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bronzevessel
bronzevessel
Participating Frequently
June 1, 2019
Question

Color is off when printing

  • June 1, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 4685 views

This really has me stumped.

My vector designs from illustrator don't color match when printed.

But, when I print sample vectors from online sources the color is nearly perfecr. I've even printed a RGB color chart I got from a random person online and it printed the colors nearly perfect.

What am I missing? How do I fix this?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    J
    jdanek
    Inspiring
    June 2, 2019

    Change your Illustrator > Color Settings > RGB Workspace to Adobe RGB ( discard sRGB ) > Rendering Intent > Relative Colorimetric.  In print driver, use "Let Printer Determine Color".  See if there is an improvement in the print vs. monitor.  Not sure why you use PNG in your workflow.  Typically PNG24 is a internet / web setting.

    bronzevessel
    bronzevesselAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 4, 2019

    Excuse the late reply im battling a bad cold.

    Oh...Im Glad you mentioned it. Are you referring to the color management section on illustrator print page?

    I borrowed someone's printer last week to test the difference and tried printing in Photoshop. I saw the choices there.

    But, now in illustrator. With only my printer. I don't see "let printer determine color". I only see " let illustrator manage color" from the dropdown menu. If it should be there. How do i fix it?

    I keep seeing videos saying to save your designs in .png for best results. What is the best format to use?

    J
    jdanek
    Inspiring
    June 4, 2019

    Perhaps your printer's driver does not have the option to "Let Printer Determine Color" in the "Print" dialogs.  What type of printer are you using?  Illustrator saves as .ai with the ability to save a copy as PDF.  Typically, you'd want to retain the .ai file for edits and use the PDF for printing.  In your PDF settings, make sure "Leave Color Unchanged" is used in the Color settings.  You would benefit from buying Adobe's Print Publishing Guide.  It explains the workflow a lot better than we can.

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 1, 2019

    bronzevessel  wrote

    This really has me stumped.

    My vector designs from illustrator don't color match when printed.

    But, when I print sample vectors from online sources the color is nearly perfecr. I've even printed a RGB color chart I got from a random person online and it printed the colors nearly perfect.

    What am I missing? How do I fix this?

    Do you print these sample vectors from online sources and the RGB color chart also from Illustrator?

    bronzevessel
    bronzevesselAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 1, 2019

    Yes. I opened them up in illustrator and printed them from there.

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 1, 2019

    I outline all the text I create in illustrator. If I add an image I created from  photoshop or just upload an image straight into illustrator I vectorize it using image trace first.

    After im done combining the text and image. I save it to .png on my computer.

    Again, im not understanding why sample designs I load in illustrator and print come out almost perfect to what I see on the monitor. But mine don't.


    Your printer may handle vector content different from image content.

    Do you use a printer profile, what does the conversion to the printer's colors, Illustrator or the printer driver?

    So many things can influence what you see on screen and what gets printed.

    And I still do not understand why you vectorize it first and convert it to a .png instead of keeping and printing the Illustrator vector file.

      Doug A Roberts
      Community Expert
      Doug A RobertsCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 1, 2019

      You are going to need to go into a bit more detail about what you are trying to print and what doesn't match.

      bronzevessel
      bronzevesselAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      June 1, 2019

      Over the past two years. I've created designs in illustrator, vectorized them and saved them to .png on my computer. This is what I do:

      1. Start illustrator

      2. Start new project. (Seems to Prints closer to the colors when I choose this first)

      3. Open .png file

      4. Resize design onto artboard

      5. Click Print.

      When they're printed. I notice the colors are off and don't match what's on the monitor. ex. The pinks are darker, the light blues are greyish, blacks are brownish, etc.

      Over the past month. I've tried at least 100 variations, changing printing settings both in illustrator and on the printer. I get slight changes, but nothing near exact.

      However, when I upload other people's designs into illustrator and print them following the same steps. The designs come out near perfect to what I'm seeing on the monitor.

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