We often hear that people say their prints match or more often not match what they see on the monitor (even with actually good profiles).

If you talk about matching prints to the image shown on the monitor you need a controlled environment for:

1. your monitor
2. the monitor environment
3. the viewing conditions for your print

Key is a calibrated monitor which needs a good software and a measurement device like the Eye-One. For the monitor environment you should avoid very distractive reflections and other sources for color casts.

But last not least the prints should be best viewed under a constant and well defined light. In professional studios this is provided by smaller or larger lightboxes (mostly at 5000K light). We settled for a simple/small yet efficient solution: the Ott-Lite lamp.

Ott-Lite

For our work it is not important that there is the perfect match. But to have a constant reference point makes decisions on color corrections, contrast and brightness a lot easier.

You can find the Ott-Lite lamp for about $60 on the net.