Screen Calibration - Step 1 Toward Quality Prints

When considering how to get the best quality output from your printer, you may not put screen calibration at the top of your to do list.  Why is it so important?  Well, if you stop to think about the print process, the end goal is to try to replicate on paper what you're seeing on your display.  If you can't rely on your screen to produce consistent colors from one image to the next, every new print job will be a new exercise in trial and error.

There are a ton of products available for calibration.  Some, like Datacolor's Spyder 3 Pro, target getting consistent colors on your display. Others, like ColorMunki Photo, offer more comprehensive screen and printer calibration solutions. 

Obtaining quality prints from your printer is a game of understanding and managing the variables involved.  Getting consistent results from your display via screen calibration is a great place to start and eliminate one of those variables.