Foo - Photogs: Calibrating a Monitor and Printer

Okay, so say I have a display on my PC on which I manipulate images, photos, and other stuff, and when I print them out, I want the color on the paper to match the color on the monitor as exactly as possible.

What are some available tools out there to help accomplish this? I've run across a plethora of monitor calibrating devices, but not so much that calibrate a monitor to a specific printer.

Any advice on accomplishing this goal?

http://www.normankoren.com/

Check out Norman Koren's page.
It's a long process and he has it explained better than I could try to do here.

One has to calibrate your printer and monitor and different papers will produce different results (you'll have different settings for different papers).

First calibrate your monitor, then your printer.

http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html
http://www.normankoren.com/printer_calibration.html

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X4X35C/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000X4X37A&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=172NKRBHJNNZWBWEQBQG

Without having read Norman Koren's site, but having 16 years experience in the printing industry, let me just say that you can get them close, but they won't be perfect. You're using two different methods of producing color: additive (the monitor) and subtractive (the printer). The color gamuts that are possible using those two methods somewhat overlap, but each has capabilities that the other doesn't.

Here's a depiction of the two, plus the Pantone range, overlaid on the visible spectrum:

http://dx.sheridan.com/images/gamut.gif

^^^^
Yep.

You can only get them so close.
I try to get them as close as I can, but when you get really anal about the final print the process is the same wether it is a traditional darkroom or a digital darkroom: tweak the settings, burn a piece of paper, examine the results, repeat until satisfied or out of supplies.

You can get answers to anything on Foo!

set them both to black and white.

Thanks for all the great resources guys!

Snicklefritz - yer damn right you can! haha...

I'll check these out.

Get ICC profiles for all your devices.