Hi! I am new member of Pixls.us. Been taking beginner photos for about a year now. Using Darktable for several months. My current process flow is Corrections>Exposure>W/B>AGX>ToneEQ>AGX>ColorBalanceRGB with some sharpening/clarity thrown in. I have yet to learn managing the tone eq and though I got lots of newbie questions, my current one is that since I’d like to print some of my photos, what should I change in my workflow? Should I think different regarding what I see on my screen?
Thank you all!
Welcome to PIXLS!
I will start by saying that I have only a very little experience with printing my edits.
I don’t think anything about your workflow needs to be changed. Rather, I would simply remember that contrast in real life prints needs to be thought about when editing.
For example, I had a very contrasty image printed that lookes really punchy on the screen, but when I see it in real life, I realize that I did not push the highlights enough to convey the same level of punch for the print. So the print actually ends up looking like it was does on copier paper because the dynamic range of the image did not transfer properly to the dynamic range of the paper. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but my point is that you should try and push the features of the image a little extra when the goal is printing in order to properly convey them.
If the image is naturally contrasty, then make sure you push the contrast a bit extra and maybe pick a glossy paper to translate that contrast to the print.
If the image is naturally soft or smooth contrast-wise, then it will probably work really well on matte/semi-gloss paper, and the contrast doesn’t really need to be pushed much extra, except to ensure that the main forms are readable.
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Nothing
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Welcome to the community 
Looks good, just some “recommendations” I’m currently thinking of…
From my point of view, the most important thing is to work with a well calibrated monitor in a dim, not eye distracting environment. The surrounding light should be dim, and the monitor brightness adjusted accordingly, e.g. 90-120cd/m2. So editing images in the evening may well suit this condition, I would say.
A typical calibration target for printing is 5000K when calibrating the screen, that’s also the calibration target for printers and review on the printing workshop screens.
Another thing I would recommend is to have no blown-out highlights, i.e. keep a good margin for pure white parts of your image to ensure that also in the high exposed parts you still have enough remaining contrast.
Wish you much fun with printing 
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I would change nothing to do with the editing workflow, but much care is needed to ensure the print which is yellow, magenta, cyan and black inks on paper bears a resemblance to the RGB light emitted by your computer screen. It will never be a perfect match, but it must be good enough.
The way I achieve this with my Windows computer is to use the software provided by manufacturer which currently for me is Canon. I only use genuine ink. I then do a small test print with the same paper type I will use for my large prints. I then have to adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation and individual colors on the printer setting to get an image close to my computer screen. The good news is that once this is achieved all my printing will be close in future with these settings.
Initially a print containing a grey area, skin tone and various colors including if possible red, green blue, magenta, cyan, and yellow is a good idea.
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Hi and welcome to the forum.
I print a lot on Fine Art paper with an Epson SCP900 printer. As @Macchiato17 said, a calibrated monitor is essential and it shouldn’t be too bright, otherwise you may be disappointed that your prints come out rather dark compared to the image on the monitor. I’ve mine even as low as 80 cd/m2. In general I also push exposure higher for prints compared to images for digital display.
Monitors emit light whilst prints reflect light. So the light under which you check your prints is also important. If you print regularly you may consider to invest in a standardized light source like Calibrite has on offer.
I have my monitor calibrated at 6500K and a lightbox with 5000K bulbs to check the color accuracy of the prints versus the monitor. This combination works fine for me. I’ve tested 6500K bulbs or the monitor at 5000K but came back to the other setting. I also find a monitor at 5000K too yellowish to work with.
You may also want to do some extra sharpening of fine details for prints. For example with one of the presets in DoS, maybe using a mask with the ‘details threshold’ slider. It obviously depends on the image.
I use individual color profiles for each paper, either from the paper manufacturer (they work fine in most cases) or I make them myself (but you need a spectro and software for that). Not sure how that works in dt as I’m on Windows 11 where printing is not supported.
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@Christian_Pfister gives good advice and I defer to him since he prints regularly. I print occasionally, but my background was running a photographic lab so I still recommend matching the printer to the monitor rather than trying to match the monitor to the printer. But I also agree that individual color profiles for each paper or printing lab is a sensible step if available.
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First of all, make sure your screen isn’t too bright. There’s no hard and fast rule for screen brightness (contrary to popular belief). If the screen is too bright, everything looks more saturated and contrasty; thus, you’ll edit with reduced contrast and saturation, and your prints will look flat. So, if your prints look too flat, lower your screen brightness.
Avoid stray light onto your screen, as this produces glare, which raises the screen’s black point. If that happens, you’ll compensate by lowering your blacks in the edit, leading to prints with crushed blacks. If your prints have muddy, crushed blacks, check your screen for stray light.
Avoid colorful objects within your field of vision while editing, these will bias your color perception. If your prints come out with an unexpected color cast, check if there is too much color in your field of vision while editing. This may include moody lighting or colored furniture.
Also see that your screen uses a neutral color temperature of 5000-6500K, use room lighting with a similar color temperature (4000-5000K), use a screen with decent colors, or calibrate your screen. But frankly, calibration is only relevant if you fixed everything else first. A calibrated screen in a too dark room with a colored mood light won’t do you any good.
Make sure to edit with full-black and full-white. Prints have very limited dynamic range. Off-black blacks and off-white whites tend to look flat and broken. Use Darktable’s color assessment mode to get a feel for what white should be, and look at your histogram or waveform to ensure deep blacks.
Prints need to be sharpened specifically for the intended print size. It’s not sufficient for details to be sharp at a pixel level. In fact, the pixel level is often entirely irrelevant, as it’s way too small to be visible (corollary: noise doesn’t matter). So resize your image for the intended print size, and sharpen that file. Or use your printer driver’s sharpening option if there is one (“contrast reproduction” in Canon’s driver).
Lastly, it all depends on where the print will be presented. The print will look different in various illuminations and surroundings. So whatever you do, make a small test print first, hold it up where it’s supposed to go, and adjust from there. Also, no amount of editing can fix bad lighting, so make sure the print receives light from bulbs with a good CRI.
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I agree with @bastibe that prints need to be sharpened specifically for the intended print size. Many years ago I learned how to do that in PS (I think using Unsharp Mask with a small radius) but I forgot meanwhile.
I print now with a software called Qimage on Windows. It is affordable and uses the printer driver (no RIP). It scales the image to the native resolution of the printer and the selected print size and applies specific sharpening. You have control over that process and it does a terrific job in my view. But that’s only if you print yourself and have a decent photo printer.
Totally agree with what was said about reducing brightness of a monitor.
My first tries were too dark, different contrast, colors. What I did is that I took one of these failed photos in front of me and also had them displayed on a monitor. I played with monitor settings to get the same look as on paper. Then I took another failed photo and slightly adjusted the monitor again. The more photos I used the closer in general I was between paper and a monitor.
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I have expanded my previous forum post somewhat on my blog, if you’re interested:
Thank you. Are the steps the same if using a print shop, or is their process quite different? (Or does it differ depending on the type of print technology?)
The basic problem is the same. Perception of contrast and color differs between surroundings. Better printers can be a bit more resilient against bad (low CRI) light, and may show a bit more dynamic range. Depending on the technology, lab prints can be more scratch resistant. But a good photo printer can do all that at home, just as well as any lab. (Some specialty processes such as C-Prints are a bit different)
Either way, always do a small test print first.
Just now an unusually bright light shone into our kitchen and illuminated our photo calendar. With so much light, the print looked overly contrasty. Just like a too bright screen will do the same.
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