The advice column of a national photographic magazine responded to a fellow who wrote for help, complaining that his prints were tinted blue. He explained that he was using a new 27″ iMac, and an Epson R320 printer. Now admittedly these are not optimum equipment for making prints, but the columnist’s advice was “…trade in the iMac for a Mac mini and a good… LCD display, and get the best display software and colorimeter you can.” He noted, correctly, that LED backlits are difficult to calibrate (they are) and that a monitor needs to be properly profiled (it does.)

However, I have my doubts that the best first advice is to sell your computer and buy a new one.

(I did look for the email address of the fellow who wrote for help, and while I found a number of his photographs, none had contact information embedded, and I could not otherwise find his email address.)

The fellow’s complaint was specifically about a blue tint, and not generally about “my prints don’t match.”

Therefore, the first advice should have been to ensure that the questioner understands profiling. Has he calibrated and profiled his  monitor? Does he fully understand how to use paper-specific profiles and how Photoshop prints using them? Did he set the proper gray-balance in the image? Did he have the proper profile selected in Photoshop? Did he have color-controls disabled in the printer driver? Is the printer driver up to date and compatible? Has he run low on one cartridge of ink?

The fact is that while a “non-pro” monitor makes it more difficult to adjust an image, if it’s been calibrated and profiled then the colors, as far off as they may be technically, will be translated into the color management space, and should be sent out to the printer properly. The resulting print may be “too dark” but it should not be “tinted.”

An overall blue tint to a photo means that something is wrong in the profile chain (or possibly with the printer) and not that he needs a whole new setup… at least, not as the first option.

The Epson R320 is an older, dye-based printer, and probably only has profiles for a very few Epson-brand papers. Those need to be matched (the profile and the paper) and I’d bet that the blue tint goes away.

As for “throw money at it” I’d suggest that the better use of the cash would be a newer printer, one that uses K3 inks.