Datacolor User to User Support Group.

I always expect soft proofs to look 'faded', since it's an attempt to show what the print will 
look like.

Prints -always- look different, the nearest I can get is with a print in a matched viewing 
cabinet/stand and setting everything up quite carefully (inc. room lighting)

I get so many people ask about this when I've been giving talks about printing and colour 
management that I even wrote an article "Why don't my prints match my screen" :-)
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/match_prints_to_screen.html

I find that once I let go of thinking of the image on the screen as anything other than an 
intermediate stage in getting to a print, I worry far less about the perceived mismatches. I 
have the equipment to get very good soft proofing, and still only use it for giving me an 
idea of what my prints are going to look like. The moment I take one out of the viewing 
box and hang it in normal room lighting, it will look different anyway :-)

Take time producing a set of prints of the Datacolor test image with different profile 
settings and papers and get a feel for how prints look - this is far more important (IMHO) 
than chasing after (an illusory) precision in soft proofing...

bye for now
Keith Cooper