Why your prints don't look right

Anyone who prints their photos can look at situations when the prints coming from their printer didn't look the way they expected. Sometimes, the reason is simple and easy to correct; at other times you need to put in more effort. This feature addresses the most common problems people are likely to encounter and provides some possible solutions.

1. Prints appear too dark.

The main reason this occurs is because the brightness level on the computer monitor is too high. It's common with newer monitors, many of which are designed for gaming and have their brightness levels set higher by default.

Bright monitors let you see more detail in shadowed areas and this will influence your editing adjustments. Unfortunately, when you print the image that looked good on the monitor and view it in normal lighting, it will usually appear dark.

If you take the print out into the bright sunlight, it may not look as bad. But since most prints will be viewed in indoor lighting, it should normally be