Photo quality on MBA for Aperture books

[cojocu]

Here is my worry:

I'm creating a photo book with aperture with some photos I've been taking the past year or so. I've edited all of the photos on my MBA (2011, if it matters) but I've read (on macrumors and other places) that the MBA screen is terrible for photo editing.

I'm worried that the photos won't look right on the aperture photo book I want to order. Is this a serious worry? If there is a chance that the photos won't look like they do on the MBA, and if there is also the chance that this will severely impact the quality of the book, then is there a good way for me to find out how they will look (without ordering the book several times, that is.)

These aren't professional photos -- just ones I've taken with my iPhone 4S.

[MCAsan]

You did not say specifically what is wrong with the photos. If they are not sharp, there is only so much you can do with processing tools like Aperture. If the problem is color, color calibrate your screen using Spyder or Munki. Once your screen is color calibrated, you should be able reasonably be able to see how the images will look from a good printer or printer service.

[cojocu]

Oh -- I'm sorry:

I don't think anything is wrong with the photos -- they seem to look great on my MBA! I was just worried that they might turn out bad once they are printed by apple in the glossy books.

Or, I was wondering for anyone who has had experience with this, if there is ever a huge difference between how the photos look on the MBA screen from how they look printed out. (And if they are likely to look bad.)

I don't have any experience with Spyder or Munki, so I will check them out!

[jsw]

I've printed photo books from Aperture on my 2011 MBA, and they've turned out fine. While they might not look exactly the same, they seem the same to me - there's no obvious difference.

So... if the pictures look great on the MBA, I suspect they will look great in the book, and I don't see how they could possibly look bad. Depending on how sensitive you are to differences in color, you might see changes, but I don't think you'll notice anything major, and certainly not except when directly comparing the photo in the book to the one on your screen (if then). As suggested, calibrate your screen, but unless your screen is just way off - which you'd likely notice in day-to-day use of it - you're probably fine as-is, and will only tweak things a bit during calibration.

If you are truly worried, try a card first - they're cheap, and they'll set your mind at ease. They're not exactly the same as the books, but if the card looks fine, the book will look fine.

[Prodo123]

Originally Posted by cojocu

Oh -- I'm sorry:

I don't think anything is wrong with the photos -- they seem to look great on my MBA! I was just worried that they might turn out bad once they are printed by apple in the glossy books.

Or, I was wondering for anyone who has had experience with this, if there is ever a huge difference between how the photos look on the MBA screen from how they look printed out. (And if they are likely to look bad.)

I don't have any experience with Spyder or Munki, so I will check them out!

If you took them with your iPhone then it should be perfectly fine. The photo editing issue is only present when 1. the screen is completely off calibration, which almost never happens, and when 2. you use a different color space for your photo (this is more professional and you will never need to worry about this).

If you're really, REALLY concerned about the photos looking different from the screen, you can either get a screen calibrator and calibrate the screen to match sRGB (the color space which the iPhone 4S and the internet uses).

If you have the 3rd generation iPad, iPhone 5, 5th generation iPod Touch or newer, you can also view the photo on those devices for a more color-accurate view, since they are already pre-calibrated to match the sRGB color space exactly.

But for everyday use, there should be no tangible difference between print and screen.