The field of digital colour management is a vast and complex one, with all manner of pitfalls awaiting the inexperienced [and, indeed, the expert!] computer imager. We cannot possibly cover all aspects, but hopefully by digesting the information we provide here, you'll be able to submit digital images to us safe in the knowledge that you will receive top-quality photographic prints that meet your demands.

Before we go any further, however, here's an important piece of information that you may or may not be aware of:

It's true - no matter how perfectly you set your computer up, no matter how we configure our printers, no matter which colour matching system we use, prints you receive from us [or any other lab, professional or otherwise!] will not be identical to what you will see on your computer monitor. This is due to the differences between the way in which we view the images:

Colours from printed material [and for that matter, pretty much everything else we see] comes to our eyes by reflected light - light reflects off the surface of the print into our eyes, and our brain translates accordingly.

However, the colour information that our eyes pick up from computer monitors [as well as TVs, stars, stained glass windows and transparencies when viewed on a lightbox], is due to transmitted light - it goes directly into your eyes from a light source. In the case of monitors and TVs, it comes from the glowing phosphors on the cathode ray tube that makes up the screen, whereas in the case of stained glass windows and transparencies it comes from a light source via an intermediate translucent object.

The thing is, this method of perceiving colour information provides brighter images and more vivid colours due to the much greater intensity of the light source - reflected light is considerably less intense than direct light. To illustrate this important point, consider that astronomers have to use reflected light in order to view sunspots or eclipses, because the light that the sun transmits is far too intense to view directly by eyesight [so intense, in fact, that permanent eye damage can occur].

In summary, then: printed output will never be able to match the intensity of colour displayed on a monitor. Please be aware of this when working on digital images prior to submitting to a print service such as ours.

Adobe [the company behind industry-standard digital imaging software such as Photoshop] has a slightly more in-depth explanation of these issues here and it's both useful and enlightening - even if it does read like a physics lesson!

Simply follow the 3 steps outlined below. At the time of writing, this step-by-step guide is primarily for those who have Adobe Photoshop [a full version, not 'Photoshop LE' or 'Elements'] on either a PC or an Apple Mac.