Monitor looks great, but everything prints out too dark.

[eewdesign]

I have a 24" iMac that I bought in 2008, running the latest version of Snow Leopard. (And it's been nothing but a pain since I pulled it out of the box.)
AICS4
PSCS3

I'm a graphic designer and this issue is killing me.

I'm not familiar with monitor calibration outside the basic automated process that you go through in Display Settings. I've calibrated my monitor so black, grey and white look as they should according to the prompts, and at the end of the process, everything looks great.

However, the moment anything is printed out or viewed on another monitor, the artwork is super dark and the colors are off. What looks like a warm, bright brown on my monitor looks dull and blackish brown when printed or viewed elsewhere. An olive green prints off a dark lime green. All the art I create on my PC at work prints dead on at a professional printer, but looks completely washed out on my mac monitor at home.

I tried reducing the brightness and contrast so the screen looks like the printed image and I'd be designing everything at the proper contrast, but then browsers and programs, anything unrelated to art, became dark and gray and very unpleasant.

I know no two monitors will display the exactly the same (unless appropriately calibrated), and screen to print will never be exact, but this jump in contrast is extreme and adversely effecting my output. (Also, the fact that my Windows7 PC has been behaving better than my iMac ever has is very depressing.) Anyone have suggestions?

 

[chscag]

Don't really know what to tell you. The 24" iMac that you purchased in 2008 has had some problems (the entire model series) with regard to the monitor. You can find quite a bit of talk about that on the Apple Forum Discussions.

Probably not what you need to hear... But as a graphic designer, you might consider purchasing a Mac Pro and an Apple Cinema Display. Lots of $$$ I know, but if it's your livelihood....

 

[eewdesign]

Don't really know what to tell you. The 24" iMac that you purchased in 2008 has had some problems (the entire model series) with regard to the monitor. You can find quite a bit of talk about that on the Apple Forum Discussions.

Probably not what you need to hear... But as a graphic designer, you might consider purchasing a Mac Pro and an Apple Cinema Display. Lots of $$$ I know, but if it's your livelihood....

Ouch. I haven't looked too much into the model I have, but gauging from all the problems I seem to be having the past couple years, I could imagine how it'd be a defective model.
Maybe if I was getting paid like designers on the coasts I'd get a new Mac, but I'm broke. In 2008 I tossed out almost all of my savings on this thing, expecting it to be a good investment to last me a few painless years...I'm not impressed.

 

[Stanley]

Add or adjust some calibration software to get the printouts as you'd like?