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I recently sent a few photos [a few 8x12 and 5x7] out to be printed at fujicolor but when they came back they were significantly different to the photos that were on my computer, the were generally a bit soft and dark.

I've got a lcd which was uncalibrated which may be the biggest culpurit, i'm thinking of investing in a good sized crt monitor (maybie second hand) to use solely for photo editing. But is there any general rules that apply to making photos to be printed.

I am not the best person to comment, never having printed any of my stuff but from what I gather a lot of those cheapie places are geared to the point and shoot market and most of these would be submitting stuff it srgb colour space.
I use adobe rgb on my camera and when initially posting them on the web as rgb, I found they were dull and dark. so if you were shooting in argb and the lab was set up for srgb that could explain it, although if your monitor is way too bright that could be an issue also.

most of the better labs are able to advise what colour space/ resolution and format they require.

I am sure some of those who get plenty of printing done could advise better than me though.

Steve

G'day Kenny,
Most photo printing places should be able to give you what seems to be a fairly standard bmp/jpeg both printed and as a file so you can check the print against your view on your monitor...

The bmp/jpeg is of some differently colored people, some flowers etc... Least that way you can view on screen the file that has been printed so you should be able to predict what you're going to get regardless of whether your screen's calibrated or not, but I guess calibration would always help in others ways too...

I can send you the file if you wish just let me know if you want it, but you need it printed so you can compare print to screen image... Spoe you can always just get any example file printed and use it as a reference for future...

Also as suggested, check whether the printing facility uses Srgb or Argb...

Oh, not sure how other people feel but I also tend to sharpen a bit stronger for printing than viewing too...