printed output as close as possible to the actual colors, and so the prints look as close as possible to the screen. This requires standardized color targets, color sensors to measure the screen, scanning prints, etc. Then color profiles are associated with the screen and the printer to tune the color.

If you already have a scanner or all-in-one printer, you can buy a color sensor for your screen. They aren't too expensive. This article by B&H (a big retailer in photography and video equipment), describes the basics of the process.

CMYK

You mention CMYK, but it isn't clear how you envision using it to help with the situation. The monitor and printer use different color spaces, and the drivers ensure that whatever color space you're working in gets translated to what the devices need. Different color spaces have different limits on the gamut of colors that can be represented. Every time you translate to a different color space, you permanently lose the extreme colors that are outside of what the color space can represent. Also, the monitor and printing inks can't reproduce the full gamut of their associated color spaces. Working in CMYK in Photoshop won't do anything to help with your problem.

Printer

You don't mention what printer you're using. Most current inkjets will do at least a passable job with photos. One designed for photos will do a much better job. Photo printers are usually capable of printing finer droplets, and sometimes variable droplets, and have photo ink colors beyond the three primary colors plus black. They also typically have adjustments for the media you're using. Regular paper absorbs the ink, some photo and transparency media don't, they provide a surface for the ink to stick to, so they require less ink. If you're using a basic four-color printer (CMYK) that happens to do an acceptable job with photos, and has no media settings, you are more or less stuck with whatever quality you're getting.

But there are still a few things to check. Ensure you're using the right settings in the printer driver for the type of media you're using, assuming it has settings for that. If you are using third-party ink and paper, try the OEM ink and paper. They will be optimized for what the printer is capable of. You could also experiment with different media (see below).

Media

The printer manufacturers have branded media optimized for their own machines and ink. Many paper and specialty manufacturers (and even some ink manufacturers) also offer glossy photo paper. Every one of these products is a little different, and the printing characteristics on your machine will be different. The OEM paper from your printer's manufacturer is likely to give the best result, but try other products to see which gives you the best result.

If you can't find packages of a limited number of sheets to experiment without going broke, contact the manufacturers and ask about sampler packages. They will often provide a few sheets each of many different products either free or at a nominal cost.