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Printing, Display & Output

Screen-to-print Match

The correspondence between how an image appears on a calibrated display and how it appears as a print.

In depth

A convincing match needs four things aligned: a calibrated display at an appropriate luminance, a correct output profile, soft proofing with paper simulation, and a standardised viewing light. Failure is almost always brightness — screens ship far brighter than paper can reflect, which makes prints look dark by comparison.

Examples in practice

Dropping the display from 250 to 100 cd/m² resolves the long-standing complaint that prints come out too dark.