CompuServe Messages

Don, <<Gamma output to be the same as the monitor gamma>> The simple answer is no. The gamma 'should' be, as stated by others in the 1.8 to 2.0 range for hardcopy. However, this is NOT the case with ALL hardcopy devices. Some dye-sub printers with high resolution are similar to monitors in regards to gamma settings. The other areas of hardcopy concern are dot gain, contrast, brightness, contrast, and primary ink colors. The cyan used on one printer is NOT the same as used by some other printer. In addition your monitor is palleted in RGB space while your hardcopy device is probably palleted in CMYK space. On your monitor you can alter the intensity of any single dot thereby producing millions of colors. Depending on the printer you can put down a magenta dot, not a light magenta dot nor a dark magenta dot, simply a magenta dot! The colors you get from your hardcopy device are created with a process called dithering. The better the dithering the better the output. Produce your own test strips and record on the back of each strip what the settings were. Images tend to be similar in certain attributes depending how they were created. By finding past test strips and comparing the image types to your strips you 'should' be able to get it pretty close the first time. Russ Insight Development