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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?

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    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?

    bronzevessel
    bronzevesselAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    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.


    I have an Epson wf-7720. I saw it as a choice when i borrowed a printer to test the difference. Just don't know why it doesn't show up now.

    I will try converting over designs to PDF and see how it comes out.

    Gonna search for the guide now.

    One last question. How do i find the PDF settings?

    Thanks

    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

    Can you check what the document color profile is for your documents and the sample documents?

    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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